At The 1996 AIDS March In DC

I was going through my ex's photo albums here in Fort Lauderdale last night and found this shot I took at the 1996 National AIDS Candlelight March in Washington DC.  That's NAMES Project founder Cleve Jones near the center, with Judith Light to his left.  Further to the right in the grey jacket is Betty Buckley.  On the far left is current DC House Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and to her left in the leopard jacket is Valerie Harper. The gentleman in the white suit is Jim Graham, who is now on the Washington DC City Council.  

Elizabeth Taylor was ill that weekend and participated in the march from a golf cart, but I couldn't get near her due to a mob of press and only got a blurry photo of the back of her head as she went by.  It was an unspeakably moving night and the next day President Clinton and the First Lady walked with Cleve to view the Quilt, which spanned the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.  Today the Quilt is headquartered in Atlanta, where JMG reader Gert McMullin oversees its safety and makes laborious daily repairs as panels return from displays around the world.

November 22nd In NYC: Broadway Stars To Perform In Benefit For Trevor Project

On Mondays, most Broadway houses are dark. But next Monday the stars of Broadway will gather for a special benefit performance for the Trevor Project. Lea DeLaria will host. Also scheduled to appear:

Betty Buckley, Ricky Ian Gordon, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Marc Kudisch, Aaron Lazar, John Tartaglia, Seth Rudetsky, Lea Delaria and Jeanine Tesori, as well as Emily Albrink, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Attila Joey Csiki of Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Jason Forbach, Constantine Germanacos, Joe Lodato, Matthew Morris, Todd Palmer, Kate Pazakis, Nurit Tilles, Erin Quill, Tony Yazbeck and Jennifer Zetlan.

Tickets are only $25! Betty Buckley! Get tickets here.

Broadway Friday

- Lady Bunny and former Detroit Tigers pitcher Matthew Pender open Off Broadway tonight in When Joey Married Bobby, "a tale about gay marriage in an ultra conservative household." Get tickets here.

- David Mamet's A Life In The Theater will be revived on Broadway this fall. Casting has not been announced.

- American Psycho: The Musical is Broadway bound. SRSLY.

- Elton John and his partner David Furnish are producing the Broadway debut of Next Fall, a play about a gay couple conflicted over their religious beliefs. The show opens March 11th at the Helen Hayes.

- Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is selling Broadway Bears, teddy bears designed by Bob Mackie. Online bidding is underway. I like the Drowsy Chaperone bear.

- The diva Betty Buckley has launched a four-week run of her cabaret show For The Love Of Broadway at Feinstein's at the Loew Regency. Reviews are fantastic.

- "David Wilson Barnes will join previously announced stars Megan Mullally, Patton Oswalt, and Lili Taylor in the Broadway premiere of Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, to run April 9 -June 20 at Roundabout Theater Company's American Airlines Theater. Tony Award winner Joe Mantello will direct the production."

RELATED: My first NYC theater experience back in 1991 was the Off Broadway production of Lips Together, Teeth Apart starring Nathan Lane, Christine Baranski, Swoozie Kurtz, and Anthony Heald - all of whom were unknown to me then except Heald and that was only because of his role as the prison warden in Silence Of The Lambs. (My show queen cred (all those Tony winners!) was pitiful back then.) Reportedly, McNally wrote the play with the original cast in mind (except he wanted Kathy Bates in Swoozie's role.) Set in Fire Island during the height of the AIDS epidemic, it will be interesting to see how the play holds up 20 years later.