The sun will come out tomorrow for rescue dogs
NEW YORK — Bernadette Peters stopped by a desolate corner of Brooklyn the other day to hang out with a special group of fans. They were literally barking.
A deafening chorus of woofs greeted the two- time Tony Award winner as she toured the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition and checked in with shelter dogs Louise, Melissa, Sparrow, Joseph, Bobby, Greg and Diamond.
“This is my passion,” she says after scratching furry backs, stroking tails and caressing grateful ears. “I realized what a womanizer is because I’m a dog- inizer. I want every dog, like the man who wants every woman.”
The love goes both ways: Many animals in this no- kill, privately run animal shelter owe their lives to Peters, who is known to scan the lists of dogs scheduled to be euthanized and rush over to save them from death.
“It isn’t hard to find people who care about animals, but when you have the passion that Bernadette has and the drive and the consistent effort to save all these critters, that’s special,” says fellow actor David Hyde Pierce.
Peters visited the shelter on this day hoping it will be the last time she sees many of “her dogs” there — several will be starring in Saturday’s adopt- athon she co- founded 15 years ago called Broadway Barks.
She and fellow actress and animal advocate Mary Tyler Moore started the annual star- studded event in 1999 in Shubert Alley — a pedestrian alley at the heart of the Broadway theatre district — to help promote animal adoption and raise awareness of the plight of homeless animals.
The free event has grown from a folding- table affair with a few animals from six shelters to a mammoth one with celebrities, musical acts and animals from 27 shelters across the city. There will be signed memorabilia like calendars and stuffed dogs, with all proceeds going to help homeless animals.
Broadway stars this year scheduled to attend and introduce the animals include Sigourney Weaver, Laura Osnes, Bebe Neuwirth, Isabel Keating, Annaleigh Ashford, the girls rotating the lead in Matilda the Musical, the lead of Annie Lilla Crawford, Victoria Clark, Harvey Fierstein, Andrew Rannells and new Tony winners Gabriel Ebert and Billy Porter. Music will be provided by the cast of Jersey Boys.
“We’re all there for the love of animals,” says Jane Lynch, a veteran animal rights activist who has been playing Miss Hannigan in the Annie revival on Broadway and was asked by Peters to help out Broadway Barks this year.