NEW YORK (AP) — An impressive quartet of Tony Award-winners — Judy Kaye, Cady Huffman, Annaleigh Ashford and Randy Graff — will lend their voices to the fight against the lung-scarring disease pulmonary fibrosis.

The lineup for the sixth annual concert Broadway Belts for PFF! will also include Telly Leung and Robert Creighton. Actress and comedienne Julie Halston, who started the benefit, will serve as host.

The event this year will be held on Feb. 29 at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.

The benefit was born from a tribute to Michael Kuchwara, The Associated Press’ longtime theater critic who died in 2010 from complications due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. To date, Broadway Belts for PFF! has raised $500,000 for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

“Can you imagine not being able to breathe? That’s what we’re fighting for and why this evening, filled with Broadway’s best ‘belting to the rafters,’ is so important to me,” said Halston, whose husband — newscaster Ralph Howard — battled the disease. “The leap in treatment since 2010 has been astounding, but much more needs to be done until there is a cure.”

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a lung disease that causes scarring and affects between 132,000-200,000 people in the United States.

___

Online:

http://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/ways-to-give/broadway-belts-for-pff