BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5 Raises Record Breaking Amounts To Benefit BC/EFA

BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5, the one night only event held Monday at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, raised a record-breaking $186,780 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (The Center).

This year's total bested the amount raised in 2009 when $158,306 was raised by the event.

Never underestimate the power of a pronoun! BROADWAY BACKWARDS featured some of Broadway's biggest names singing songs originally written for the opposite gender: women singing songs written for men and men singing song written for women. By keeping all of the lyrics intact, including the original pronouns, each song takes on an entirely new dimension, sometimes with hysterical results and sometimes with immensely touching results. BROADWAY BACKWARDS gave its audience a chance to see and hear some of the most treasured songs of the Great White Way in a whole new light.

BROADWAY BACKWARDS creator Robert Bartley served as director and choreographer of this special evening with musical direction by Wayne Barker. Florence Henderson served as host for this year's event. Collectively, the performers participating in BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5 have earned four Tony Awards and 20 Tony Award nominations.

Some highlights from this year's BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5 includes:

The opening number featured Robert Cuccioli, Ann Harada and an ensemble of 50 singing "Paris Original" from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Florence Henderson led an ensemble of all female singers and dancers in a rousing rendition of "Luck Be A Lady" from Guys and Dolls.

A humorous, yet sensitive musical moment featured Len Cariou and Lee Roy Reams singing "I Remember It Well" from Gigi.

Dan Butler and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka performed the showstopper, "Come Up To My Place" from On the Town.

Douglas Sills was chased by a team of butlers as he sang a charming and humorous rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night."

Lea Salonga stopped the show with a powerful rendition of "Out There" from the animated Disney feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Raul Esparza stunned the audience with passionate "The Man That Got Away."

Nick Adams, Adam Perry, and Timothy W. Bish ended the first act with a remarkably danced and sang "There's Got To Be Something Better Than This" from Sweet Charity.

Mario Cantone and nine handsome dancers took the audience away to a fantasy world with "Where You Are" from Kiss of the Spider Woman

BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5 also included non-singing cameo appearances by Richard Kind, Valerie Harper, Eve Plumb and Marion Ross.

The full list of featured performers for BROADWAY BACKWARDS 5 includes Nick Adams (A Chorus Line), Martine Allard (The Tap Dance Kid), Gary Beach (The Producers), Tituss Burgess (Guys and Dolls, The Little Mermaid), Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde), Dan Butler (TV's Frasier, The Lisbon Traviata), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City, Laugh Whore), Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd), Harvey Evans (Follies, West Side Story), Raul Esparza (Speed-the-Plow, Company), Tony Goldwyn (Promises, Promises and the film Ghost), Ann Harada (Avenue Q, 9 to 5), Valerie Harper (Looped, "Rhoda"), Hunter Ryan Herdlicka (A Little Night Music), Richard Kind (The Producers, ABC's Spin City), Aaron Lazar (A Little Night Music), Michele Lee (Two-time Tony Award nominee), Julia Murney (The Wild Party, Wicked), Becki Newton (ABC's "Ugly Betty", Girl Crazy at Encores!), Will Nunziata, Anthony Nunziata, Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; Jelly's Last Jam), Lee Roy Reams (La Cage aux Folles, 42nd Street), Marion Ross (Evening Star, Happy Days), Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon), Douglas Sills (The Scarlet Pimpernel), Bruce Vilanch (Hairspray) and over 50 Broadway dancers and singers.

ABOUT BC/EFA
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised over $175 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors' Fund - including The AIDS Initiative, The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative, The Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, The Dancers' Resource and three supportive housing residences. BC/EFA also awards annual grants to over 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

ABOUT THE CENTER
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center provides innovative social service, youth programs and activities, educational and cultural/recreational programs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of all ages. Since its inception, the Center has been the only LGBT-identified resource delivering a continuum of substance abuse prevention and treatment services to LGBT communities in and around NYC. More than 3,000 clients use Center Counseling, Advocacy, Recovery and Education (Center CARE) annually, which offers low-cost/no cost professional counseling and social services for substance abuse prevention and related HIV/AIDS, mental health and gender identity issues. More than 1,000 adolescents participate in our LGBT youth prevention program, the Youth Enrichment Services (YES) Program. In September 2007 the Center opened Center CARE Recovery, the first and only licensed outpatient substance abuse treatment program for LGBT communities in New York State.

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