Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park was held on Sunday, June 18, 2023
Earlier this week, neon lights and thrilling heights filled the night as nearly 200 of NYC’s sexiest dancers and special Broadway guests delighted two standing-room-only audiences at Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park on Sunday, June 18, 2023, at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom.
Check out the full opening number featuring Jessica Vosk, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Jonathan Burke below!
This year’s Broadway Bares was a rousing twist on theme parks and raised an astounding $1,887,014. Broadway Bares is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Pleasure Park-goers perused and cruised worlds of wizardly wonder, dynamic drag, sweet confections, animal queendom and a fantastical waterpark among other tantalizing rides and attractions that gushed with LGBTQ+ pride.
Jay Armstrong Johnson (Parade) and Jonathan Burke (The Inheritance) starred as a couple at the “grind opening” of Pleasure Park. At Pleasure Park’s opening, the eager Johnson and risk-averse Burke were serenaded with “It’s a world of glitter, a world of pecs” before Jessica Vosk’s powerhouse vocal performance urged the audience to "get ready for the ride of your life."
The opening number was choreographed by co-directors Laya Barak and Kellen Stancil and associate director Jonathan Lee. The number was written by Lynne Shankel and two-time Tony nominee Amanda Green.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the philanthropic heart of Broadway, 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 and other critical illnesses across the United States.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts and the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative. 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.
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