Tag: Broadway Cares

Posted on

Broadway Backwards 2017 Raises Over $522K For LGBT Charities

Check out performances from this year’s Broadway Backwards, one of my favorite annual benefit performances in NYC for my favorite, favorite charities – Broadway Cares and the LGBT Community Center in NYC.

Via press release:

Equality, solidarity and warmth filled the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 13, 2017, when the biggest stars on Broadway proved gender doesn’t matter, but love does as they explored and embraced the great songs of musical theatre at the 12th annual Broadway Backwards.

This year’s sold-out celebration, where men sing songs intended for women and vice versa without changing pronouns, shattered fundraising records, bringing in an impressive $522,870 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City. The show was produced by Broadway Cares.

The evening was hosted by Tony Award winner and longtime friend of Broadway Cares, Julie White, who brought her signature sass and wit to the stage. The evening featured 19 comedic, poignant and heart-wrenching numbers, backed by a live, 12-piece onstage orchestra, on the Hirschfeld stage, home to the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots.

Tony winner Cynthia Erivo brought the house down with a gospel-infused rendition of “Make Them Year You” from Ragtime. Her powerful, show-stopping vocals, backed by the Broadway Backwards ensemble, had the audience on its feet cheering for more in a fitting finale to this year’s show.

What began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006 quickly grew into a highly-anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theatres. In its 12 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.9 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.

Posted on

NYC: 12th Annual “Broadway Backwards” At The Al Hirschfeld Theatre

The Broadway community will come together once again for Broadway Backwards, an annual celebration of unity, equality and love through gender-reversed performances of classic showtunes.

This 12th annual evening is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits Broadway Cares and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.

The star-studded event features performances of quintessential Broadway tunes with a twist: men sing songs originally intended for women, and vice versa. Artists will perform the great songs of musical theatre while freeing themselves of the bounds of gender norms. It’s a show where gender doesn’t matter, but love does.

This exhilarating evening will include one-of-a-kind, unforgettable performances from celebrated stars of stage and screen including Sierra Boggess, Tony winner Len Cariou, Tony nominee Carolee Carmello, Robert Creighton, Ariana DeBose, Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo, Tony nominee Santino Fontana, Lora Lee Gayer, Tony winner John Glover, four-time Grammy Award nominee Josh Groban, Tony winner Cady Huffman, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Rachel Bay Jones, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Tony winner Levi Kreis, Eric Petersen, Tony nominee Andrew Rannells, Megan Sikora, Elizabeth Stanley, Bobby Conte Thornton, two-time Golden Globe winner, Tony nominee and Oscar nominee Kathleen Turner, six-time Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch, Rachel York and Jersey Boys original cast members Dominic Nolfi, Michael Longoria and Daniel Reichard.

Tickets are no longer available online. Additional tickets at various price levels may become available. Sign up for our waiting list to be contacted if more tickets are released.

Creator Robert Bartley will return to direct the show. He will be joined by Mary-Mitchell Campbell as music supervisor and Laura Bergquist as music director. Choreography will be created by Bartley, Christopher Rice and Adam Roberts.

Last year’s inspiring performance raised a record $480,287. It featured a 67-person cast of Broadway and television’s best, backed by a live onstage orchestra.

What began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006 quickly grew into a highly-anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theatres. In its 11 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.8 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.

Monday, March 13, 8 pm
Al Hirschfeld Theatre
302 West 45th Street, NYC

(source)

Posted on

Broadway: “Gypsy Of The Year 2016” Raises Over $4.4 Million

Broadway Cares shares the good news:

Broadway’s best spread messages of unity, hope and resilience through satire, song and dance December 5 and 6, 2016, at the 28th annual Gypsy of the Year competition.

Gypsy of the Year , which celebrated six weeks of dedicated fundraising from 55 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies, raised $4,492,636 for Broadway Cares. The grand total was announced Tuesday by Tony Award winners Cynthia Erivo and Jessie Mueller and Hamilton star Javier Muñoz following two incredible days of performances. Erivo, Mueller and Muñoz also presented the awards to the top fundraisers and best performances across the two afternoons.

The company of Hamilton took top honors for best onstage presentation. In “America,” the cast mashed up the music and lyrics of Bob Marley and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the poetry of Langston Hughes into a call for peace and equality in our country. Javier Muñoz and Syndee Winters led the integration of song and word, with the cast channeling the duo’s sentiments into a powerful, striking dance.

The company of The Lion King was runner-up with a moving spoken-word piece giving voice to those marginalized by the current political climate. The piece, written by cast member L. Steven Taylor and choreographed by Ray Mercer, found four isolated actors, and a dancer expressing their words through movement, finding common ground in fighting for each other’s plight. The piece concluded with the performers declaring in unison, “I will never leave you alone.”

This year’s edition of Gypsy of the Year opened with a energetic dance featuring the return of Broadway legends Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie and Margo Sappington. The dynamic trio recreated their unforgettable “Turkey Lurkey Time,” which they originated in 1968’s Promises, Promises.

Posted on

Broadway Backwards Raises A Record $480,287

The sold-out audience at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre was dazzled Monday, March 21, 2016, by this year’s stirring edition of Broadway Backwards.

The annual celebration, where men sing songs originally written for women and vice versa offering this audience the chance to see LGBT stories told through the great songs of musical theatre, set a new fundraising record.

The evening raised an incredible $480,287 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.

The evening included performances by Broadway legend Chita Rivera, Finding Neverland‘s Laura Michelle Kelly, Kinky Boot’s Wayne Brady, Wicked‘s Nick Adams, Len Cariou, Eddie Korbich, Treat Williams and many, many more.

Broadway Backwards began as a small, grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006, quickly grew into an highly anticipated event presented in Broadway’s best theaters.

In its 11 editions, Broadway Backwards has raised more than $2.4 million for Broadway Cares and The Center.

Posted on

Broadway Cares Shares A Special Holiday Message

Stars from Broadway’s Hamilton, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Spring Awakening, Finding Neverland and School of Rock – The Musical share a special holiday message from Broadway Cares.

Alex Boniello from Spring Awakening (on guitar), Carolee Carmello from Finding Neverland, Gavin Creel from The Book of Mormon, Nikki Renée Daniels from The Book of Mormon, Kara Lindsay from Wicked, Dante Melucci from School of Rock – The Musical (on djembe), Leslie Odom Jr. from Hamilton.

I’m happy to admit I’ve known Carolee and Leslie for years 🙂

As regular readers of The Randy Report know I was a Broadway actor for many years and was a part of the Broadway community when Broadway Cares was born. It is always my first charity of choice. If you have any charity dollars to donate this holiday season, please know your money would go to great use if you were to donate.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $285 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Posted on

Meet The Characters of BROADWAY BARES 25

Inspired by the golden age of Broadway, annual fundraiser BROADWAY BARES is back for it’s 25th installment – Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque – along with Tony Award winner and Broadway Bares creator Jerry Mitchell at the helm.

Clip description:

In a lavish and thrilling extravaganza, Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque will feature a cast of colorful characters for every desire and fantasy.

Broadway’s iconic personalities – from devilish divas to charismatic casting directors, luscious lyricists to studly stagehands – will combine the naughtiness of burlesque with the razzle-dazzle of Broadway.

The 2015 edition will fill NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday, June 21.

This always sold-out annual event combines the naughtiness of burlesque and the razzle-dazzle of Broadway. More than 150 of the hottest male and female dancers in New York City take to the stage for two sensational shows at 9:30 pm and midnight.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

For more information and tickets head over to broadwaybares.com.

Posted on

Broadway Cares Presents Cyndi Lauper With $150K For True Colors Fund

Tom Viola, director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS – who I’m proud to have known for over 25 years – writes this:

I had the pleasure of dropping by the stage door of the Hirschfeld Theatre this week to join the cast of Kinky Boots in presenting Cyndi Lauper with a “big check” representing the $150,000 donated to True Colors Fund by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS from the more than $1.2 million in resources raised by the show since it opened in April 2013.

Broadway Cares salutes Cyndi and True Colors Fund for everything they have done to advance equality for all and, in doing so, helping to end homelessness for gay and transgendered youth. “You change the world when you change your mind!” But our voices are stronger and the change embraces us all when we stand together.

Cyndi Lauper is the Tony Award winning composer of the hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots and the founder of the True Colors Fund, which works to end homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, creating a world in which young people can be their true selves.

Posted on

Broadway Backwards: “Cellblock Tango”

Joshua Buscher-West, Marty Lawson, Alfie Parker Jr., Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva, Alex Ringler, and Ryan Steele performed the number “Cellblock Tango” from CHICAGO the Musical at Broadway Backwards 10th Anniversary performance this past Monday in New York City.

And it’s FAB!  I love this!  Highly inventive and danced fantastically.  Bravo, to the choreographer and actors!

Broadway Backwards is an annual celebration where gays and lesbians see their stories told through the songs of musical theater.

The evening benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDs and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. This year’s event raised a recorded $466,717.

Posted on

Broadway: Gypsy Of The Year 2014 Raises Over $5.2 Million

Via Broadway Cares: The 26th annual edition of Gypsy of the Year raised a record-breaking $5,229,611 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS thanks to six weeks of fundraising by 64 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies.

The grand total was announced Tuesday, December 9, 2014, by special guests Hugh Jackman, Nathan Lane and Judith Light after two stellar performances of original dances, songs and skits by more than 200 “gypsies” from Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.

Since 1989, the 26 editions of Gypsy of the Year (#gypsyoftheyear) have raised $62.4 million to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The previous record high for Gypsy of the Year fundraising was $4,895,253 set in 2011.

This year’s top overall fundraiser was The River, which stars Jackman and raised $549,725. During the fund-raising period, Jackman literally sold the sweat-stained shirt off his back for charity.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Gypsy of the Year 2014 Highlights from Broadway Cares on Vimeo.