BC/EFA Annual Report 2004 - Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS
BROADWAY BARES XIV
JUNE 20, 2004
Broadway Bares 14: Now Showing, the 2004 version of the spectacular that grins and bares it, brought
in $525,000 for BC/EFA, $18,000 of which was collected in sweaty dollar bills tucked into the sparkling g-strings worn by 200 of
Broadway’s hottest dancers. This success tops our total from 2003 by a whopping $75,000, and culminates in a grand total of
$2,825,000 raised since the event’s first edition in 1991.
Every year for 14 years, Broadway Bares’ creator and original director/choreographer, Jerry Mitchell, has convinced a group of
Broadway professionals to take it off for a good cause.
Titillating titles from past years included The Barest Show on Earth, Peep Show, Calendar Girl, A Comic Strip, 2001: A Strip Odyssey, and Knock,
Knock: Who’s Bare. Broadway Bares 14, which took over Roseland Ballroom on June 20, was directed by Mitchell’s protégé, Jodi Moccia,
and choreographed by Moccia and a stellar dance team.
Broadway Bares 14 took on the movies, featuring dance sequences inspired by Flashdance, Rocky, James Bond, Chariots of Fire, and
even a moment from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Antigravity performed a skit based on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – appropriately renamed ‘”Crotching’ Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
– featuring an acrobatic appearance by gymnast and dancer Matthew Cusick. Hollywood’s golden days were honored in “Going
Bananas,” which blended the comedy of the Marx Brothers with outrageous costumes and dance moves inspired by Carmen Miranda.
Special guests included Into the Woods’ Christopher Sieber and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Jai Rodriguez, Swoosie Kurtz, Patrick
Cassidy, Shirley Jones, and Paige Davis of Trading Spaces and Chicago plus, Avenue Q’s John Tartaglia and “Rod” in a cameo from Scream.
Las Vegas-based aerial troupe The Living Art of Armando – an audience favorite – pulled off a sexy acrobatic feat, spinning from
a sphere in midair as their costumes appeared to melt away, while Aaron Vexler and Mike Moran of the Las Vegas troupe Axiom
presented a specialty number “For the Boys.”
Following the finale came a reminder of what all the glitz and gaiety was for: a generous check for $75,000 from The MAC AIDS
Fund and MAC Viva Glam presented by MAC CEO John Demsey to Broadway Cares. With the support of MAC, our sold-out crowd,
and our volunteers and volunteer dancers, we’ve created a unique way to raise money to help people living with AIDS and their
families that now has become an annual “rite of spring” for over 5,000 aficionados of Broadway, dance, the flash of well-toned
muscle and a bit of booty. All, of course, for a good cause.
(left to right) A highlight of the evening was the appearance of special guests Aaron Vexler and Mike Moran of 'Axiom’;
“Going Bananas” featured Brad Aspel, James Leo Ryan and Denis Jones as Chico, Harpo and Groucho; “Yo Adrian” featured Keith Kuhl; this year’s Bares poster boy,
Eric Otte showed a side we've never seen of “Bond, James Bond.”
events
39