"Broadway Bares" Fundraiser is One for the (Gay) Gods

"All of Mount Olympus will tremble at this year's edition of Broadway Bares, which will feature a pantheon of gods and goddesses (and a few mere mortals for them to toy with). From the chiseled physiques of Narcissus and Poseidon to the deadly alluring Medusa to the debauched Bacchus and the legendary Amazons, a veritable clash of the titans will take place on stage at the Roseland Ballroom as hundreds of Broadway's hottest bodies bare it all for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS."

Such is the promise made by the promotional materials for this years' Broadway Bares fundraiser. And if past year's performances are any indication, few attendees are likely to be disappointed.

The 17th edition of Broadway Bares, the annual event in which some of theater's sexiest male and female dancers perform spectacular production numbers in various degrees of undress, will raise the roof at Roseland in New York City for two performances on Sunday, June 17, at 9:30 p.m. and midnight.

So how did this most famous of AIDS fundraisers come to be?

Broadway Bares began in 1991 as the brainchild of dancer-choreographer-director Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde: The Musical), who at the time was dancing nearly naked on a drum in The Will Rogers Follies. He and some other Broadway dancers stripped in rotation on the bar at the gay club Splash, raising $8,000 to help fight AIDS. All told, the 16 editions to date of Broadway Bares have raised nearly $4 million for BC/EFA — a testament to the truth of the old saw that "sex sells."

"I never thought it would turn into this," said Mitchell, who now functions as executive producer of BB. "If someone had asked me, 'What do you think you'll be doing for Broadway Bares XVII?' back in 1991, I would have said, 'What are you talking about?' We raised $660,000 last year alone."

All proceeds of Broadway Bares go to support a very worthy cause: Since BC/EFA's inception in 1988, the organization has raised more than $130 million to help provide critically needed services for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

Given the buzz that can surround the show, it's no wonder so many theater folk are thrilled to participate in BB. Broadway and television star Christopher Sieber and his partner, actor Kevin Burrows, were show-stoppers in 2002 when they played Batman and Robin in an erotic sequence that had the Caped Crusader and his young cohort doing the kinds of things we only wish we saw George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell do on the big screen. (The YouTube clip of their performance has had nearly 20,000 views.)

Other special guest performers that year included TV heartthrobs John Stamos and Steven Weber, who at the time were performing on Broadway in Cabaret and The Producers, respectively. The theme that year was "comic books" and, after reading a "fairy tale" comic, Stamos allowed himself to be stripped down to his g-string.

Then there was the year when hunky Jarrod Emick, who had created quite a stir with his Broadway debut in Damn Yankees, showed up and obligingly took his shirt off. Among the many other notables who have guested in Broadway Bares through the years are Christina Applegate, Charles Busch, Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, Eartha Kitt, Michele Lee and Bruce Vilanch.