Parkland students sing 'Seasons of Love' at the Tonys

June 11 (UPI) -- Drama students from Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School performed "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent at the Tony Awards ceremony in New York Sunday night.

Matthew Morrison, a Broadway veteran who also played a choir teacher on the TV show Glee, introduced the teens. He had a prior connection to them, having recently taken part in a benefit concert to support the victims of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at their high school in Parkland.

CBS News said the students received a standing ovation when they finished their show-stopper at Sunday's gala, which honored excellence on Broadway for 2017-18.

Variety said the school's musical theater instructor Melody Herzfeld, who is crediting with saving dozens of lives by barricading students into a classroom closet during the incident, was also presented with the 2018 Excellence in Theater Education Award.

Aspiring entertainers from the school performed alongside Shawn Mendes and Khalid at the Billboard Music Awards show in Las Vegas last month, as well.

Seventeen people were killed at the school when a gunman opened fire. Many of the surviving students have since become vocal activists for school safety and opponents to gun violence.