By Michael Gioia
18 Dec 2012

	Seth Numrich
	Photo by Monica Simoes

Golden Boy star Seth Numrich broke up the evening with a story about his involvement in the organization. "Mary-Mitchell asked me to come tonight, and she initially asked me to sing a song," said Numrich. "I said, 'That is a terrible idea!' … But I did want to come up and talk a little bit about ASTEP and what it means to me. It's a big part of my life." He shared an experience about volunteering as a camp counselor and teaching children about the power of protest and petition.

Tony-nominated Addams Family songwriter Andrew Lippa performed an original piece by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich entitled "What a Little Faith Can Do," and he was followed by Julia Murney — star of Lippa's 2000 Off-Broadway musical The Wild Party — who praised Campbell's work ("In her spare time, she saves children around the world," said Murney. "In my spare time, I do Pilates!") and offered an offbeat version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" entitled "12 Days After Christmas."

"Our big focus this year, in the last few months, has been our own backyard, which has been — as you know — hurt pretty badly by Hurricane Sandy and all kinds of challenges here in the North East, as demonstrated by Friday's incident," said Campbell, who referred to the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, towards the conclusion of the evening.

"Feed the World (Do They Know It's Christmas?)," performed by Tony-winning Next to Normal songwriter Tom Kitt, and "Home," a ballad from The Wiz performed by 14-year-old Olivia Hardy, were especially powerful.

Mendez closed the concert on a lighter note with Lynne Shankel's jazzy arrangement of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," which brought a smile to every face at the Foxwoods.

(Playbill.com staff writer Michael Gioia's work appears in the news, feature and video sections of Playbill.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PlaybillMichael.)

View the Entire Photo Gallery Lindsay Mendez and Derek Klena Photo by Monica Simoes