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Broadway dancers are sexy. This is not exactly news, as anyone who has enjoyed our annual roundups of the hottest chorus girls and boys on Broadway can attest. But nowhere are they sexier than in the burlesque extravaganza Broadway Bares, a yearly striptease benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This year’s 26th edition, the television-themed Broadway Bares: On Demand, will heat up the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 19, at 9:30pm and midnight. (The midnight show tends to be a little wilder.)
As longtime oglers may recall, Broadway Bares began in the early 1990s at the Chelsea gay bar Splash, where dancer Jerry Mitchell and a few friends shook their moneymakers and raised $8,000 for BC/EFA. Since then, Mitchell has gone on to become one of Broadway’s leading director-choreographers, and Broadway Bares has bulked up to its current swole glory. Over the years it has raised $14.3 million dollars; and as the HIV/AIDS crisis has evolved, BC/EFA has broadened its charitable mandate to encompass funding for the Actors Fund, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic.
In other words, Broadway Bares channels lust for a very good cause. It’s also a heck of a show every year, with dazzling musical numbers, eye-popping costumes and a bevy of talented dancers and singers. You can find out more about this year’s edition—and buy tickets (starting at $50)—at the Broadway Bares website.
Meanwhile, to whet your wolf whistle, Broadway Bares has released this brief preview video. Dare we call it a stripteaser? We dare. Enjoy.
