Orange is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox led Broadway’s brightest dancers in the 25th installment of Broadway Bares June 21.
Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque featured 222 dancers and showgirls, raising a record $1,598,501 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Bianca Del Rio was summoned to the stage by two-time Tony nominee Christopher Sieber, playing the character “JM,” and led a dozen chorus boys through an erotic shadow choreographed by Michael Lee Scott.
Del Rio, however, slipped on the wet stage and “broke her ass,” forcing Sieber to find a new lead. Through the show we watched as “off the boat” Nick Adams pushes to be the new lead. Petey’s number comes up when he Sieber picks him to be the new “top bottom.”
Laverne Cox brought down the house when she dashed onto the stage in a new interpretation of the casting couch while aerialist Ryan Lyons spun and soared above a crew of hunky stage hands clearing the stage in the “Load-In” number.
Judith Light joined Jerry Mitchell and Jennifer Balbier for a special presentation of a $300,000 check from the MAC AIDS Fund before Sieber returned to the stage to introduce the annual “rotation,” where the cast dances freestyle to entice the audience to add “tips” to their donations. The strategy raised an additional $24, 912 for the organization.
Since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised over $250 million for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
For more pictures visit the GayCities Broadway Bares Gallery
Images by Kevin Thomas Garcia, Jonathan Tichler, Monica Simoes, Billy Baustamante, Daniel Roberts, & Ryan Mueller