ABOVE: Southern Nights Orlando’s promotional art for the 12th annual Broadway Christmas performance (from Facebook)
ORLANDO | Central Florida LGBTQ nightclub Southern Nights will be hosting the 12th Annual Broadway Christmas cabaret with proceeds benefiting The Trevor Project.
Over 50 Central Florida entertainers will come together to perform comedy and music from some of Broadway’s most famous shows. The event is hosted by Kai’ja Adonis and Jose Marrero.
Adonis and Marrero started the first Broadway Christmas after losing a friend to suicide.
“We had a friend, he was gay and in college, and he took his own life,” Marrero said in an interview with Watermark in 2018. “We were all in our mid-20s and didn’t know how to handle what happened. We didn’t really know what to do. What we did best is perform on stage, so we let out our emotions and feelings on stage.”
The following year Adonis and Marrero continued the event as a charity fundraiser after Marrero learned about the nonprofit The Trevor Project.
“I didn’t know what it was and it surprised me that not a lot of people in Orlando knew what The Trevor Project was. They’re pretty well known now with the It Gets Better campaign but when we started they weren’t so well known,”Marrero said.
The Trevor Project is an organization that provides suicide and crisis prevention to young LGBTQ people. Adonis and Marrero knew it was the perfect beneficiary for their event and each year now donated 100% of proceeds raised to The Trevor Project.
“Now more than ever we need to join together to make sure our youth know someone is there for them,” Southern Nights Orlando wrote on this year’s event page.
The 12th Annual Broadway Christmas will by on Dec. 12 at Southern Nights in Orlando. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. with the show going from 9-11 p.m. There is a $10 cover which includes show admission and access to the after party. Representatives from The House of Adonis will be collecting donations through the evening. Ther will also be a live raffle featuring items donated by local businesses.
For more information, visit Southern Nights Orlando’s Facebook page.
