DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Broadway star and North Texas native Hunter Ryan Herdlicka headlines Toast to Life: Enchanted Evening on Saturday, April 5, at The Empire Room. Herdlicka is best known for his starring role in the 2009 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury.
Off Broadway, Herdlicka has appeared in Dear World and Once Upon a Mattress. And in regional theater, he’s done everything from Shakespeare at Dallas Theater Center to Cabaret, Candide, Fiddler on the Roof and more than a dozen other musicals.
On TV, the Dallas native played Paul on the ABC soap One Life to Live and appeared in Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me.
Herdlicka is emcee for this year’s Resource Center fundraiser, which is celebrating its 27th year with the theme Enchanted Evening. Organizers promise an evening “filled with entertainment, dazzling performances and delicious culinary creations.”
But Toast to Life isn’t just about revelry, organizers say. It is about giving back to the community.
Toast began in the late 1990s as a fine wine auction. That silent-and-live-auction event has since broadened to include trips, art, dining and entertainment, home and garden, clothing, jewelry and more.
And all proceeds benefit the programs of Resource Center.
Those programs include a variety of health services including primary healthcare for persons with and without HIV, mental healthcare, health insurance assistance and gender-affirming healthcare. There are youth and family empowerment programs, gender-affirming programs and senior services.
The latest Resource Center offering is Oak Lawn Place, an affirming and affordable housing choice for LGBTQ seniors set right in Oak Lawn.
Toast to Life takes place April 5 from 7-11 p.m. at The Empire Room, 1225 N. Riverfront Blvd. Tickets are $200 and available online at one.bidpal.net/toasttolife2025.
Can’t attend, but would like to bid on auction items? Visit that same website and navigate to browse items.