Orange is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox led Broadway’s brightest dancers in the 25th installment of Broadway Bares June 21.
Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque featured 222 dancers and showgirls, raising a record $1,598,501 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Bianca Del Rio was summoned to the stage by two-time Tony nominee Christopher Sieber, playing the character “JM,” and led a dozen chorus boys through an erotic shadow choreographed by Michael Lee Scott.
Del Rio, however, slipped on the wet stage and “broke her ass,” forcing Sieber to find a new lead. Through the show we watched as “off the boat” Nick Adams pushes to be the new lead. Petey’s number comes up when he Sieber picks him to be the new “top bottom.”
Laverne Cox brought down the house when she dashed onto the stage in a new interpretation of the casting couch while aerialist Ryan Lyons spun and soared above a crew of hunky stage hands clearing the stage in the “Load-In” number.
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Judith Light joined Jerry Mitchell and Jennifer Balbier for a special presentation of a $300,000 check from the MAC AIDS Fund before Sieber returned to the stage to introduce the annual “rotation,” where the cast dances freestyle to entice the audience to add “tips” to their donations. The strategy raised an additional $24, 912 for the organization.
Since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised over $250 million for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
For more pictures visit the GayCities Broadway Bares Gallery
Images by Kevin Thomas Garcia, Jonathan Tichler, Monica Simoes, Billy Baustamante, Daniel Roberts, & Ryan Mueller
Bauhaus
Delicious and talented lot.
lauraspencer
It was a fun show and a lot of money was raised for a great cause, but when there is so much Broadway talent deserving of being on the stage I didn’t understand why Laverne and Bianca were headliners.
Both Laverne & Bianca are talented, but the show is called BROADWAY BARES and not NETFLIX NUDE or DRAG DISROBES. Let’s stick to the theme of the show and focus on Broadway talent.
Bob LaBlah
@lauraspencer: “I didn’t understand why Laverne and Bianca were headliners.”
It was really a smart move on the part of the producers. From what I hear, Laverne can keep an audiences attention and since she has been on the cover a quite a few magazines (billed as a man in a dress, or transgender if you will but not an entertainer) I see their (the producers) angle….why pay top dollar when we can get a good, Family Dollar package that’s acceptable to everyone.
Miss Laverne is making some bucks these days though. She was on the Today show this morning saying it seemed hard to believe three years ago she went home wondering how she was going to get the rent paid. I know she doesn’t have that problem anymore.
DarkZephyr
Nick Adams is effing gorgeous.