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

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS
18TH ANNUAL
BROADWAY FLEA MARKET
AND GRAND AUCTION
SEPTEMBER 19, 2004
We escaped the remnants of Hurricane Ivan and Sunday morning skies cleared for the 18th edition of
what some have come to call “Broadway’s Annual Company Picnic." Over 30,000 enthusiastic theatre fans shopped, schmoozed and
gawked their way through Shubert Alley as the best of NYC’s theatrical community united to make our last major fundraising event
of fiscal year 2004 a rousing success.
Fifty-three tables representing Broadway and off-Broadway shows, unions, management offices and theatre-related businesses
all pitched in, selling everything from signed memorabilia, Playbills, posters, baked goods and one-of-a-kind handmade items,
raising a total of $192,064. Top performers included: United Scenic Artists ($16,923), Wicked ($12,788), Avenue Q ($11,944),
Broadway Beat ($14,022), Broadway.com ($9,022), The Phantom of the Opera ($6,076), and The Producers ($5,443).
Over $12,000 was raised at the Celebrity Table and Photo Booth where stars from Broadway and daytime television signed
everything imaginable for their fans. Broadway’s Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Richard Thomas, Tonya
Pinkins, Mario Cantone, Isabel Keating, Stephanie J. Block, Beth Fowler, Gary Beach, Joey McIntyre, Roger Rees, Tom Hewitt,
Marian Seldes, Carole Shelley, Tovah Feldshuh, Joe Machota, Peter Scolari, Michael McKeon, John Tartaglia, Andrea McArdle and
Tony Roberts were among the more than 90 stars who dropped by for an hour to meet and greet.
The Silent Auction – which featured 73 items sold over a five-hour period – raised $35,000. Bidding was led by a Hirschfeld
drawing of Gwen Verdon ($2,700). Two musical phrases from Avenue Q - written by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx - also received high
bids, earning $2,200 and $1,800. Mel Brooks’ handwritten musical phrase “When You Got It, Flaunt It," from The Producers, sold
for $1,600.
As has become tradition, The Grand Auction closed the day’s festivities. Auctioneer Lorna Kelly led the charge as another $172,400
was raised from such items as: a walk-on in The Phantom of the Opera ($8,500); two VIP tickets and a backstage visit to Bette Midler’s
show at Radio City ($7,500); additional walk-ons in Rent ($6,800), Fiddler on the Roof ($6,000) and 42nd Street ($4,500), as well as two
VIP tickets to the opening night performance and party for La Cage aux Folles.
Continental Airlines, The New York Times, and Ford Motor Company were this year’s major corporate sponsors. As always, we are
grateful to the hundreds of theatrical professionals who joined forces to make this day possible and the tens of thousands of theatre
fans who in turn made it fun and profitable for BC/EFA.
(clockwise) The crowd in front of the annual Celebrity Table on W. 45th Street and Shubert Alley; cast members from The Lion King selling special memorabilia; another table
loaded with wares for sale from 42nd Street; BC/EFA Trustee Maria Di Dia and Bebe Neuwirth, the star of Maria’s off-Broadway musical hit Here Lies Jenny; Neil Shastri from
Bombay Dreams auctioned off his own drawing of the stars of Bombay Dreams with the help of auctioneer Lorna Kelly.
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