Each year, over 200 school-aged children take their own lives, according to youth suicide-prevention charity Papyrus, and referrals to Children and Adult Mental Health Services increased by 134 per cent during the pandemic. Mental healthcare is reaching a crisis point, and a Jewish rising star of the stage is doing something about it.

Brady Isaacs Pearce, 22, is organising an evening of glittering performances from some of the biggest names on the stages of the West End to raise money for Beyond – a youth charity providing grants directly to schools to support mental health provisions.

On Monday, June 20, stars of the biggest West End shows like Wicked, Evita, Les Miserables, We Will Rock You, and more will be performing at The Other Palace for one night only to raise funds for the charity set up in 2018 by prolific Jewish mental health campaigner, Jonny Benjamin MBE.

Speaking to the JC, the charity’s CEO, Louisa Rose, explained the urgency of their mission: “We know that a quarter of all referrals made to the children, adolescent mental health services are rejected. We also know that waiting lists are longer than ever before. So, what we were seeing in schools was the fallout of that.

Jonny Benjamin MBE

The founder of Beyond; prolific Jewish mental health campaigner, Jonny Benjamin MBE

“Schools were just so ill-equipped, but schools just aren't equipped to be places of mental health support. Teachers are not trained in how to handle mental health issues at all. So, what we decided to do with the charity was raise money to be able to provide the schools that are most desperately in need of urgent mental health support for their students with grants of up to £4000 that they could basically spend immediately.”

Pearce, a young Jewish woman from north London, is the driving force behind this event. She said she has struggled immensely with her mental health since the age of 11, and she shared with the JC how she spent most of her teenage years hiding the struggles she was feeling: “I used to get quite confused because I would experience such strong feelings of sadness and depression, but naturally I am very high-functioning. I never developed an emotional vocabulary because I spent the whole time masking my emotions.”

Pearce is a very talented performer and attended the world-famous Brit School - a leading performing and creative arts school – from age 16. However, it was not all smooth sailing.

“I would experience extreme highs and feelings of euphoria when I was doing something I love,” she explained. But the same was true on the opposite end of the spectrum: “Every emotion I experienced during my time there was very intense, so extreme anxiety, panic attacks, heart palpitations, not being able to eat, feeling sick, and also extreme feelings of sadness.”

Chizzy Akudolu

Chizzy Akudolu - comedian and actress, best known for her roles in Holby City and Jinx - is hosting the evening

When lockdown came in 2020 and live performances of the arts completely stopped, Pearce felt that she didn’t know who she was, and it got to the point that she “didn’t know how to stay alive” and was hospitalised in December of that year.

After she left hospital in February 2021, she gradually became more involved with Beyond and its Youth Board – a group of young people working with the charity to campaign for improved mental health provisions – where she found a community and a support system who understood what she had been through.

“The charity was lifesaving because there was this whole board of 20 or more people that had struggled so immensely with their mental health and were lovely people, nice humans doing amazing work.”

By the end of last year, Pearce had decided that she wanted to combine her two biggest passions – ensuring access to mental health support, and the dazzling world of the West End.

Emma Hatton

Emma Hatton, who played Elphaba in Wicked from 2013-2016, will be performing

“The evening will be a line-up of West End stars singing the songs that got them through their darkest times. It will be interspersed with Youth Board members Ava, age 11, and Antonio, age 24, myself, and Jonny Benjamin all sharing lived experiences to raise money.”

Stars taking to the stage include Emma Hatton (Elphaba in Wicked), Kelly Agbowu (Madame in Les Miserables), Shekinah McFarlane (Anna of Cleves in Six), and many more, and the evening will be hosted by Chizzy Akudolu, legend of both stage and screen.

Pearce said: “I reached out to lots of performers and everyone I knew to see if they were free, and the response was amazing - people have been really excited. And I think that coupled with having two other members of our youth board speak and share their lived experiences will be really powerful.”

Kelly Agbowu

Kelly Agbowu, who plays the role of Madame in Les Miserables, will be taking to the stage at The Other Palace

The money raised through ticket sales, the raffle, and sponsorships will be used to provide emergency mental health support to schools across the UK. Beyond provides grants, it doesn’t operate services itself, so 98 per cent of all its funding goes directly to young people.

“Right now, what is more important than anything is just helping on the front line; there isn’t enough help,” Louisa Rose explained. “So, things like what Brady is doing are absolutely crucial and invaluable to the work we do, because we couldn’t do it without events like this.”

'Beyond The Stars’ will take place the evening of Monday June 20th, and tickets are available from The Other Palace’s website here. You can find out more about the charity Beyond here.