Cast members of 'Broadway Bares: Take Off'
(photo: Billy Bustamante)
Broadway’s sexiest event of the year, Broadway Bares, offered a spectacular romp around the world this past weekend, and we’ve got the video to prove it.
Over two performances at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City Sunday night, Broadway’s hottest dancers raised a record-breaking $2+ million forBroadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. Thanks to BC/EFA, men, women and children across the country receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.
This year’s theme, Broadway Bares: Take Off, featured nearly 200 performers onstage including Tony & Grammy Award winner Billy Porter, two-time Tony nominee Christopher Sieber, GLEE alum Alex Newell and Grammy/Tony nominee Ashley Park.
Check out the highlights reel:
The travel theme allowed the creators to take the audience on a sexy, sensual, fun-filled trip around the world.
One number, titled “Ground Crew,” showed what happens when a flight is delayed on the tarmac and the all-male ground crew has to sweat through their shift.
Led by Adam Perry, the number (choreographed by Andrew Turteltaub) featured buff baggage handlers taking care of business.
Other highlights included a sexy ‘mile-high club’ number; an all-female excursion through Amsterdam’s Red Light district; and a Parisian fashion show led by Pose star Billy Porter that evolved into a vogueing battle.
With this year being the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the show’s travels ended (where else?) with a performance set in the historic Stonewall Inn.
Porter also returned at the end of the show to perform his new Pride anthem, “Love Yourself.”
Addressing the packed crowd, Porter spoke passionately of “community” and “unbowed determination.”
“Broadway Bares is about the joy of community, the love we share and the care we show for each other,” said the Tony Award winning actor. “These are both glorious and difficult days. We have so much to celebrate and be proud of. But at the same time we are surely shaken, angry and saddened by the cruelty, inequality and torrent of lies that confront us on a daily basis.”
“But as I look over this beautiful audience and see thousands standing together, unbowed, we will not be dismissed or demeaned. For we are empowered by love, determination and courage,” he continued. “We will not be stigmatized for the very things that make us beautiful, expressive beings.”
And yes, it does take a village. In addition to the 200 onstage performers, backstage there were 41 stage managers and 700 volunteers, including 70 MAC makeup artists, all helping to make the magic.
With 29 editions of the ‘striptacular’ event now on the books, Broadway Bares has raised an amazing $21.1 million for BC/EFA.
Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $300 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses.
Just to give you a sense of how massive the event is, here’s a clip from the finale via Broadway Bares creator, Tony Award winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell:
'Broadway Bares: Take Off' takes flight tonight in NYC
In the mid-1980s, I was a young actor pursuing my dreams of working on the Broadway stage in New York City as the world was reeling from the AIDS epidemic.
It was a time when friends disappeared seemingly overnight. You would hear of someone’s diagnosis, and in a matter of weeks, they were dead.
Until 1987, when AZT was approved for treating HIV, there were practically no effective treatments. Even then, while AZT slowed the progress of the disease, there could be severe side effects (nausea, vomiting, headache, numbness).
But it was something.
The theater community can be quite tribal, and artists from all walks of life in the Broadway community felt the need to mobilize and do something.
And boy, did they.
On of my personal heroes - Tom Viola, executive director Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (photo: Jennifer Broski)
Actor’s Equity Association, the union that represents actors and stage managers, created Equity Fights AIDS in 1987. The mission was to mobilize the unique abilities of the entertainment industry to address the needs of those affected by the crisis. In those early years, the aim was to help fund the newly-created AIDS initiative program of The Actors Fund.
Almost in tandem, a group of producers formed Broadway Cares in response to the death of Tony Award winning director/choreographer Michael Bennett (A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls). Their focus was to provide grants and funding for many of the young (and struggling) AIDS service organizations in New York city and other large cities heavily affected by the disease.
In 1992, the two organizations decided to merge, join forces for maximum impact, and officially become Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Over the years, the result has been an unbelievable confluence of community coming together with purpose and passion.
It was around this time that I had been cast in the National company touring of the Broadway musical, CATS.
By 1987, we had already lost a cast member, Philip Mollett, and our dance supervisor, T. Michael Reed, to AIDS. Even out on the road, living in suitcases and constantly moving, as a group of artists we needed to find a way to help, so we organized fund raising concerts and countless other efforts.
Just one example - a massive staged tribute to the aforementioned Michael Bennett we presented in Kansas City. For weeks, we would handle our CATS duties, then sneak into empty ballrooms or conference rooms in whatever hotel we were in and rehearse sequences based on each of Bennett’s ground-breaking musicals late into the night.
The local Kansas City AIDS organization did the leg work for us finding a theater to present the event, and the PBS affiliate even sent a three camera crew to record and preserve the production for future fund raising efforts.
We were in Kansas City for a two-week run, and in the afternoons we’d go to the Uptown Theater and figure out how this was going to work. The Monday in the middle of those 14 days was our one night to pull this off.
Looking back, I remember standing in the audience of the theater with my cast mates that Monday afternoon feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task in front of us. Now that the day had arrived we were faced with the reality of how to tech our little show.
We hadn’t really thought out any lighting plot, and I guess we thought we’d just sing very loud to carry the songs out to the audience we hoped would show up. We
It was at that time - timing is everything - that members of our stage crew, who handled lights, sound, sets and costumes for CATS wandered into the theater. ‘Big Larry,’ our head carpenter and ‘Moose,’ our head spotlight operator, were looking around, exploring and chatting.
Now, we had seven one-week stops ahead of us after we left Kansas City. With one-weekers, we travel on our one day off, and the crew gets to the next theater and has to put the magic back together in time for opening nights on Tuesdays.
So we didn’t ask our guys to help out because they weren’t going to have a day off for two months. But here they were.
Community.
‘Big Larry’ waved us off telling us to just keep rehearsing.
The next thing you know, lights are coming on, floor mics cannibalized from CATS equipment were being installed at the front of the stage, and curtains were moving.
‘Moose’ only liked one of the house spotlights, so he ran off and rented another, better unit. Out of his own pocket.
I remember they told us, “This is important to you guys, so it’s important to us.” They truly were the heroes that day.
We all kept moving. It was straight out of a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie - “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!”
At half-hour, I peeked out at the audience and it was only a third full. My heart sank. All this work and effort!
And then twenty minutes later, we were told we had to hold because there was a line outside the theater wrapped around the block to get in.
We ended up performing our tribute to a packed house. The audience’s response was one of the most vivid theatrical memories I have. We finished the opening number, a full staging of the opening of A Chorus Line, and the applause roared for several minutes.
Waves of love and applause came thundering across the footlights. I don’t know who was more excited, us or our audience.
I share that single effort to illustrate the determination that just one set of theater artists had in wanting to make a difference.
That night, which raised an amazing $30,000 for HIV support organizations in Kansas City and NYC, embodies the spirit of generosity that pervades the mission of Broadway Cares.
Today, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations.
By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC.
Thanks to BC/EFA, men, women and children across the country receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.
BC/EFA is also a major supporter of essential social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts.
And more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide are awarded grants annually.
Throughout the year, BC/EFA helps organize fundraising events like the scintillating Broadway Bares, a fun evening of bawdy, sexy production numbers created by Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde) and performed by the theater community’s hottest dancers.
The 28 editions of Broadway Bares have raised more than $19.1 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
This year’s edition, Broadway Bares: Take Off, will be held Sunday, June 16, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. It’s one of the biggest nights on Broadway, so don’t miss it.
There will be two performances tonight - one at 9:30pm and a repeat performance at midnight. (Note - Tickets may not be available by the time you read this).
There’s also the annual Red Bucket Follies (originally known as the Gypsy of the Year event) that features original acts from each production on Broadway in a talent show format. For six weeks before the event, actors make an appeal to their audiences each night after taking bows collecting donations in red buckets.
Since 1989, the event has raised over $76 million for HIV grants.
For the 2010 edition of Gypsy of the Year, I was asked to take part in the opening number honoring the legendary Carol Channing.
I made my Broadway debut in the 1995 Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! with the iconic star, and spent two and a half years working with the star. So, I was more than happy to put on my dancing shoes and share the stage with my dear, wonderful Carol while raising money for BC/EFA.
Here’s the number so you can get a sense of how amazing BC/EFA events can be.
I’m the blond guy next to Carol throughout the number who’s clearly high on the moment LOL.
Audiences for this year’s globetrotting edition of Broadway Bares will get to travel the world and check out the sexy sights when New York City’s hottest dancers take to the stage of the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 16 for two amazing performances.
Broadway Bares: Take Off, the 29th edition of the sexy annual fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will offer sky-high striptease set to today’s pop music. With skin-tastic, travel-inspired modern burlesque, Broadway Bares: Take Off will definitely put the lust in wanderlust.
According to press materials, this worldwide romp will feature dance vignettes “from a risqué red light district to a tantalizing taming of the bull; from a mega-hot Burning Man to a celebratory return to Stonewall, you’re invited on a worldwide romp with sexy dancers as your frisky flight crew, tour guides and cultural attachés.”
Created in 1992 by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Hairspray, The Full Monty), the soon-to-be Broadway director/choreographer invited six friends to join him for a night of go-go dancing at a New York City bar. That evening raised over $8,000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Fast forward to 2018, where Broadway Bares: Game Night, a tantalizing twist on board games, raised a whopping $1.875 million. The 28 editions of Broadway Bares has raised more than $19.1 million.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDSis the major supporter of essential social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. BC/EFA also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.
The two performances of Broadway Bares: Take Off are scheduled for 9:30pm and midnight. The evening is guaranteed to be some of the most fun you’ll have on a Sunday night, so get your tickets now.
It's a great day in the Broadway neighborhood today!
Gorgeous weather, happy crowds of theater fans finding treasures of all kinds in Shubert Alley and down W. 44th and 45th Streets at the 2018 Broadway Flea Market.
Lots of money being raised that will soon be put to very good work.
Thirty-two years ago, the #BroadwayFlea Market & Grand Auction was little more than the cast of A Chorus Line selling some scrounged-together items from their dressing rooms to raise money for friends living with AIDS. Look how far we have come.
I’m so proud and humbled to see this remarkable event grow into the biggest day of the year for the Broadway fan in all of us - whether we work onstage, backstage or cheer from the audience. Every dollar earned today will go back into our community and across the country as Broadway Cares continues to provide vital, lifesaving support to the people who need it most. The money we raise from a signed Playbill or prop, a walk-on experience or opening night ticket package has the potential to change someone’s life.
Thank you to everyone who is helping make our 32nd edition already a smashing success. And we’re just getting started. We’ll be here until 7 o’clock tonight. So if you’re in New York, come join us in Shubert Alley and along West 44th and West 45th Streets for a day theatre lovers won’t soon forget.
Thanks to Larry at The OUTfront for sending some pics my way (below) from the happy event.
What can you find at the Broadway Flea Market? Tons of stuff!
From autographed Playbills, show posters and cast albums to super-special items like the red dress Broadway legend Chita Rivera wore in her Chita Rivera and All That Jazz tour and Broadway teddy bears from Rachel's Bears.
Plus, there's an autograph table where stars of the Great White Way will give you their signature for a $35 donation.
The flea market continues today until 7pm, so if you're in the NYC area, head on down!
Broadway favorite Jen Cody helps sell CDs and Playbills - and Chita Rivera's dress! - at the
32nd Broadway Flea Market
How adorbale is this Hello, Dolly! teddy bear?
And this Dear Evan Hansen teddy bear?
Plus, hotties from the annual blockbuster event, Broadway Bares
Plus, scores of folks registered to vote in NYC and districts across the nation.
Equality, solidarity and warmth filled the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 13, 2017, when the biggest stars on Broadway proved gender doesn’t matter, but love does as they explored and embraced the great songs of musical theatre at the 12th annual Broadway Backwards.
This year’s sold-out celebration, where men sing songs intended for women and vice versa without changing pronouns, shattered fundraising records, bringing in an impressive $522,870 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City. The show was produced by Broadway Cares.
The evening was hosted by Tony Award winner and longtime friend of Broadway Cares, Julie White, who brought her signature sass and wit to the stage. The evening featured 19 comedic, poignant and heart-wrenching numbers, backed by a live, 12-piece onstage orchestra, on the Hirschfeld stage, home to the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots.
Tony winner Cynthia Erivo brought the house down with a gospel-infused rendition of “Make Them Year You” from Ragtime. Her powerful, show-stopping vocals, backed by the Broadway Backwards ensemble, had the audience on its feet cheering for more in a fitting finale to this year’s show.
What began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006 quickly grew into a highly-anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theatres. In its 12 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.9 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.
The Broadway community will come together once again for Broadway Backwards, an annual celebration of unity, equality and love through gender-reversed performances of classic showtunes.
This 12th annual evening is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits Broadway Cares and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.
The star-studded event features performances of quintessential Broadway tunes with a twist: men sing songs originally intended for women, and vice versa. Artists will perform the great songs of musical theatre while freeing themselves of the bounds of gender norms. It’s a show where gender doesn’t matter, but love does.
This exhilarating evening will include one-of-a-kind, unforgettable performances from celebrated stars of stage and screen including Sierra Boggess, Tony winner Len Cariou, Tony nominee Carolee Carmello, Robert Creighton, Ariana DeBose, Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo, Tony nominee Santino Fontana, Lora Lee Gayer, Tony winner John Glover, four-time Grammy Award nominee Josh Groban, Tony winner Cady Huffman, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Rachel Bay Jones, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Tony winner Levi Kreis, Eric Petersen, Tony nominee Andrew Rannells, Megan Sikora, Elizabeth Stanley, Bobby Conte Thornton, two-time Golden Globe winner, Tony nominee and Oscar nominee Kathleen Turner, six-time Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch, Rachel York and Jersey Boys original cast members Dominic Nolfi, Michael Longoria and Daniel Reichard.
Creator Robert Bartley will return to direct the show. He will be joined by Mary-Mitchell Campbell as music supervisor and Laura Bergquist as music director. Choreography will be created by Bartley, Christopher Rice and Adam Roberts.
Last year’s inspiring performance raised a record $480,287. It featured a 67-person cast of Broadway and television’s best, backed by a live onstage orchestra.
What began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006 quickly grew into a highly-anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theatres. In its 11 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.8 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.
Monday, March 13, 8 pm
Al Hirschfeld Theatre
302 West 45th Street, NYC
Broadway’s best spread messages of unity, hope and resilience through satire, song and dance December 5 and 6, 2016, at the 28th annual Gypsy of the Year competition.
Gypsy of the Year , which celebrated six weeks of dedicated fundraising from 55 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies, raised $4,492,636 for Broadway Cares. The grand total was announced Tuesday by Tony Award winners Cynthia Erivo and Jessie Mueller and Hamilton star Javier Muñoz following two incredible days of performances. Erivo, Mueller and Muñoz also presented the awards to the top fundraisers and best performances across the two afternoons.
The company of Hamilton took top honors for best onstage presentation. In “America,” the cast mashed up the music and lyrics of Bob Marley and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the poetry of Langston Hughes into a call for peace and equality in our country. Javier Muñoz and Syndee Winters led the integration of song and word, with the cast channeling the duo’s sentiments into a powerful, striking dance.
The company of The Lion King was runner-up with a moving spoken-word piece giving voice to those marginalized by the current political climate. The piece, written by cast member L. Steven Taylor and choreographed by Ray Mercer, found four isolated actors, and a dancer expressing their words through movement, finding common ground in fighting for each other’s plight. The piece concluded with the performers declaring in unison, “I will never leave you alone.”
This year’s edition of Gypsy of the Year opened with a energetic dance featuring the return of Broadway legends Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie and Margo Sappington. The dynamic trio recreated their unforgettable “Turkey Lurkey Time,” which they originated in 1968’s Promises, Promises.
The cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning smash hit HAMILTON opened this year's annual Easter Bonnet Competition with Lin-Manuel Miranda "Hamilton" take on the Stephen Sondheim classic, SWEENEY TODD.
If you know ST, listen to the clever Miranda lyrics here :)
The sold-out audience at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre was dazzled Monday, March 21, 2016, by this year’s stirring edition of Broadway Backwards.
The annual celebration, where men sing songs originally written for women and vice versa offering this audience the chance to see LGBT stories told through the great songs of musical theatre, set a new fundraising record.
The evening included performances by Broadway legend Chita Rivera, Finding Neverland's Laura Michelle Kelly, Kinky Boot's Wayne Brady, Wicked's Nick Adams, Len Cariou, Eddie Korbich, Treat Williams and many, many more.
Broadway Backwards began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006, quickly grew into an highly anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theaters.
In its 11 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.4 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.
Stars from Broadway’s Hamilton, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Spring Awakening, Finding Neverland and School of Rock - The Musical share a special holiday message from Broadway Cares.
Alex Boniello from Spring Awakening (on guitar), Carolee Carmello from Finding Neverland, Gavin Creel from The Book of Mormon, Nikki Renée Daniels from The Book of Mormon, Kara Lindsay from Wicked, Dante Melucci from School of Rock – The Musical (on djembe), Leslie Odom Jr. from Hamilton.
I'm happy to admit I've known Carolee and Leslie for years :)
As regular readers of The Randy Report know I was a Broadway actor for many years and was a part of the Broadway community when Broadway Cares was born. It is always my first charity of choice. If you have any charity dollars to donate this holiday season, please know your money would go to great use if you were to donate.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $285 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
Inspired by the golden age of Broadway, annual fundraiser BROADWAY BARES is back for it's 25th installment - Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque - along with Tony Award winner and Broadway Bares creator Jerry Mitchell at the helm.
Clip description:
In a lavish and thrilling extravaganza, Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque will feature a cast of colorful characters for every desire and fantasy.
Broadway’s iconic personalities - from devilish divas to charismatic casting directors, luscious lyricists to studly stagehands - will combine the naughtiness of burlesque with the razzle-dazzle of Broadway.
The 2015 edition will fill NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday, June 21.
This always sold-out annual event combines the naughtiness of burlesque and the razzle-dazzle of Broadway. More than 150 of the hottest male and female dancers in New York City take to the stage for two sensational shows at 9:30 pm and midnight.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
Tom Viola, director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS - who I'm proud to have known for over 25 years - writes this:
I had the pleasure of dropping by the stage door of the Hirschfeld Theatre this week to join the cast of Kinky Boots in presenting Cyndi Lauper with a “big check” representing the $150,000 donated to True Colors Fund by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS from the more than $1.2 million in resources raised by the show since it opened in April 2013.
Broadway Cares salutes Cyndi and True Colors Fund for everything they have done to advance equality for all and, in doing so, helping to end homelessness for gay and transgendered youth. “You change the world when you change your mind!” But our voices are stronger and the change embraces us all when we stand together.
Cyndi Lauper is the Tony Award winning composer of the hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots and the founder of the True Colors Fund, which works to end homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, creating a world in which young people can be their true selves.
Joshua Buscher-West, Marty Lawson, Alfie Parker Jr., Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva, Alex Ringler, and Ryan Steele performed the number "Cellblock Tango" from CHICAGO the Musical at Broadway Backwards 10th Anniversary performance this past Monday in New York City.
And it's FAB! I love this! Highly inventive and danced fantastically. Bravo, to the choreographer and actors!
Broadway Backwards is an annual celebration where gays and lesbians see their stories told through the songs of musical theater.
The evening benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDs and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. This year's event raised a recorded $466,717.
Via Broadway Cares: The 26th annual edition of Gypsy of the Year raised a record-breaking $5,229,611 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS thanks to six weeks of fundraising by 64 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies.
The grand total was announced Tuesday, December 9, 2014, by special guests Hugh Jackman, Nathan Lane and Judith Light after two stellar performances of original dances, songs and skits by more than 200 “gypsies” from Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.
Since 1989, the 26 editions of Gypsy of the Year (#gypsyoftheyear) have raised $62.4 million to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The previous record high for Gypsy of the Year fundraising was $4,895,253 set in 2011.
This year’s top overall fundraiser was The River, which stars Jackman and raised $549,725. During the fund-raising period, Jackman literally sold the sweat-stained shirt off his back for charity.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
Last night at THE RIVER, in addition to Hugh Jackman auctioning his shirt (for $6,000 twice), posing for photos backstage (5 x $2,000) and leading his delightful company in raising a few more thousand in $100 poster sales and red bucket donations - as if that is wonderful in itself, something else occurred.
Inviting two of his gym buddies - aka "the Dog Pound" up-onstage, he challenged them to doing push-ups on his count, pledging to donate $50 to BC/EFA for each one. 50 push-ups later, Hugh is making a personal $2,500 donation to Broadway Cares and about 700 folks at Circle in the Square had the time of their lives. Thank you, Hugh! Thanks to all at THE RIVER!! (And I'm thinking the gentleman who quickly removed his shirt is a shoe-in for BROADWAY BARES.
All of this is for the annual Gypsy of the Year fund raising campaign happening on Broadway right now. Tom Viola and the entire team at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS do amazing work. If you make charitable donations during the holidays, please consider BC/EFA. I've spent decades helping them raise funds for those affected by HIV/AIDS.
While traveling across Europe playing "Riff," the leader of the Jets in a touring company of West Side Story, Mark MacKillop felt the nightly "rumble" onstage wasn't enough to fuel his creative appetite. So, he set about to create a visual journal of life lived out of a suitcase in various hotel rooms.
Now, when you're on the road in the privacy of your own hotel room, you probably don't wear too many clothes. And MacKillop is no exception. Lucky for us.
What began as a "project" has arrived fully developed as Room XIV. Not only is Mark sharing his private life, he's sharing 25% of the proceeds with Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS.
