If every fundraiser was as much fun as “Broadway Bares” no charity would have to worry where its next dollar was going to come from.
Make that $1,015,985 — the staggering, record-breaking amount raised for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by a bunch of hard-working (and uninhibited) Broadway dancers and actors on their night off last week.
Sorry for this late report, but the show was the kick-off for a week’s vacation that just ended yesterday. I saw and did a lot of good stuff while I was away, but spent the best two hours of the week at “Broadway Bares XX: Strip-opoly.”
Roseland Ballroom seemed even more packed than usual on June 20 for the two performances of the annual burlesque fundraiser that was starrier — and sexier — than ever.
What can you say about a show that began with Vanessa Williams and Kristin Chenoweth — both electrifyingly charismatic — teaming up with Euan Morton (above) for “The Best Game in Town”?
There’s always a risk in any show if you start out too high, but director Josh Rhodes managed to keep the energy soaring through one terrific number after another.
It was Rhodes’s first time as director of “Broadway Bares” but he danced in the benefit a decade ago (when he was a chorus boy in “Fosse”) and proved to be a perfect fit.
Rhodes pushed the envelope — in terms of nudity and eroticism — just a tad more than the previous shows, but like his predecessors, he never went over the edge.
The show’s theme of a sexy variation on the Monopoly board game gave Rhodes a tremendous variety of moods. The Parker Brothers classic also sparked some uproariously funny moments, from the letter-perfect “Jersey Shore” spoof in the Boardwalk number — below — to the lesbians-invade-suburbia hilarity in the Connecticut Avenue sequence.
Jerry Mitchell — the director-choreographer who created the benefit two decades ago — showed up in the finale, looking great in the Willa Kim Indian costume (left) that he wore as a dancer in “The Will Rogers Follies” (the skimpy outfit that gave him the idea that showing a little skin might be a perfect way to raise some money for BC/EFA).
It was Mitchell who set a million dollar goal this year — after last year’s proceeds failed to match the amount raised in 2008. The benefit’s executive producer pushed his dancers and sponsors to work even harder this year on a few small downtown bar shows that paved the way to “Strip-opoly.”
It’s a bit sad that so much imagination and talent converges for a show that is only seen twice on one night and then vanishes forever, but then again that’s what makes “Broadway Bares” such a special night out in New York City.
(For complete coverage and archiving of the fundraiser, visit www.broadwaybares.com)
