The 2007-2008 Broadway season ended officially with Sunday night’s Tony Award ceremony, but the unofficial finale will be this Sunday night’s presentation of the 18th annual Broadway Bares show for two performances only at the Roseland Ballroom.
The show started as a 1991 brainstorm by then chorus dancer Jerry Mitchell who had a number as a scantily dressed American Indian in “The Will Rogers Follies.” He decided that the theatre world charity, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, could use a jolt of sexy show dancing to raise dough. The dancer went to the Chelsea nightclub Splash with a few friends on their off-night and hauled in $9,000 for the charity.
The hastily assembled evening of stripping for a cause turned into a full-scale show that has gotten larger and more elaborate with each passing year.
For several weeks prior to the big night, more than 200 Broadway dancers — male and female — rehearse about an hour’s worth of high class erotica. They are joined by some of the biggest stars on Broadway for special comedy material that is presented in between the strip numbers — Harvey Fierstein appeared in last year’s show along with David Hyde Pierce (Nathan Lane is expected to be among the guest stars Sunday night).
The dancers rehearse in between their Broadway performances and then the show is presented on their one night off — Sunday at 9:30 p.m. and midnight.
Mitchell attributes much of his current success as a Tony-winning choreographer on Broadway to the work he did on the early “Broadway Bares” productions.
In addition to the increasingly elaborate and spectacular dance numbers, “Broadway Bares” has pushed the envelope with more provocative sexual elements in recent years, but Mitchell and director Dennis Jones never go over the edge into vulgarity.
Last year, “Broadway Bares 17” raised $743,787 and this year the gross potential has been increased with the introduction of a slick coffee table book charting the entire history of Mitchell’s fantastic brainchild (all of the proceeds from the Rizzoli publication will go to BC/EFA).
It’s a terrific one-of-a-kind show and ticket prices start at only $55.
(For more information, go online to broadwaycares.org.)
