Jason Biggs Joins Schumer to Assist Needy Holocaust Survivors

(Bloomberg) -- Jason Biggs was the substitute host of a gala for the Blue Card on Monday night, filling in for Tony Shalhoub, who had a performance of "The Band’s Visit" off-Broadway.

"Honestly, I think you’ve lucked out," Biggs said. "I’m younger, I’m wittier and I talk faster."

The "American Pie" star apologized to guests for the "ugly room with sub-par" views where the gala took place -- that would be the gorgeous Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, looking out on Central Park -- before giving an efficient summary of Blue Card’s work: providing Holocaust survivors with emergency cash assistance, home care, vacations, vitamins, eyeglasses, birthday and holiday stipends, and dental services.

"Where are some of our dentists?" Biggs asked. "Can you stand up for me, please, and take a bow?" He acknowledged the Alpha Omega-Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program "for having the longest name in the history of dentists."

Then he introduced Linda Lavin, of the iconic sitcom "Alice," who sang a few songs with Billy Stritch at the piano.

Blue Card was founded in Germany in 1934 and re-established in the U.S. in 1939. Last year it gave almost $3 million to support a few thousand needy survivors. It’s currently working with survivors in 32 states.

Senator Charles Schumer received the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Social Justice, which Elie Wiesel received last year.

"When I agreed to be honored, I had no idea of the outcome of the election, and no idea that people who traffic in bigotry and hate and anti-Semitism would receive such high positions in government," Schumer said. "I believe we will prevail."

The evening ended with a preview of "Indecent," opening on Broadway in April. The production follows the complicated reception to Sholem Asch’s 1907 Yiddish play "God of Vengeance," which features a lesbian kiss.

"The play is more timely than ever," said Mimi Lieber, who stars in the cast of "Indecent" and is a former president of the Blue Card. "It’s about surviving persecution for whom you love, for your religion. And the freedom of the word and the power of art."

As for Biggs, he got to the Blue Card event through the director Daniel Sullivan (husband of Lieber), who cast him in his first Broadway play -- "Conversations With My Father" -- when he was 12 years old. And how is he feeling after the election?

"Every time I think there’s one particular issue, like climate change, for example, the next day I think about the hate crimes that are happening," Biggs said. "The truth of the matter is they’re all important, and I’m concerned about how the administration handles all of this stuff going forward. I’m also just trying to be with my kid right now." That’s Sid, who’s two and a half. "He doesn’t know who got elected to the White House, and he doesn’t really care."

At the Whitney Museum’s Art Party the other night, Casey Spooner and Warren Fischer, of the conceptual-art band Fischerspooner, discussed working with Michael Stipe on their next album, which they plan to put out in early 2017.

"Michael was my first boyfriend, when I was 18," said Spooner, now 46. So, returning to the R.E.M. frontman’s home to work on the album was personal -- and got more so when Spooner’s relationship of 14 years broke up.

"He’s like my sensei, my guru, who’s led me through a very emotional time," Spooner said of Stipe. "He helped me grow creatively, and has pushed Warren and me into a new realm of, I guess, emotion."

After performing a few songs to a select group of patrons at the Whitney, it was clear Spooner’s own voice is more prominent.

"In the past we were so plastic," Spooner said. The music "was conceptual and about the artificial and now it’s about pain and love and my f----- up life."

The album’s songs are about homosexual relationships.

"This new phase is about being honest about these gay themes, because we always sort of pushed them down -- we were too concerned we’d be seen as a West Village medley show," Fischer said. "Now we’re at a different place in our careers. Michael pushed us to be raw. It sort of opened up a new Bob Dylan meets Fischerspooner thing."

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Jon Menon