Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is the nation's leading industry-based, not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant making organization.

BC/EFA is the on-going, committed response from the American Theatre community to an urgent worldwide health crisis.

By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of this community, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States.
 
Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $140 million for critically needed services for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

Jerry Mitchell, Tony award-winning choreographer, was amazed at the tremendous attention his nearly naked body garnered in Tommy Tune’s production of The Will Rogers Follies in 1990.

He quickly capitalized on this fascination with exposed skin to raise funds for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) organization.

Over the next 18 years, this “ah-ha” moment grew into the annual tradition that is Broadway Bares—an event where the most beautiful bodies of New York City’s theater community take it all off and do what they do best—strut their stuff!

Backstage Pass: Broadway Bares is a titillating photographic chronicle of how one bright young man in a loincloth, dancing atop a giant drum on a Broadway stage, began one of the Great White Way’s most worthy and exciting traditions!

The book features sizzling behind-the-scene photos, performance shots, and stunning studio stills of men and women from the Broadway stage who have been a part of this spectacular burlesque event over the years.

It includes as little text as costumes worn in the show, but the history is succinctly outlined and mentions the names of the A-list celebrities who have proudly participated in the proceedings, including Cyndi Lauper, Alan Cumming, David Hyde Pierce, and Nathan Lane.


Seven thousand attended the two shows in 2007 and the event has raised nearly five million dollars to date.  Proceeds from the sales of Backstage Pass will go to benefit BC/EFA.

 

Jerry Mitchell is the creator and Executive Producer of this annual charitable event. Mitchell is one of Broadway’s most acclaimed choreographers, responsible for the original productions of Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Full Monty, as well as the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles, for which he won the Tony Award. His choreography is featured in films such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Scent of a Woman, and In & Out. Most recently, he directed and choreographed the Broadway smash hit Legally Blonde, and is presently the co-host of Bravo’s Step It Up and Dance television series. This is SERIOUS, MUST-SEE DANCE!

The show originally played here in New York in June and the beautiful hard-cover collection immediately followed. Signed copies of the book are available from Broadway Cares for $70, regular copies are $55, and Amazon still has a few   Backstage Pass: Broadway Bares left at $34. Also at their store online, you can pick up Auction items, programs, DVDs, clothing and all kinds of keepsakes that will help raise money for the cause!

For their eighteenth year, producer Jerry Mitchell and director Denis Jones (both of whom were shirtless by the end of the evening) chose an Alice in Wonderland theme. In general, Bares is an exercise in self-loathing: Broadway dancers have the kinds of bodies that only cover models for Maxim and Men's Health should possess. But nestled in between countless exposed buttocks and bedazzled pasties were a satisfying number of hilarious celebrity cameos (not even including George Wendt, who was in the audience). Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin took the stage as Cheshire cats, and The Little Dog Laughed Tony winner Julie White appeared as the Mock Turtle. "Hey Caterpillar," she cried, kicking off a line we are definitely going to use the next time we run into our high-school nemesis.

All royalties from Broadway Bares: Backstage Pass will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

All images © Backstage Pass by Jerry Mitchell,
Universe Publishing, 2008


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