Broadway Backwards: Cell Block Tango

Posted in full yesterday: "Highlights from Broadway Backwards 2015 included Chicago's 'six merry murderesses' represented in a sexy, all-male version of Cell Block Tango featuring Joshua Buscher-West, Marty Lawson, Alfie Parker Jr., Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva, Alex Ringler and Ryan Steele."

HIGHLIGHTS: Broadway Backwards 2015

Broadway Backwards Raises Record $466K For Broadway Cares & NYC LGBT Center

Via press release:

The 10th anniversary of Broadway Backwards capped off an exuberant, exhilarating and emotional evening of performances on Monday, March 9, 2015 with news that this year’s event raised a record $466,717 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. The sold-out show included 20 audience-pleasing numbers and multiple standing ovations for Tituss Burgess, Lena Hall, Florence Henderson, Norm Lewis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lillias White and more Broadway favorites, as well as a special appearance by recent Kennedy Center Honoree Lily Tomlin. Julie Halston and Rob McClure served as the evening's jovial hosts. Broadway Backwards is the annual celebration where gays and lesbians see their stories told through the great songs of musical theatre, sung by their favorite Broadway performers. It is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and was presented again in the historic Al Hirschfeld Theatre, home to the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots. This year’s edition of Broadway Backwards featured a spirited 66-person cast and an onstage orchestra of 13 performing some of the most memorable numbers from previous editions of the benefit.

I was there with my buddy Mike and it was fantastic as always. As she did several years ago, 81 year-old Florence Henderson stole the show with a bawdy performance that included a macking session with an Alice stand-in. Peering into the upraised hindquarters of a muscular dancer, she quipped, "Is that the Holland or Lincoln tunnel? Helloooooo?" Mrs. Brady would not have approved. I'll post videos when they become available - in the meantime check out Playbill's photo gallery.

Broadway Backwards Reveals 2015 Cast

The tenth annual Broadway Backwards is next month and to celebrate the anniversary some of the show's most noted performers will be returning.

The roster of stars joining this year's Broadway Backwards includes Tony Award winners Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, TV’s “Blue Bloods”) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate), Tony nominee Tony Yazbeck (On the Town) and Broadway favorites Tituss Burgess (The Little Mermaid), Julie Halston (You Can’t Take It With You), Ann Harada (Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Avenue Q), Florence Henderson (Oklahoma!, TV’s “The Brady Bunch”), Jackie Hoffman (On the Town) and Aaron Lazar (The Last Ship). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks. Performers subject to change. "I’m thrilled to welcome back these talented performers for this special 10th edition of Broadway Backwards," creator Robert Bartley said. "Thanks to them and the hundreds of talented performers who have participated in the nine editions of Broadway Backwards so far, we've been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that help provide lifesaving medications, counseling and support for LGBT youth and those struggling with HIV/AIDS." This year's edition of Broadway Backwards will be performed at 8 PM at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street, NYC), home to the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots.

Broadway Backwards is my favorite Broadway event and I've only missed one since the show launched. Get tickets here. You might enjoy my slideshow of the 2009 show where Florence Henderson and Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) had an encounter in a women's prison.

At Broadway Backwards 2014

On Monday night I attended the ninth annual Broadway Backwards at the Hirschfeld Theatre, where Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS raised $424,000 with their show in which men sing Broadway standards written for women and women sing songs written for men. As always, there were a galaxy of gay musical theater stars both on the stage and in the audience, again making Broadway Backwards the gayest night on Broadway - and that's no easy feat. The event benefited Equity Fights AIDS and the New York City LGBT Community Center.

The highlight of the evening for many was the performance by 99-year old Patricia Morrison, who in 1948 originated the role of Kate in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate. When the curtain rose to reveal Morrison in a wheelchair glamorously draped in purple velvet, I thought the eldergay sitting next to me was going to need his nitroglycerine. After Morrison delivered a quite touching performance of Brush Up Your Shakespeare (from Kiss Me, Kate, of course), the house went wild with a raucous and sustained standing ovation. Tony winner Julie White, the show's co-emcee, came out and attempted to move the show along, but only added to the mayhem when she ad-libbed, "Ladies and gentleman, our next performer is...is..well, he's FUCKED." Because how do you follow that?

I particularly enjoyed super-cute shortie Andrew Keenan-Bolger playing a Starbucks barista smitten with a tall handsome customer in The History Of Wrong Guys from Kinky Boots. I told my buddy Mike that I just want to glue that guy to my dashboard and drive to Fort Lauderdale. Another treat for me was seeing my favorite Broadway diva Beth Leavel (Tony winner from my favorite Broadway show The Drowsy Chaperone) belt out a hilariously lesbi-fied version of She Likes Basketball from Promises, Promises.

Speaking of things lesbi-fied, Debra Monk opened her number by letting the audience know that the lesbian version of a cock-block is known as a clam-slam. Duly noted. Then she told this joke: "Did you hear about the lesbian who went to the gynecologist? The doctor said, 'You have the cleanest vagina I've ever seen!' And she said, 'Well, I have a girl come in once a week.'" Tip your waitress! Monk and Cass Morgan (both of them the co-authors and original cast members of Pump Boys And Dinettes) then launched into a charming duet of I Still Get Jealous from High Button Shoes which included a soft shoe routine that had Monk jibing, "Who says lesbians can't dance?"

I insist you watch all four compilation clips below.

Tituss Burgess - And I Am Telling You

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has posted the full Tituss Burgess performance that brought down the house a few days ago at Broadway Backwards.  Burgess originated the role of The Little Mermaid's Sebastian on Broadway and played D'Fwan on 30 Rock.  From the YouTube comments: "Someone pass the plate cause that was church!"

HIGHLIGHTS: Broadway Backwards 2013

Monday night I attended Broadway Backwards, the annual benefit show by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which was wonderfully led by Tony Sheldon and my pal Jim Brochu, who played lonely older gay men looking for love in a world where most of their peers are gone due to AIDS. (Brochu was really looking, Sheldon was in denial and still mourning his late partner from 20 years earlier.) Broadway Backwards features show tune standards performed by the opposite gender for whom they were written. From the producers:

Broadway Backwards, the once-a-year celebration of the LGBT community, brought down the house March 18, 2013, while raising a record-setting $347,060 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. The sold-out show left the audience cheering after unforgettable performances by an array of Broadway's best, including Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Ziemba, Josh Young, Stephanie J. Block, Anthony Warlow and Tituss Burgess, who delivered a stirring recreation from Dreamgirls.  This year's show included a recurring story about a man on a personal journey, ultimately finding love in an unexpected place. Featured throughout the show were Tony nominee Tony Sheldon and Jim Brochu.

The running gag between Sheldon and Brochu was in their greetings to each other in every scene.  Eve. Margot. Endora. Hagatha.  And so on. Tituss Burgess (30 Rock's D'Fwan and The Little Mermaid's original Sebastian) indeed brought down the house with his Effie White and I was lucky enough to gush to him in person after the show.  The full show should be available soon on DVD and I'll let you know when. The previous three years of Broadway Backwards are on sale here.

March 18th: Broadway Backwards 8

The eighth annual installment of Broadway Backwards takes place March 18th.

Tickets go on sale today, January 10, for the eighth annual edition of BROADWAY BACKWARDS, a one-night-only musical performance produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefiting Broadway Cares and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. This year's edition of BROADWAY BACKWARDS will be at 8 PM on Monday, March 18 at Broadway’s Palace Theatre (1564 Broadway). BROADWAY BACKWARDS is an annual celebration where gays and lesbians see their stories told through the great songs of musical theatre, performed by their favorite Broadway performers.

Always a fantastic show. Get tickets now. Below is a highlight reel from last year's show.