The Tony Awards… Pride… What a time to be a showmosexual!
Less is more at “Broadway Bares”
How about we take this to the next level?
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Every gay who was any gay in New York made their annual pilgrimage to The Hammerstein Ballroom for two sold-out performances of the annual strip-for-charity event Broadway Bares, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This year’s Vegas-themed show continued in the event’s longstanding tradition of showcasing sass, class, and ass with a cast of over 200 of Broadway’s hottest bodies baring it all with special appearances by a host of Broadway stars and celebs, including Alan Cumming and Laverne Cox. The event raised a record-breaking $2.25 million, which will support a broad range of AIDS, social services, and nonprofit organizations nationwide.
Related*
‘Broadway Bares’ strips down to a record-breaking haul with Johnny Sibilly & 200 scantily-clad dancers
Check out photos of all the stripper shenanigans that helped Broadway Bares raise $2.25 million for charity.
Absent from this year’s Broadway Bares was the event’s creator, Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots), who is busy helming the upcoming West End debut of Elton John’s new musical The Devil Wears Prada starring Vanessa Williams as Miranda Priestly. Coincidentally, Sir Elton was at New York City’s Stonewall National Monument this past weekend to join President Joe Biden in commemorating the 55th anniversary of the birth of the LGBTQ+ rights movement and the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center.
A musical “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
If you want to know what may be headed to Broadway, look to Chicago. The Second City has been quite the commercial theater incubator this year with well-received firsts – the world premieres of the Broadway-bound musicals Boop and Death Becomes Her. So naturally, all queer eyes are on the Windy City to see if it can score a hattrick of hits with the debut of the musical Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at the Goodman Theatre.
Based on the best-selling gothic novel of the same name, the tuner (with major queer themes) is being delivered by a first-rate team that includes music by Jason Robert Brown (The Connector), a book by queer renaissance artist Taylor Mac (Orlando: A Biography) and direction by Rob Ashford. The cast includes Broadway A-listers Tom Hewitt (Hadestown), Sierra Boggess (Harmony), and Tony winner and Queerty Pride 50 honoree J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot) as real-life transgender trailblazer The Lady Chablis. Coinciding with Chicago’s Pride Week, the musical opened previews with a sold-out crowd as part of The Goodman’s Pride Night Out.
Betty Buckley goes down memory lane in Provincetown
Broadway diva Betty Buckley (Cats, Sunset Boulevard) took her soaring pipes to Provincetown last weekend to open John McDaniel’s Broadway Series at the Post Office Cafe and Cabaret. Before wowing the crowds on Sunday, she was spotted out on the town with drag legend Varla Jean Merman.
It’s been over 40 years since Buckley won a Tony Award for belting out the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit “Memory” before climbing a giant smoking flying tire en route to kitty heaven as Grizabella in the musical Cats. However, as the original TV commercials from the 1980s promised (or threatened), the show is “now and forever.”
The proof is in the catnip: producers of this summer’s hit Cats: “The Jellicle Ball” announced that the fur would fly a little longer with the ball culture-inspired reimagining of the mega-musical. It has extended the run a second time, now through August 11, at New York’s Perelman Performing Arts Center.
Alaska migrates east with the Off-Broadway premiere of “DRAG: The Musical”
Following in the stilettos of Jinkx Monsoon (who boosted the box office for Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors and recently returned to the role of Matron “Mama” Morton in Broadway’s Chicago), Alaska Thunderf*ck has her eyelashes set on legit stage stardom. The season two All Stars winner is set to hit the Off-Broadway boards in DRAG: The Musical this September. Co-written by Alaska (aka Justin Andrew Honard), Tomas Costanza, and Ashley Gordon, and directed and choreographed by Spence Liff, the Queerties-winning musical (which had two previous successful run in Hollywood’s Bourbon Room) boasts a cast that includes Alaska, former New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre, and RPDR alums Jan Sport and Jujubee.
Nathan Lee Graham serves sass, Jonathan Bailey rules England & Jonathan Groff on a budget
Theater scene stealers Nathan Lee Graham (Orlando) and Tommy Bracco (The Heart of Rock and Roll) have joined the cast of Off-Broadway’s Celine Dion-inspired satire Titanique.
Titanique, Daryl Roth Theatre, New York City. Open-ended run.
Chris Perfetti, who plays everyone’s favorite gay 6th grade teacher in ABC’s Abbott Elementary, will be playing the role of a queer mountain lion living under the Hollywood sign in a stage adaptation of Henry Hoke’s Open Throat on Little Island, New York City’s new architectural wonder on the Hudson River, this July.
Open Throat, LIttle Island, New York City, July 11-14.
Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey will be changing roles from hot viscount to corrupt king in a new production of Shakespeare’s Richard II set to open in London’s Bridge Theater in February.
Richard II, Bridge Theatre, London. February 10 – May 10, 2025.
Everyone who can’t afford the top ticket price of $649 to see Tony winners Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe in Merrily We Roll Along, can breathe a sigh of relief. The flop-turned-blockbuster was recenlty filmed by the same production company that brought Hamilton and Come From Away to the small screen on Apple TV+.
Release date TBD.
Don't forget to share:
