Broadway Bares IX: Calendar Girl, the annual peek-a-boo AIDS fundraiser produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, netted a record $240,000 for two shows May 23. The previous record was set in 1998, when $160,000 was raised.
Conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, Calendar Girl was presented as a strip-a-month revue (Halloween theme, Valentine's Day theme, etc.) punctuated throughout with appearances by Alan Cumming, Tom Wopat, Lea DeLaria and other New York stage stars, at New York City's Roseland.
Among highlights:
€ Lea DeLaria singing a gender-bent version of Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl," with Sedaka in the audience.
€ Alan Cumming reading naughty poems by playwright Paul Rudnick.
€ Lypsinka taking it off in a Valentine's Day salute.
€ Tom Wopat, stripping off his shirt at the prodding of the frenzied crowd.
€ Recording star Maya Days singing her hit, "Feel It," with over 100 scantily-clad Broadway dancers.
Broadway Cares/Equity Eights AIDS (BC/EFA) is the nation's leading industry-based AIDS fundraising and grantmaking organization. Since October 1987, BC/EFA has raised and distributed over $38 million to support people with HIV and AIDS.
-- By Kenneth Jones
