In what she described as “my last singing of the year,” Sabrina Carpenter sang a “Christmas version” of her hit “Please Please Please” as well as “Slim Pickins” at the tenth anniversary edition of the Jack Antonoff’s Ally Coalition Talent Show in New York Tuesday night.
Sabrina Carpenter performs with Bleachers (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for The Ally Coalition)
Getty Images for The Ally Coalit
The annual event, which is a combination of a mini-Bleachers concert and a variety show featuring artists from the super-producer’s orbit, also featured Remi Wolf (tearing up Chaka Khan’s 1974 hit “Tell Me Something Good”), Phish’s Trey Anastasio (covering Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine”), an aching new song by Claud (who also duetted with Antonoff’s dad Rick on a song), two piano-led songs by Brendan Yates of Turnstile, and more.
Toward the end of the show, Rachel Zegler, wearing a flowing white dress, sang “Man of the House” for the second time in the evening, as she’d just arrived from performing on Broadway in the Sam Gold-directed “Romeo and Juliet,” which features music by Antonoff.
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Of course, it’s all in an effort to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ youngpeople. The two-and-a-half-hour-long event, which was held at Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York, raises funds to support LGBTQ+ youth homeless shelters across the U.S. As always, it was co-hosted by the organization’s founding members Antonoff and his sister Rachel. The musical sets were interspersed with comedy, this year from Chris Laker, Veronica and others.
Remi Wolf performs with Bleachers (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for The Ally Coalition)
Getty Images for The Ally Coalit
Donations to The Ally Coalition can be made via their website – https://theallycoalition.org
Rachel Zegler (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for The Ally Coalition)
Getty Images for The Ally Coalit
The annual concert is a sort of yearbook for Antonoff’s career and extended social circle: past years have seen him joined onstage by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, Lorde, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus from Boygenius, the 1975’s Matty Healy, Regina Spektor, Weyes Blood and many more. This year’s show also featured a reunion of Steel Train, the band Antonoff earned his chops with in the early ‘00s, performing together for the first time in a decade. The quintet opened the show on a nostalgic note, and not only because the two songs Antonoff performed with the group showed his Springsteen influence even more than Bleachers. The reunion vibe continued with two songs from his former bandmate in Fun, Andrew Drost, who has performed at every Ally show we’ve attended (and possibly all of them).