GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

May 16, 2008

no

Naked boys singing... and dancing

Bravura tome illustrates 17 years of scantily-clad benefits.

DAMON FOURIE

by Anthony Glassman

All right, a quick trivia question: What event, in its 17 years of existence, has raised almost $5 million for AIDS services?

After humming the theme to Jeopardy! for the appropriate amount of time, call out the answer. You don't have to phrase it in the

RIVKA AND MOSHE KATVAN

form of a question-this isn't that formal a quiz.

Now answer honestly. Who said Broadway Bares, the risqué revue started in 1992 by choreographer Jerry Mitchell?

The inaugural benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS was held in a New York City bar on a drizzly April night. They

had to add a second performance

to accommodate the crowd lined up around the block.

Mitchell directed Broadway Bares for the first 13 years, then handed it off to Jodi Moccia for a year and Denis Jones for the last three years.

This year's event will be held on June 22 in New York, but all it takes to enjoy the magic of this "family"-but not family-show is a coffee table and $55.

Broadway Bares: Backstage Pass (Jerry Mitchell, Rex Bonomelli and Michael Graziano, Universe, hardcover) is a jaunt through al-

most two decades of one small facet of Broadway reacting to the plague that decimated its best and brightest, in words and photos as bright and sparkling

as the hearts of those who participated in those 17 benefits.

"Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Michael Graziano have given me an unexpected place to grow as an artist in the time of AIDS," writes Mitchell in "Sass, Class

and Ass," the introduction to the book. "It's a place every director-choreographer dreams of working. A place where you are surrounded by a staff of willing participants determined to go the distance."

"They have followed me into the socalled naked abyss," he continues. “It's a deep dark hole but look at the riches we have found!"

The first event in 1992 raised $8,000. Last year's installment, with the theme "Myth-behavior," raised $743,000. Lord only knows what the 18th production, “Wonderland," will bring.

What we have, right here and now, is a marvelous volume illustrating the wit, cleverness, sexiness and playfulness of the Great White Way at its brightest.

After the introduction and a brief verbal history, the various incarnations are celebrated through studio photographs. Little Bo Peep, superheroes, space sirens and iconic images of New York get the Broadway Bares treatment, in a lusty, libidinous, yet somehow never smutty way. There are buns. aplenty, but never a wiener. And, reflecting that not everyone on Broadway is a gay man, there are women too, although fewer than there are men.

After that, there are backstage photos—

makeup, costumes, and all-around silliness pervading the very serious business of putting on a show and raising money for AIDS. If one looks closely, one can even spot actor Martin Klebba backstage, proving that he's the sexiest little person on earth, at least since Warwick Davies started making those atrocious Leprechaun films.

The book wraps up with actual photos taken from the events over the years, broken up into their individual productions, giving just a taste, a schmear in theater-talk, of Continued on page 10

ever

Dykes To Watch Out For ARCHIVE episode

LOVE

and

WORK

part 1.

1998 BY ALISON BECHDEL

BUTCH IN THE

STREETS, FEMME IN THE SHEETS? HOW TOO TRITE.

SIT BACK & HANG

ON AS OUR SPECIAL 2-PART SERIES EXPLORES SOME MORE PIQUANT

DISPARITIES

BETWEEN WORK-

GINGER HAS AN EYE TO THE FUTURE AT WORK,

AT WORK, CLARICE HAS LASERLIKE FOCUS,

YOUR HONOR, MY ESTEEMED COLLEAGUE IS OVERLOOKING SECTION 304 (a) AND (f), 42 U.S.C. SEC. 7604, WHICH SETS AN EMISSION LIMIT OF 5g/m3 OVER ANY 30 DAY PERIOD, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN.

AND TONI EXUDES MATURITY. BECAUSE

I'M THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THAT'S WHY!

JOAN, LET'S DISCUSS THIS AFTER LUNCH. YOU KNOW YOU GET IRRITABLE WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY.

290

PLACE AND BED-

WHICH

ROOM DEMEANOR.

I'M NOT.

TONI ORTIZ, BUS. MGR.

GOT A REAL SALARY HERE, BUT I TAUGHT JOB.

TWICE YOUR COURSE LOAD. YOU CAN KISS MY ADJUNCT ASS GOODBYE.

DR. REYNOLDS, I MAY HAVE MADE A FRACTION OF YOUR

RECENTLY

... BUT IN BED, SHE'S LIVING IN THE PAST. ON THE JOB, MO STANDS BY HER PRINCIPLES...

LKK

EXCAVATED

BUSH

ARE WE JUST GONNA SIT AROUND

10-YR. OLD

DOES THIS

MEMORY

COME IN

SO I HEAR

YOU FINALLY

BUT IN THE BOUDOIR...

HA! I TAPEP THIS FOR RAFFI, BUT IT'S REALLY GROWING ON ME.

HUH?

CAT THE BOOKSTORE, JEZANNA IS A WOMAN OF FEW WORDS, DIDJA SEE BOUNDERS BOOKS AND MUSIC IS HAVING THEIR GRAND OPENING NEXT MONTH?

BUT IN AN INTIMATE SETTING, SHE'S A BIT MORE VOLUBLE. OH, WHERE'D YOU LEARN TO DO THAT? YES! DON'T STOP! @#! ME, You *SOL!

OFFICE

AGAIN!

WITH OUR THUMBS UP OUR BUTTS TILL ONE SUPREME C.E. O. ACCUMULATES ALL THE WEALTH ON THE PLANET? MARX WAS RIGHT! CAPITALISM TENDS MANGO? INEVITABLY TOWARD MONOPOLY, AND RICH PEOPLE SUCK!

AND SYDNEY'S OUT OF CONTROL. NOT ONE OF YOU OVERPRIVILEGED, BEERPICKLED FRAT FOLLOWERS READ THE CHAPTER? WELL WASTE YOUR OWN LIVES IF YOU MUST, BUT DON'T WASTE MINE!

GENDER

101

MMPH.

BUT IN THE HEAT OF PASSION, MATTERS ARE DIFFERENT.

POOL GIRL! WHAT IS THIS SWILL?

I ASKED FOR NATURALLY CARBONATED

WATER!

I'M SO SORRY,

MS. STEWART.

WOULD YOU

PREFER THE PERRIER?

BABE, BEFORE

YOUR FATHER MOVES IN, WE NEED TO TALK

SOUNDPROOFING.

YES. AND CALL ME MARTHA,

YOU COMELY WENCH.

A TIP O'

THE MIB TO

DR. BON!

www.DykesToWatchOutfor.com

MORE MEGA

MERGERS

28 PAGES OF C

T SEINFELD"

COVERAGE

3

TO BE CONTINUED...