Top Fundraiser Wicked $208,406
National Touring Shows:
Second Runner-up Wicked – Los Angeles $204,061
First Runner-up Jersey Boys – Chicago $293,672
Top Fundraiser Jersey Boys – the "Sherry" tour $327,403
Special awards were given for the top fundraising Broadway play, Off-Broadway company, and touring company. This year the top fundraising play was The Ritz with $139,513. Altar Boyz took the Off-Broadway award for raising $36,006
The results of this year's presentation awards were:
First Runner Up (TIE): The Ritz & the combined companies of Stomp & Xanadu
(aka "Stomp-adu")
Winner: The Color Purple
Jackie Hoffman (Xanadu), Bob Saget (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Mary Testa (Xanadu) hosted this year's event with Rosie Perez (The Ritz), David Hyde Pierce (Curtains) and Brian Stokes Mitchell joining them onstage during the awards presentation.
This year's celebrity judges included F. Murray Abraham (Mauritius) Tony Award winning choreographer Rob Ashford; Claire Danes (Pygmalion); Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff; Martha Plimpton (Cymbeline); John Tartaglia (The Disney Channel's Johnny and the Sprites), BC/EFA major donor Marion Duckworth Smith and Ned Walker, Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Communications of Continental Airlines.
This year's presentation awards included:
* The Color Purple performed an inspiring number featuring The Sounds of Blackness song "Pressure." The number was created, directed, and choreographed by company member James Harkness.
* Seth Rudetsky and company members from the recently concluded production of The Ritz, recreating legendary gypsy mishaps including one night during a production of West Side Story, where the actress playing Maria accidentally fired the prop gun at Chino who then "died" on stage, the only time in the run of the show where that happened.
* The companies of Xanadu and Stomp came together as "Stomp-adu" for a rousing, audience pleasing a capella version of the Sandi Thom song "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker with Flowers in My Hair".
Other highlights from this year's presentations included:
· Three skits made humorous reference to the 19-day strike, including Rent, A Chorus Line and Curtains which presented cast members as representatives from The League and Local One playing "Family Feud."
· The cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee sang a parody of "The Bitch of Living" entitled "The Bitch of Aging" about being too old to be cast in Spring Awakening, even though some of them weren't even 25 years old.
· Avenue Q presented an original number, "The Slow Moving Tourists of Times Square"
· The cast of the now closed Off-Broadway show Frankenstein poked fun at their own short-lived run and then announced they raised a total of $10,000 even though only 5,000 saw the show during its entire run.
· The company of Mary Poppins performing "The Eagle & The Hawk featuring choreography by company member Tony Mansker.
· Legally Blonde performing "OMIGOD… I Did It Again" which featured Laura Belle Bundy engaging in scandalous behavior, including punching noted Broadway photographer Bruce Glikas, doing drugs, going to rehab, and even performing a poorly rehearsed version of a comeback song ala Britney Spear at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fund raising and grant making organization. BC/EFA is the on-going, committed response from the American theater community to an urgent worldwide health crisis. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of this community, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States. Since it's founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $140 million for critically needed services for people with AIDS, HIV and other related illnesses.
For further information, please call (212) 840-0770 ext. 268.
THE GYPSY OF THE YEAR COMPETITION is sponsored by:
Continental Airlines, the official airline of BC/EFA, The MAC AIDS Fund, The New York Times
For more information, visit: www.BroadwayCares.org
