Twenty limited-edition prints from late caricaturist Al Hirschfeld are now open for bidding to benefit Broadway Cares and The Al Hirschfeld Foundation.
The prints, published in small numbers, are also autographed by the Broadway and Hollywood luminaries featured in the classic works: Alan Alda, Julie Andrews, Kevin Bacon, Cher, Michael Crawford, Ellen Greene, Joel Grey, Mark Hamill, Jessica Lange, Jose Llana, Donna McKechnie, Ian McKellen, Liza Minnelli, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Linda Ronstadt, Lea Salonga, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Walken, and John Williams.
Among the prints in the Hirschfeld auction are Rivera, who passed away in January, appearing alongside Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie, signed by Rivera; Oscar winner Andrews, forever memorialized by Hirschfeld as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, opposite Rex Harrison, signed by Andrews; Tony winner McKellen, featured as Edgar in the 2001 Broadway production of Dance of Death, signed by McKellen; and Oscar winner Lange, a 2024 Tony nominee for Mother Play, illustrated in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, signed by Lange.
"No artist or artistic style more singularly signifies the Broadway community more than Al Hirschfeld,” says Broadway Cares Executive Director Tom Viola in a statement. “Our ongoing collaboration with the Al Hirschfeld Foundation and the generosity of Hirschfeld collectors and Broadway enthusiasts old and new will provide people across the country facing critical illness and crisis with meals and medication, health care, and hope for months and years to come.”
“For years, Hirschfeld admirers have asked for these images be published as prints. Having the performers, who felt honored to be drawn by The Line King, return the favor by signing these very limited editions is a tribute to how much Hirschfeld and Broadway Cares means to this community,” adds David Leopold, the creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. “This year we have ten Tony winners in the group. Some like Donna McKechnie in A Chorus Line, Michael Crawford in Phantom of the Opera, and Joel Grey in Cabaret are drawn in the roles they won their Tonys for. This is an incredible award-winning collection.”
Broadway Cares is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 Broadway Cares has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
For more information on the auction, which continues through May 22, click here.
