Broadway CaresVideo: Watch Mykal Kilgore, Aléna Watters, Marty Thomas, More in Sizzling Finale of Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park
The annual charity burlesque raised $1.9 million for Broadway Cares.
By
Andrew Gans, Logan Culwell-Block
July 03, 2023
Broadway celebrated its sexiest night of the year June 18 with Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park
at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. The evening featured Broadway
favorites baring (mostly) all in burlesque production numbers. The event
included more than 190 dancers presenting "unrivaled fantasy lands,
animal
queendoms, and magic kinkdoms that will leave you dreaming of a fast
pass for more."
The charity event benefited Broadway Cares and raised a
staggering $1,887,014, all of which goes to the nonprofit organization.
For the evening's finale, Mykal Kilgore performed his original song “Came Here for Love” with Bares-specific lyrics adapted by Kyle Ewalt. Kilgore was joined by Aléna Watters and Marty Thomas as the stage was filled with the entire Pleasure Park cast, guided by the choreography of Mike Baerga. Other performers in the finale, which can be viewed above, included Jaylon McCraven, Sarah Meahl, Justin Mock, Nick Nazzaro, Nick Picknally, Jovany Ramirez, Kaylin Shadle, Sissa Strain, Manatsu Tanaka,, Katie Thrasher, and Leslie Walker.
Check out behind-the-scenes photos at the Hammerstein Ballroom captured by Roberto Araujo.
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Check Out Portraits From Backstage at Broadway Bares
The event, Pleasure Park, took inspiration from theme park
attractions, including an opening number with the lyrics "It’s a world of
glitter, a world of pecs." There was a magic-themed number
featuring Cameron Jackson (Aladdin) as a wizard whose pants vanished in a disappearing act. Another featured Jamie Patterson (Aladdin) as a patron waited on by sexy servers Tyler Eisenreich (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) and MiMi Scardulla (A Beautiful Noise) at
the Meat Rack restaurant, where the waiters were dressed in black vests
and not much else. A waterpark-themed number featured acrobat Zongoli
and seven aerialists performing from high above the stage.
Broadway Bares was created in 1992 by Mitchell as a way to
raise awareness and money for those living with HIV/AIDS. Mitchell and
six of his friends danced atop a New York City bar and raised $8,000 in Broadway Bares’ first iteration. Last year’s 30th anniversary edition raised $1.9 million, bringing Broadway Bares’ total to more than $21 million for Broadway Cares.
The evening helps provide meals and medication, health care, and hope
to people across the country living with HIV/AIDS or facing other
life-threatening illnesses and personal crises.
Broadway Cares 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 theatre
community, since 1988 Broadway Cares has raised more than $300 million
for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and other
critical illnesses across the United States.
Surrounded by period-accurate, 19th-century holiday decorations lit via candlelight, the 70-minute production is based on Dickens' own script of the classic.
The play comes on the heels of a broader cultural conversation about Dahl's work and the prejudice that was embedded in many of his most beloved stories.