Broadway Bares 2017 Highlights
THIS YEARS 27th edition of Broadway Bares pulled in a whopping $1,568,114 in two performances at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
This year’s Broadway Bares stripped away the fears of freshmen and saluted seniors as a journey across the Strip U campus took us to a seductive observatory, exploding chemistry lab, flirty fine arts class, frat party-turned-Greek god fantasy, a lesson in stiletto strutting and Havana, Cuba, for a sizzling semester studying abroad.
Two-time Tony Award nominee and seven-time Emmy winner Allison Janney started the show with a video invitation as Strip U’s president, offering sexy salutations, a campus history and words of wisdom: “Our motto reminds us of our core values every day: Honorem, Integritas, Nuditas, Erectus.”
Internet personality Randy Rainbow and On Your Feet’s Ana Villafañe made special guest appearances as a psychology professor and a foreign exchange student.
In the finale, Instagram sensation Tom Lenk (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), playing a pesky Department of Education auditor who appeared throughout the show, finally saw the Strip U way and offered the university full federal funding. The entire cast of more than 180 dancers flooded the stage, providing an electrifying finale to the show.
Tony-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, who created Broadway Bares in 1992 and serves as executive producer, and Tony winner Judith Light thanked the audience at the show’s close. “We must take the power of our diverse communities and dedicate our energies to the importance of taking care of ourselves and each other,” Light said. Light and Mitchell also reminded the audience: “Safe sex is hot sex. We can best love each other by protecting each other.”
WATCH the video highlights HERE
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