There were no bad seats at The Town Hall in Manhattan’s Theater District for Monday evening’s buzzy Broadway for Harris mobilization event—and that’s not a fact that should go unnoticed. Shaina Taub, the Tony Award-winning mastermind behind Suffs, explained that the venue was originally designed by suffragists 100 years ago as a community place to discuss social matters of the day, ensuring the egalitarian layout had democratic ideals in mind.
“It’s a great metaphor for democracy, right? Everyone deserves just as good a seat as everyone else—everyone deserves to have their voices heard, valued, and respected,” Taub said, ushering in an epic night of emotive performances, heartfelt speeches, high B notes, and pop culture throwbacks.
“In case you didn’t know, I am voting for Kamala! Is anybody else here voting for Kamala?” a sequin-clad Anne Hathaway told the audience—marking the first time the two-time Oscar winner has publicly declared her stance. To really drive the point home, the actress performed a rendition of Queen’s Find Me Somebody To Love, some two decades after her first time around in 2004’s Ella Enchanted.
Mid-song, she paused to speak to the crowd and the thousands of people watching at home via livestream. “America, we have a big choice to make. You do have to make a choice—you do have to vote. Maybe you don’t have a candidate you love, but you have an issue you love. Maybe the somebody you love is you, well then you’ve got to vote for yourself.”
Another reason Hathaway was all riled up, was on behalf of her young son Jonathan—who was proudly watching his mom do her thing in her Proenza Schouler thigh-highs from the front row. Fellow mom on a mission, stage icon Audra McDonald, spoke passionately about her four children, whose future she’s also voting on behalf of, before serenading the Hall with a soulful and poignant version of the 1949 show tune, You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.
You didn’t have to be an EGOT-worthy star to be included in the lineup for the on-stage rally or the virtual phone bank bonanza that had taken place earlier that day (where the likes of Idina Menzel joined volunteers for a ‘Kamala Dial-A-Thon’ to help make one million phone calls to voters) because there was no mistaking who got the loudest cheer and longest standing ovation on the night: US representative Jasmine Crockett.
