Gaga for BC/EFA!

The 24th annual Easter Bonnet competition burst onto the stage of the Minskoff Theater for two performances on Monday and Tuesday, April 26 and 27, marking the culmination of efforts that raised well over three million dollars for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Here are my pics of Tuesday's event, which featured scores of multi-talented "gypsies" as well as a few big stars.

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The opening number was quite spectacular, beginning with a tribute to Lady Gaga...

...and ending with an appearance by Doris Eaton Travis, the now 106-year-old former Ziegfeld girl who has been an essential part of the Easter Bonnet performances for the past 12 years.

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Perhaps due in part to the presence of "Les Cagelles" from the current hit Broadway revival of La cage aux folles, this year's Easter Bonnet competition seemed to have a much heavier drag quotient than usual. Above and in the three photos below are four of the Cagelles' most awesome get-ups.

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The company of Mamma Mia! envisioned yet another jukebox musical, this one based on the songs of The Spice Girls.

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Corbin Bleu (left), currently starring as Usnavi in In the Heights, appeared in two numbers as part of the competition; The Temperamentals star Michael Urie (right) appeared in none, as he duly noted. Bleu and Urie shared hosting duties with several other great teams, including Jan Maxwell and Dylan Baker, Laura Osnes and Loretta Ables Sayre, Chad Kimball and Constantine Maroulis, Tshidi Manye and Ron Kunene.

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The company of Wicked fielded an ecology-minded skit featuring Andy Karl as "Captain Green."

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Leslie Jordan, who's currently appearing Off-Broadway in My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, made a memorable appearance.

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The cast of Next Fall parodied a song by Elton John (one of their show's producers) to summarize the plot of the play: "They Won't Let Their Son Go Down on Me..."

....while Jim Brochu, who so brilliantly embodies Zero Mostel in the Off-Broadway play Zero Hour, masterminded a sketch that used the song "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof to praise "The Bonnet."

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Three young members of the cast of South Pacific gave a list of things they have learned backstage. (Sample: "You don't have to be gay to be on Broadway, but you do have to be FAB-u-lous!")

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The entire cast of Million Dollar Quartet sang the hopeful ballad "Peace in the Valley."

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Members of the company of Billy Elliot performed a beautiful, heartbreaking dance in honor of the victims of the Montcoal, West Virginia mining disaster.

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Following the traditional, end-of-show performance of David Friedman's "Help Is on the Way," sung this year by Montego Glover from the cast of Memphis, Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane (The Addams Family) took the stage along with Catherine Zeta-Jones (A Little Night Music) to announce this year's winners and the total amount of money raised for BC/EFA.

Charlie Williams, "Mr. Memphis," Wins Broadway Beauty Pageant

The fourth annual Broadway Beauty Pageant, benefiting the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth, raised the roof at Symphony Space on Monday evening, April 19. This year's contestants were Eddie Pendergraft (Mr. Wicked), Rickey Tripp (Mr. In the Heights), Wes Hart (Mr. West Side Story), Daniel Soto (Mr. Fela!), and the gorgeous and talented guy who turned out to be the winner: Charlie Williams (Mr. Memphis). Here are my pics from this amazing event.

A moment from the opening number, with Wes Hart (Mr. West Side Story) front and center.

This year's celebrity judges for the BBP were (left to right) Christine Ebersole, Charles Busch, and Michael Musto. A real trouper, Musto was a last-minute substitute (literally!) for Jackie Hoffman, who couldn't attend due to a scheduling conflict.

In the talent portion of the competition, Charlie Williams rapped...

...Eddie Pendergraft sang, and later displayed his talents as an illustrator...

...and Rickey Tripp delivered a monologue from Precious.

Memorable moments from the swimsuit competition: Daniel Soto (Mr. Fela!)...

...Charlie Williams (Mr. Memphis)...

...Eddie Pendergraft (Mr. Wicked)...

...Rickey Tripp (Mr. In the Heights)...

...and Wes Hart (Mr. West Side Story).

And the winner is...Charlie Williams!

Here's the new "Mr. Broadway" flanked by two previous winners of the title, Marty Thomas (left, "Mr. Broadway" 2008) and Frank James Grande ("Mr. Broadway" 2007). Last year's winner, Anthony Hollock, couldn't attend because he's currently appearing in the London transfer of the hit Broadway revival of Hair -- but he sent a really funny video in his place.

The thrill of victory!

Here's the lucky winner with the fabulous Charles Busch.

Finally, here's a post-pageant shot of the event's hilarious host, Tovah Feldshuh, with (left) Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, and Wil Fisher, who executive produced the pageant for the organization.

Men of Broadway

It's springtime in NYC, and gala benefits are coming at us fast and furious. One that should definitely be on your calendar is The Broadway Beauty Pageant, an annual event in support of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and other services for homeless LGBT youth. The 2010 edition of this all-male pageant will be held on Monday evening, April 19 at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).

For the fourth consecutive year, the fabulous festivities will feature cast members representing their respective Broadway shows, vying for the title crown through talent, interview, and swimsuit (!) competitions. The hopefuls will go head to head in front of a panel of celebrity judges, but the final vote is in the audience's hands, à la American Idol.

This year's contestants, pictured here from left to right, are Rickey Tripp (Mr. In the Heights, kneeling in photo), Charlie Williams (Mr. Memphis), Daniel Soto (Mr. Fela!), Eddie Pendergraft (Mr. Wicked), and Wes Hart (Mr. West Side Story). The pageant will be hosted by Tovah Feldshuh, who slew the audience in the same capacity for two previous editions, including last year's. Further pithy comments and piquant observations will be provided by the 2010 panel of judges: the glittering Broadway star Christine Ebersole; the beloved playwright and drag artist Charles Busch; and the hilarious Jackie Hoffman on her night off from The Addams Family, in which she's currently cavorting as Grandmama.

The 2009 pageant registered off the charts on both the Hunk Scale and the Hilarity Meter, with Anthony Hollock (Mr. Hair) winning the crown for his unforgettable talent presentation. Hollock is now in London, performing Hair in the West End with the rest of the Broadway revival cast, so he will not there at Symphony Space to hand over the crown at this year's BBP -- but he has made a special video for the occasion. The two other past winners, Frankie James Grande and Marty Thomas, will absolutely be present and will do a number together, as they did last year. Says Grande, with tongue halfway in cheek, "We have put together a multimedia extravaganza that I'm sure will entertain and will live up to our previous performances." (Pictured in the photo below, from last year's pageant, are Thomas at left, Grande at right, and a radiant Hollock in the center.)

Grande has the distinction of having won the very first Broadway Beauty Pageant, back in aught seven, as a representative of Mamma Mia! "I was petrified and excited at the same time," he says of the experience. "Now the pageant is an established event, and the boys who are competing can watch clips of us on YouTube; but when I did it that first year, there was no precedent. It was very frightening in the beginning, but I guess my natural insanity took over, and I had a blast. Once I got the ball rolling and got my talent presentation together, I enjoyed every minute of it."

Daniel Soto, one of this year's contestants, says: "I first heard about the pageant from my agent. Then I went to a party for the cast of Hair just before they went to do the show in London, and Anthony Hollock also talked up the pageant. I feel very blessed and honored to be part of the event." When I remark that Soto is the one holding the crown in the photo at top, and ask if he considers this an omen, he laughs and says: "Well, I'll let the crowd figure that out!"

Soto hasn't attended any of the previous Broadway Beauty Pageants, but he's thrilled to participate in this one. "I'm most interested in the talent competition," he says. "I'm really eager to see what the other guys will bring to the table. For my presentation, I've decided to do a remix of a song from Fela! It's about how we as people can carry on in the face of so much suffering in society. There's a saying in Africa that means 'Try walking with dry eyes.' It's the idea that we can still live in glory even in the darkest situations."

The Broadway Beauty Pageant is conceived by Jeffery Self and directed by Ryan J. Davis. This year's edition will have choreography by Erin Porvaznika and musical direction by Christopher Denny, and it will feature a new song written especially for the event by Rick Crom (Newsical). Tickets are priced at $25, $50 and $150 (VIP), with individual sponsored tickets ranging from $250 to $1000. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.aliforneycenter.org/beauty or click here.

Kelli and Paulo and Alan and Fritz

Long-running Broadway shows are the backbone of the New York theater industry; but some of this city's most memorable performances are those one-night-only or very limited run events that carry an extra jolt of excitement not only because the talent involved is awesome, but also for the fact that comparatively few people are lucky enough to attend. Prime example: the New York Philharmonic's 2007 concert performances of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's My Fair Lady, which starred the luminous Kelli O'Hara as Eliza Doolittle and a brilliant, perfectly cast Kelsey Grammer as Henry Higgins.

If you missed Kelli's Liza, you now have a chance to get a taste of what it was like. Just show up at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening, April 16, when she will join the New York Pops for a Lerner and Loewe concert that will be conducted by Steven Reineke and will also feature The Clurman Singers and dancers from the New York Theatre Ballet. If that's not enough enticement, here's the kicker: Kelli's co-guest star for the evening will be Paulo Szot, the golden-voiced, devastatingly attractive Brazilian baritone who played Emile de Becque opposite her Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater's gorgeous revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. (Note: My photos of Kelli and Paulo, above, were taken at the 2008 Tony Award nominees' reception.)

When I recently spoke with new mom Kelli, she reminisced about the joys and difficulties of performing My Fair Lady with the Philharmonic: "In the nine days that we had to put it together, the dialect was the scariest thing for me. I was okay with the upper-clash British accent, because I had done it before, but the cockney was a real challenge. I worked very hard with the dialect coach, Stephen Gabis, and he was a great help to me. I really enjoyed playing Eliza because she's so feisty. I love feisty!"

She will be reprising some of her MFL songs in the Pops concert -- "the obvious ones, I guess you'd say. And what's really exciting to me is that I'll be doing some songs I'd never even heard before, from Paint Your Wagon and Gigi. Of course, Paulo and I will sing some duets, like 'The Heather on the Hill' from Brigadoon. And there will be some choral pieces with a really wonderful choir.

"The evening is going to be an education for me, because I wasn't familiar with a lot of these songs. It surprises people when I say that, but I primarily studied opera, not musical theater. I knew Rodgers and Hammerstein, because I heard their songs being played while I was growing up in Oklahoma. But there are a lot of musicals by other composers that I still don't know very well. The other day, someone told me, 'You'd be great for Paint Your Wagon,' and I said, 'Thanks, I'll look into that!' "

The L&L concert will not mark Kelli's first time onstage at Carnegie Hall: "My debut there was in a big evening with the Pops, with Rob Fisher conducting. I also sang there with the New York City Gay Men's Chorus for their Christmas concert two years ago. When you're performing at Carnegie Hall, it's a heavy thing, and it's best not to think about it too much. You have to make sure not to tell yourself, 'Well, I guess I just walked past the place where Judy Garland sat at the lip of the stage..."

Paulo Szot, for his part, tells me that he's very much looking forward to his reunion with Miss O'Hara: "The last time I performed with Kelli was her last day with South Pacific, in January 2009. Kelli was my first leading lady in a Broadway show, and we have so much fun together. I enjoy every second with her, on stage and off."

Prior to his triumph in South Pacific, Szot was rarely called upon to sing songs from the American musical theater canon. "I have to confess that Lerner and Loewe are new to my repertoire," he says. "The only song of theirs that I sang [before we began rehearsing for this concert] is 'If Ever I Would Leave You' from Camelot. But I was always a big fan of their musicals, and when I received this offer, I accepted it right away. I'm particularly looking forward to singing 'Gigi' and 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face' with the New York Pops."

What L&L roles would Paulo like to play in toto? "King Arthur or Sir Lancelot in Camelot, or maybe Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady -- although I suppose someone with a Brazilian accent shouldn't be teaching English diction." As for plum parts in other musicals, when I suggest that he might be great as Guido Contini in Nine, he mulls it over and replies: "Guido is a very different role then Emile de Becque, but why not? I like these challenges!"

Paulo earned acclaim for his recent Metropolitan Opera debut in Shostakovich's rarely performed opera The Nose. So how, if at all, are operagoers different from musical theater fans? "I don't think there's a difference," he says. "Both audiences want to have fun, to laugh, to cry and have a great time. I believe that when an artist manages to communicate with truth, the connection is established and the responsiveness is a consequence."

For more information about the New York Pops' Lerner and Loewe concert, click here.

The Best of Times is Now -- So Rock On!

Theater photographers were kept hopping last night (Tuesday, April 6) as two major photo ops took place a few blocks from each other in midtown: The first preview performance of the new revival of La Cage aux Folles at the Longacre was celebrated with a reception at Hurley's, just down the block from the theater; and the first anniversary of the Broadway opening of Rock of Ages was marked with a party at Tony's DiNapoli, during which one of the show's stars, Constantine Maroulis, was presented with a painting of him that will now join the restaurant's Wall of Fame. Here are my pix of these events.

At Hurley's: Kelsey Grammer, beloved as TV's Frasier and now treading the boards as Georges in La Cage.

Douglas Hodge, who plays Albin, with producer Fran Weissler.

Veanne Cox, fresh from playing Jocasta in Blind at the Rattlestick, now assuming the very different role of Mme. Dindon in La Cage.

Robin De Jesús (Jacob) and Nick Adams (one of the fabulous Cagelles).

A.J. Shively and Elena Shaddow, who play the lovers Jean-Michel and Anne.

The ever-beautiful Christine Andreas (Jacqueline) with her fella, Martin Silvestri.

At Tony's Di Napoli: The man of the hour, Constantine Maroulis.

James Carpinello, who plays Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages, with the show's first anniversary cake.

Mitchell Jarvis, a.k.a. Lonny in ROA.

Two of the show's lovely ladies: Lauren Molina (Regina, Candi)...

...and Angel Reed (Young Groupie, Ensemble).

Jeremy Woodard (right), who plays multiple roles in ROA, with actor Brandon Ruckdashel, his former schoolmate at East Carolina University.

Among the folks who stopped by to congratulate Maroulis was High School Musical alumnus Corbin Bleu, now starring on Broadway as Usnavi in In the Heights.

And here is the Maroulis portrait, by artist Dan May.