Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS — Broadway Bares Fundraiser

Each year Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS puts on Broadway Bares which is made up of the dancers and singers from many of the shows on Broadway. It is a review and has an overall theme. This year it was Strip U. More about the show:

A spirited audience of thousands went back to campus with stripped-down collegians who offered a sexy lacrosse scrimmage, a Pavlovian psychology experiment, a pumped-up pep rally and a fierce feminist studies class at Broadway Bares: Strip U, this year’s edition of the annual highly choreographed, highly produced striptease spectacular.

Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Broadway Bares: Strip U raised $1,568,114 in two performances on June 18, 2017, at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

Stripathon, the online fundraiser led by the show’s cast and crew, raised a jaw-dropping and record-breaking $686,135 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, marking the second year in a row and only second time in Broadway Bares history Stripathon was the single largest contributor to the grand total.

This year’s Broadway Bares stripped away the fears of freshmen and saluted seniors as a journey across the Strip U campus took us to a seductive observatory, exploding chemistry lab, flirty fine arts class, frat party-turned-Greek god fantasy, a lesson in stiletto strutting and Havana, Cuba, for a sizzling semester studying abroad.

Two-time Tony Award nominee and seven-time Emmy winner Allison Janney started the show with a video invitation as Strip U‘s president, offering sexy salutations, a campus history and words of wisdom: “Our motto reminds us of our core values every day: Honorem, Integritas, Nuditas, Erectus.”

Here's more about Broadway Cares:

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS helps men, women and children across the country and across the street receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.

We are 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/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $285 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of essential social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic. We also award annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS began as two separate organizations.

Equity Fights AIDS was founded in October 1987 by the Council of Actors’ Equity Association. Money raised through the efforts of Equity theatre companies across the country was specifically earmarked for The Actors Fund’s HIV/AIDS Initiative.

Broadway Cares was founded in February 1988 by members of The Producers’ Group. Money raised was awarded to AIDS service organizations nationwide, including Equity Fights AIDS.

In May 1992, Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway Cares merged to become Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The Board of Trustees of this newly established not-for-profit fundraising organization assumed the missions of the previously separate organizations.

Unlike most other nonprofit, grant-making organizations, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS must raise every dollar of our philanthropic budget each year in order to fulfill our mission. In turn, BC/EFA works hard to ensure that the money we raise is spent carefully and wisely on programs where these hard-earned funds can have the maximum possible impact.

It is incredibly high energy. It includes several aerial acts. We were right by the stage and it was fantastic.

At the end of the show all the participants come on stage. After speeches by the organizers they have rotation. Rotation is where the audience gets to tip the performers. After a certain amount of time the performers rotate which means they move to another part of the stage.

Here's rotation is full swing.