It was common intermission talk in the weeks following September 11: "We brought a group from Oregon" or "California" or "Michigan" or "Georgia" "and we came here to support New York."

Broadway was grateful for their efforts, and the League of American Theatres and Producers is showing it through the "New York Loves America" Broadway tour of U.S. cities. The free concerts, which kicked off Jan. 19 at Miami's Bayside Marketplace, star Sandy Duncan of Peter Pan fame.

Selections include numbers from current hits and upcoming spring shows like One Mo' Time and Oklahoma!. Duncan's co-stars are Saturday Night Fever's Paige Price, Chicago's Ruthie Henshall, Kiss Me, Kate Tony nominee Michael Mulheren and The Civil War's Keith Byron Kirk.

League of American Theatres and Producers communications director Pattie Haubner told Playbill On-Line one stop was especially heartening: the Jan. 27 trip to Broadway Elementary School in Broadway, North Carolina. "This is a town of 1,000 people," Haubner said, "and the schoolkids raised $1,700 for the 9/11 Fund. One church raised $50,000! We told them we were bringing the Tour there, and 500 tickets were given away in eight minutes. People had lined up overnight. And now they're sprucing the whole town up and really rolling out the red carpet."

The tour continues through Feb. 2. The remaining interary follows: Jan. 27: Broadway, NC, Broadway Elementary School, 3:30 PM
Jan. 28: Washington, DC, Union Station, 12:30 PM
Jan. 29: Baltimore, Baltimore Harborplace Amphitheatre, 1 PM
Jan. 30: San Francisco, Metreon, A Sony Entertainment Center, 101 Fourth Street, 12 PM
Jan. 31: Los Angeles, California Plaza, 350 South Grand Avenue, 12:30 PM
Feb. 1: Phoenix, Arizona Center, 12: 30 PM
Feb. 2: Denver, Denver Center, 12:30 PM

— By Christine Ehren and David Lefkowitz