Broadway Backwards Will Return In-Person This Spring

Broadway Backwards, a celebration of LGBTQ+ stories told through the great songs of musical theater, returns to Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre (214 West 42nd Street, NYC) on Monday, May 23, 2022. A star-studded evening filled with triumph and joy, Broadway Backwards salutes love in all forms through the vitality of live theater.

Tickets to Broadway Backwards, which is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits Broadway Cares and New York City's LGBT Community Center, go on sale today at broadwaycares.org. The show begins at 8 pm.

"This year's Broadway Backwards fittingly marks our first event inside a theater since the pandemic hit in March 2020." Broadway Cares Executive Director Tom Viola said. "In the continually tumultuous and dangerous political climate we still find ourselves in, we join with The Center in not only saying gay, but singing it loudly and proudly for all to hear."

This year's show will again be directed by Broadway Backwards creator Robert Bartley. He will be joined by Mary-Mitchell Campbell as music supervisor and Ted Arthur as music director. Bartley will co-choreograph the production with Joshua Buscher-West, James Kinney and Adam Roberts. The production stage manager of Broadway Backwards is Gregory R. Covert.

Special guest performers will be announced soon.

Ticket prices for Broadway Backwards (#BroadwayBackwards) range from $100-$1,100. Sponsorship packages also are available, offering premium seats and a special post-show cocktail reception. Ticket details are at broadwaycares.org.

Broadway Backwards began as a grassroots concert performed at the Center in 2006. The event quickly grew and now is performed every year in a Broadway theater. Since 2010, the evening has raised more than $5.5 million.

In 2020, Broadway Backwards was just four days away when the pandemic shut down theaters and most of New York City, forcing the event to be canceled. The 2021 virtual edition raised a record $749,555.

"LGBTQ+ people are still facing bigotry and adversity across the country," Bartley said. "This night is an opportunity to embrace what we believe in; showing there can be a better tomorrow when we speak out and make our voices heard."

Major sponsors of Broadway Backwards include The New York Times, Paramount and United Airlines.

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 theater community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., providing lifesaving medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.