Fleet Week Follies

Sunday, May 26, 2019

National Sawdust Music Venue–80 N 6th St, Brooklyn, NY

Hosted by Andrew Rannells and Celia Keenan-Bolger

Music Direction by Lauren Cregor

1:00-4:00pm: Family Activities with Arts & Crafts, a Food Truck, along with hugs and photos with Sesame Street‘s Walkaround Rosita

5:30-7:00pm: Happy Hour

A military-civilian mixer before the concert begins. Enjoy cold brews by 14th Star Brewing Co. and bites served by Emma’s Torch and Dog Tag Bakery.

Celebrity guests: Marsha Stephanie Blake (Central Park Five), Ben McKenzie (Gotham), Morena Baccarin (Deadpool), Sarah Steele (The Good Wife), David Morse (Escape at Dannemora), Happy Anderson (Mindhunter), and Georgina Pazcoguin (“The Rogue Ballerina”).

7:00-8:30pm: Music and Entertainment

Performances by: Mike Birbiglia (The New One), Will Swenson (Hair), Sandra Lee (Blueprint Specials), Sherie Rene Scott (Aida), Darlesia Cearcy (Once On This Island), Brandon Victor Dixon (Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar), Lemon Andersen (HBO’s Def Poetry Jam), Jean Rohe (singer-songwriter), members of Freestyle Love Supreme, and the American Military Spouses Choir.

Fleet Week Follies 2020 was originally scheduled to take place again at National Sawdust. Then, in response to the ongoing public health crisis, the event was adapted into a digital festival in service of the same goal: to bring together military and civilian communities during Memorial Day Weekend, the time that NYC would normally be hosting Fleet Week.

So, on Saturday, May 23, Waterwell produced Fleet Week Follies: Digital Edition in two parts: Tribute Performance Videos and The Conversation Project.

The three Tribute Performance Videos were created to honor the military and civilian workers–especially the National Guard–helping our city and country make it through Covid-19. Made live on Saturday, May 23, they featured performances from the inaugural year's star-studded concert and messages from celebrity hosts:

Freestyle Love Supreme, who had just wrapped their hit show on Broadway, improvising an entirely original piece about their performer Jelly Donut’s grandfather, who was a POW in WWII. Host appearance by Stephen Colbert. Watch here!

Brandon Victor Dixon, who has starred in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, Hamilton, and The Scottsboro Boys, sang a gut-wrenching original song by Peter Lerman about the ‘Netherland Carillon,’ a beloved bell at Arlington Cemetery which is ‘run’ by a young man who loses his brother in battle. Host appearances by actors Will Swenson, Audra McDonald, and NYC City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. Watch here!

The American Military Spouses Choir sang their signature song, which brought down the house on the 8th season of America's Got Talent. Host appearances by NYC Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Bitta Mostofi and actor Anna Chlumsky. Watch here!

The Conversation Project was an homage to the social nature of the inaugural year’s Happy Hour, and we saw it as a small way to continue to create new relationships between people in the military and civilians and to combat the isolation of social distancing.

On Saturday, May 23, about 100 people signed into nine separate virtual rooms where they engaged in small group conversations with people they hadn't met before. The groups included a 94-year-old WWII veteran, a military chaplain, active duty service members stationed at FortWadsworth, Fort Hamilton and West Point, a young man working with his family to adapt their Korean restaurant to the pandemic, a young woman who lost her job and was now working to start a new business, several immigration lawyers, a few Blueprint Specials cast members, a seasoned JAG lawyer, a young reservist interested in becoming a JAG lawyer, health care workers, teachers, artists, actors, and several veterans who spoke about their deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each person talked about how Covid-19 has affected their lives, their businesses and their families. It was a chance to meet strangers from another part of New York or the country and talk about how similar our lives are during this pandemic. It was a chance to talk about how relationships with parents, siblings, and kids have been affected in unexpected ways by the unfamiliar circumstances we now find ourselves in. It was a chance to hear first-hand accounts of people on the front lines.

HISTORY OF THE STAGE DOOR CANTEEN A club on 44th Street run by Broadway performers that from 1942-1945 hosted over one million service members for free food and entertainment before they deployed in WWII.

BLUE STAR FAMILIES committed to strengthening military families by connecting them with their neighbors – individuals and organizations – to create vibrant communities of mutual support.

EMMA’S TORCH provides top-notch culinary training to refugees.

DOG TAG, a teaching ground to empower veterans, military spouses, and caregivers by training them as bakers.

14TH STAR BREWERY a Veteran-owned craft brewery.

The Achelis & Bodman Foundation

Howard Gilman Foundation

The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation

New American Economy

New York State Council on the Arts

NYC Cultutal Affairs

National Endowment for the Arts

History Channel

Ligature Creative*

14th Star Brewing Company

The Creative Coalition

Blue Star Families

NYC Department of Veterans’ Services

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Dog Tag Bakery

Emma’s Torch

*Graphics by Ligature Creative