Callie and Arizona fans go wild as “Grey’s Anatomy” cast gives concert to benefit Actors Fund

My thanks to publicist extraordinaire Harlan Boll for inviting me to attend Sunday night’s Actors Fund benefit at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

It featured most of the cast of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy who put on one terrific concert that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo did not participate but plenty of other cast members did starting with Tony Award winner Sara Ramirez who plays Dr. Callie Flores and sings one helluva number.

She brought the house down with the penultimate number called The Story.

The event took on the feel of a rock concert due to the hundreds of Callie and Arizona fans who paid $250 for VIP tickets and filled the front of the theater.

I ran into a group of them walking into the theater and found out they had flown in from all around the country for the event.

Arizona, of course, is played by Jessica Capshaw who was also part of the Grey’s ensemble who performed. Others were Kim Raver, James Pickens, Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers, Kevin McKidd, and Sarah Drew. Sandra Oh did not sing but did do most of the introductions and Eric Dane, another non-singer, served as the hunky comic relief.

There were so many highlights. I can’t tell you how sweet it was to see Chambers take the stage with three of his daughters to perform Young Folks. One of the daughters, I don’t know her name, has the most lovely voice and really should perform professionally.
Wilson is a real belter and I loved every minute she was on stage. She did a solo Everywhere I Go and dueted on Wait with Drew.

Then there was McKidd who is the real deal as a musician. He rocked the house on Looking at the World From a Bottom of a Well and How We Operate.

Great stuff!

For some reason, there was a ban on recording any of the concert and yet people were not banned from bringing in their hand-held devices. So, of course, scores of people tried to video parts of the show. The poor ushers would politely walk up to the end of the row, point to them and ask them to stop. They would turn around and walk away and about five more people would start recording!

It was a losing battle and a total waste of time.

But very entertaining!