LGBT Book & Video Blog

Backstage Pass: A front-row seat for the hottest show in town

by Jerry Mitchell, Rex Bonomelli, Michael Graziano

A front-row seat for the hottest show in town–Broadway’s finest strip down for a good cause.

This is your ticket behind the scenes to see Broadway’s sexiest performers displaying some of their greatest assets. Gorgeous stage idols from the biggest shows strut their stuff as you’ve never seen them before. It’s burlesque naughtiness lit up by the razzle-dazzle of the Great White Way. They tease, they titillate, they tantalize. And boy, do they deliver the goods. By the end of each number they’re wearing little more than a smile. But at the end of the show comes the real payoff; hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the theatre community’s unique fundraising and grantmaking organization.

Backstage Pass peeks behind the curtain at the famous event called Broadway Bares– conceived by Tony Award®—winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell–which sets New York City ablaze each summer. The hottest dancers in show business come together for this one-night-only sold-out “Strip-A-Thon”–a fundraising, eye-popping spectacle the likes of which Gypsy Rose Lee could never have dreamed. Now for the first time this luxurious keepsake album brings together all the sizzling posters, scintillating backstage shots, and scorching on-stage photographs from the past seventeen years of Broadway Bares. Sit back and enjoy the show.

About the Author
Jerry Mitchell is the creator and Executive Producer of the annual charitable event he named Broadway Bares, the first thirteen versions of which he also staged. Mitchell is one of Broadway’s most acclaimed choreographers, having choreographed 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.

Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grantmaking organization. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theatrical community, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes and other critical illnesses across the United States.
BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors’ Fund–including The AIDS Initiative, The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, The Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic at The Aurora in New York City, The Dancers’ Resource, and two supportive housing residences. BC/EFA also awards grants to more than four hundred AIDS and family service organizations yearly. All royalties from Backstage Pass will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.www.broadwaycares.org

posted by Tom Jackson @ Wednesday, June 25, 2008