BC/EFA Annual Report 2005 - Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

oadway cares/equity fights aids
16th ANNUAL
GYPSY OF THE YEAR
COMPETITION
December 6 & 7, 2004
the 16th annual gypsy of the year competition raised $2,754,000 with 58 broadway,
Off-Broadway and national touring shows giving their all during six intense weeks of fall fundraising. Sixteen of those shows
presented original numbers – comic and serious – onstage at the Neil Simon Theatre, home of Hairspray.
Hosted by Hairspray’s Bruce Vilanch, Tuesday’s sold-out show featured skits from 16 shows, with special appearances by Joan
Rivers, Brooke Shields, Whoopi Goldberg, Seth Rudetsky of “Seth’s Broadway Chatterbox,” and an extended appearance by Dame
Edna Everage (Barry Humphries).
The afternoon’s opening number, “Ask A Gypsy,” written specifically for the event with original music by Lance Horne
and lyrics by Horne, Lorin Latarro and Josh Rhodes, was directed and choreographed by Latarro and Rhodes with assistant
choreographer Lee Wilkins and musical director Mary Mitchell Campbell. Led by Nancy Anderson and a chorus of 21 on-stage
dancers and 10 backstage vocalists, “Ask A Gypsy” featured three well-known gypsies who have become stars in their own right,
Nancy Lemenager, Brad Oscar and Mary Ann Lamb, each wearing one of the fabled “gypsy robes.”
Show highlights included the cast of Bombay Dreams in a number entitled “Minorities Encouraged”; Beauty and the Beast’s Henry
Hodges in “I’m a Cup”; the cast of Mamma Mia! in “Red State Ready”; and the “animals” in Fiddler on the Roof’s “The Circle L’Chaim.”
Cast members past and present from 42nd Street joined in a grand finale of “The Lullaby of Broadway.”
The top fundraising award went to Wicked, bringing in $362,918 from audience donations and onstage auctions, followed by
Avenue Q ($154,208), Mamma Mia! ($154,032), The Phantom of the Opera ($151,124), The Lion King ($150,822) and Rent ($144,178). Twelve
Angry Men was the top play, with $110,724; Menopause: The Musical was the top Off-Broadway show, raising $13,200; and the tour of
Mamma Mia! earned touring show honors with $147,929.
The “Gypsy of the Year Award” – determined by a panel of judges that included Cherry Jones, Tovah Feldshuh, Mario Cantone
and Jai Rodriquez – went to the cast of The Lion King for their spirited dance presentation “Driven,” while the cast of Wicked received
runner-up honors.
The fundraising success of the Gypsy of the Year Competition would not be possible without the support of dozens of companies
doing audience appeals, selling autographed posters, creating on-line auctions and more. Additional and heartfelt thanks to the
hundreds of volunteers – actors and stage managers, wardrobe and hair personnel, ushers and front-of-house staff, technicians,
stagehands and musicians, producers, company managers and concessionaires – whose generous efforts make this event possible.
Nancy Anderson leads “The Gypsy of the Year Gypsies” in the show’s opening number, “Ask a Gypsy”; three of the lovely ladies from Menopause, The Musical –
which won the ‘Off-Broadway Fundraising Award’ with a total of $13,200; three of the fabled “gypsy robes”; Ryan Lowe (Chicago’s high-note hitting Mary Sunshine)
presented an outstanding performance of ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ from The Phantom of the Opera – in the original key; from Avenue Q,
Rick Lyon and “Nicky” perform “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” dedicated, of course, to Wicked’s own resident green witch, Idina Menzel.
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