SLIDESHOW: NYC Pride Rally

NYC Pride held its annual Rally at Central Park's SummerStage yesterday where co-hosts Bruce Villanch and Vickie Shaw entertained the crowd in between performances by the Gay Men's Chorus, MeShell Ndegeocello, Ari Gold, Billie Myers, the cast of Hair, and Martha Wash. Also featured was Lt. Dan Choi, who delivered a rousing MLK-esque speech, leading the crowd in chants of "I am somebody!" Father Tony, Dr. Jeff and I ran around backstage dishing and cutting up with the performers. A fantastic afternoon. Lots of cuteness within, plus Billie Myers teaching Dr. Jeff about the proper application of lip-liner.

Broadway Friday

-Don't cry for him, Puerto Rico. Ricky Martin will star in a revival of Evita slated to open in the 2012 season. Martin will play narrator Che (based on Che Guevara) opposite West End veteran Elena Roger in the title role. Evita last ran on Broadway from '79-'81. Martin made his Broadway debut in 1996 as Marius in Les Miserables.

-Knowing when to leave: Kristen Chenoweth will depart the smash Promises, Promises on September 26th. No word on who will replace her opposite Sean Hayes.

-Hair will close on July 27th. Attendance has been down ever since much of the original cast left for the new West End production.

-T.R. Knight will star opposite Patrick Stewart in the Broadway premiere of David Mamet's A Life In The Theater. Previews begin on August 23rd.

-Spoiler alert! Playbill has the list of songs, performers, and presenters slated for this Sunday's Tony Awards. Peek if you must.

-The eternal argument continues: Are the best theater experiences in NYC on Broadway or Off-Broadway? The more recent argument: Has Broadway gone too Vegas?

-Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS presents the 20th annual Broadway Bares spectacular on Sunday, June 20th at the Roseland Ballroom. Even if you can't attend, you can check out the 21 super hot Broadway dancers in the show and make donations to Broadway Cares in the name of the dancer that most tickles your....fancy.

Hair Cut

Canceling next Sunday's performance so the entire cast can travel to the National Equality March will cost the producers of Hair as much as $150K, but they say they didn't hesitate when the show's openly gay lead, Gavin Creel, came to them with the idea.

Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, a producer of “Hair,” showed up and Mr. Creel immediately cornered him to ask if the whole tribe — the show’s term for cast — could go down for the march. “I told him, ‘That’s a crazy idea,’ ” Mr. Eustis remembered. He walked away, but the idea stuck. What would be the ramifications, financial and otherwise, of closing one matinee, Mr. Eustis wondered. It was 11:30 at night, but he sought out the show’s general manager, Joey Parnes, to ask what he thought, and Mr. Parnes went to the box office to check on how many tickets had already been sold for that date and to run the numbers. Still, Mr. Eustis said he doubted that the handful of major producing partners would go along with what he considered a radical idea. “We geared up for a fight,” he said, “but to my surprise, everybody was in favor of it.”

The producers have added a special performance for this Monday, mostly for folks who bought tickets before the Sunday cancellation was announced. That will help defray the loss. If you're in NYC on October 5th, it might be a nice touch to choose to see Hair that night. Tickets here.

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