TVSquad

On the heels of the Saturday Night Live stage show, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York hosted a live reading by the cast of 30 Rock, with ticket proceeds going to show staffers who are out of work due to the writers strike.

According to accounts of the show -- most notably, from Rachel Sklar at the Huffington Post and Dan Hopper at the Best Week Ever blog -- every major member of the cast, including Alec Baldwin, was at the reading. An upcoming episode was read for the audience, and Tina Fey asked that the audience members not divulge the plot of that episode because "this show is like Heroes and we don't want to ruin it for everyone else."

The audience wasn't as star-studded as the one that witnessed the SNL stage show, but according to the accounts, it was just as enthusiastic, loudly laughing at the big and small jokes. They seemed to be especially appreciative of the "mandatory" commercial breaks that were provided by Jon Lutz and Jack McBrayer, both of whom are UCB veterans; they improvised generic commercials based on words solicited from the audience.

The blog AndIAmNotLying one-ups Huffington and BWE by providing pictures and short quotes from the cast that were taken at a nearby pub after the show.

I really find it heartening that the casts of both shows have put on these benefits; it shows that they not only have a passion to perform, but that they care enough about their non-writing staffs to try to do something to help them through this rough time. And I'm glad to hear that 30 Rock plays as well live as it does on screen. The show has come so far in such a short amount of time, that it might be one of the shows that will actually get a ratings boost when it comes back, as people will watch the first season on DVD and the previous episodes on NBC.com and see how smart and funny it is.

Which, of course, means more money for NBC. Which is why the writers are on strike. Sigh.