New York, September 25 – Broadway luminaries gave it up on Sunday, but not just for their audiences. At the 19th annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS flea market and auction, the best place for celeb watching was in front of Balzano’s Bar Cucina, where David Hyde Pierce, Joan Allen, Laura Linney, Valerie “Rhoda” Harper and Bebe Neuwirth signed autographs. Rosie O’Donnell brought her son, Parker. Ben Vereen’s necklace with a Superman logo was fitting, because he was a major catalyst for that evening’s massive Broadway benefit for hurricane relief at the Gershwin Theatre.

Many, many of the same stars that spent the afternoon toiling at the BC/EFA event sang late into the night to raise funds for storm victims. Add in Liza Minnelli, Rue McClanahan, plus the entire casts of All Shook Up, Avenue Q, Hairspray, Light in the Piazza, Mamma Mia, Rent, Putnam County Spelling Bee and Wicked. We told you this benefit was massive. We chatted a bit with Bernadette Peters after her number on Sunday evening, and were shocked to hear the next day that her husband, Michael Wittenberg, was tragically killed in a helicopter accident in Europe.