BROADWAY BARES: PLEASURE PARK Adds J. Harrison Ghee, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Mykal Kilgore and More

Also joining the lineup of Broadway and recording vocalists Marty Thomas and Jessica Vosk.

By: Jun. 09, 2023
BROADWAY BARES: PLEASURE PARK Adds J. Harrison Ghee, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Mykal Kilgore and More
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-A current Tony Award nominee, a history-making Grammy Award nominee and returning Broadway favorites will be among the special guests helping to illuminate the main attractions at Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park on Sunday, June 18, 2023.

Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park will feature appearances by Jonathan Burke (The Inheritance, Choir Boy), 2023 Tony nominee J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot) and Jay Armstrong Johnson (Parade). Also joining the lineup are Grammy nominee Mykal Kilgore and Broadway and recording vocalists Marty Thomas and Jessica Vosk.

Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park, which is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will be open for two performances only: at 9:30 pm and midnight at Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street, NYC).

The evening will help 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.

The energetic adventure at Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park will include full-out production numbers that playfully peruse lands of wizardly wonder, sweet confections, animal queendom, dynamic drag and much more. The annual Pride month burlesque benefit will welcome more than 190 of the most daring dancers in New York City.

Tickets for Broadway Bares (#BroadwayBares) start at $75. VIP tickets feature unlimited specialty cocktails and reserved seating. The always popular "Stripper Spectacular" package includes a premium reserved table seat at either show and an invitation to a private cocktail party with Broadway Bares' Tony Award-winning creator and executive producer Jerry Mitchell. The ''Barest Insider Experience'' includes a premium reserved table seat at the midnight performance, a pre-show cocktail party and access to the final “undress” rehearsal the evening of the show.

Tickets details are at broadwaycares.org/bares.

Laya Barak returns to helm the production, after directing the last three in-person editions. She is joined by co-director Kellen Stancil, dance captain at Broadway's The Lion King and a favorite Bares choreographer and performer. Jonathan Lee serves as associate director. Mitchell and Nick Kenkel, a longtime Bares director and performer, are executive producers.

The choreographers leading the evening's trek through Pleasure Park, in addition to Barak, Stancil and Lee, are John Alix, Mike Baerga, Nicholas Cunningham, Chloe Davis, Armando Farfan Jr., Billy Griffin, Amber Jackson, Monica Kapoor, Bo Park and Michael Lee Scott.

Broadway Bares was created in 1992 by Mitchell during his time as a Broadway dancer. Looking for 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 standing-room-only 30th anniversary edition raised $1.9 million, bringing Broadway Bares' lifetime total to more than $21 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Broadway Bares receives generous support from presenting sponsor M∙A∙C Viva Glam and lead corporate sponsors United Airlines and ViiV Healthcare.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the philanthropic heart of Broadway, 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 theater community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., providing lifesaving medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.

For more information, please visit Broadway Cares online at broadwaycares.org.




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