The 14th Annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction is scheduled to take place Sun., Sept. 24 from 10 AM to 7 PM. The 1999-2000 Broadway Season kicks off along with this annual benefit to support Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). BC/EFA presents the 14th Annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction, which is described as an annual opportunity for Broadway to "cleans its closets." Among the hottest items to be auctioned off are opening night tickets, musicals coming to Broadway, walk-on roles in both current Broadway plays and television shows, as well as celebrity endorsed memorabilia.
Stars from Broadway, Off-Broadway and television daytime dramas come together to auction off such "backstage treasures" as autographed posters, Playbills and other one-of-a-kind items.
The highlight of the day-long event, the so-called "grand auction," takes place at 4 PM, when "truly unique and priceless items are auctioned off to the highest bidder."
Production sources have supplied the following sample list of the auction items:
• Opening Night tickets to Broadway events including The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Jane Eyre and The Full Monty. • A chance to make your own Broadway debut in some of Broadway's most popular musicals, including Rent, Saturday Night Fever, Jekyll & Hyde and other shows.
• Roles on your favorite TV shows, including “Friends,” “Providence,” as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of the sets of “Sex and the City” with Sarah Jessica Parker and Christine Baranski’s new sitcom “Welcome to New York."
• BARBRA! 2 VIP seats to her "final" shows at Madison Square Garden. Valued at $2500 each if they were even available, this item includes a post-performance dinner and autographed sheet music for “People” and “The Way We Were” signed by "you know who."
• A chance to be in the Music Man, conducting the overture at the Neil Simon Theatre.
• Rare theatrical memorabilia signed by such stars as Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Dame Edna, Heather Headley, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Cy Coleman, Carol Burnett, Olympia Dukakis, Philip Seymour Hoffman & John C. Reilly, Donna Murphy, Leah Salonga, Kevin Spacey, Julie Taymor, Brian Dennehy, Lauren Bacall, Liza Minnelli, Hillary Clinton, Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Rosie O'Donnell, Kathie Lee Gifford, Stephen Sondheim, Neil Simon, the casts of all current Broadway shows and more.
A silent auction begins at 11AM and remains active until 3 PM, just before the start of the grand auction.
Scheduled to pose for photographs and to sign autographs at the auction's popular "celebrity table" are current theatre stars including Patrick Cassidy, Michael Cumpsty, Adam Pascal, Boyd Gaines, Sherie Rene Scott, Rebecca Luker, Marin Mazzie, Orfeh, Jean Smart, Elizabeth Ashley, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Henry Winkler, Anthony Rapp, Frances Sternhagen, Terrence Mann, John Ritter, Max Casella, Carole Shelley, Orfeh, Tony Roberts, Philip Bosco, and other stars.
Television stars Michael Sabatinom Marj Dusay, James Mitchell, Ruth Warrick, Bradley Cole, Eileen Fulton, Lauren B. Marten, Jill Larsen, Michael O’Leary and Paul Taylor will also be contributing to the fundraising efforts at the celebrity table.
Production sources report that BC/EFA has raised and distributed $35 million in the fight against AIDS since 1987. For more information call BC/EFA at (212) 840-0770 or visit www.broadwaycares.com
-- By Murdoch McBride
