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Spring fever grips NYC theater folk at the annual Easter Bonnet Competition and other celebratory events.

New York City

Although the weather in NYC keeps telling us otherwise, spring is theoretically here, and a sure sign of its presence is the annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition. Six weeks of fundraising by the casts of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and touring shows culminated in this year’s event, held for two performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Monday and Tuesday, April 21 and 22. These lovelies strutted their stuff at the top of the show.





Jane Krakowski appeared, resplendent, at the climax of the opening number.



Among the many other highlights of this year’s event: The presentation of the La Bohème bonnet, chosen by the judges as Best in Show…

…and Broadway baby Sutton Foster taking some tips from 99-year-old former Ziegfeld girl Doris Eaton Travis on how to dance the way they did in the ’20s.





Antonio Banderas, Chita Rivera, and Harvey Fierstein took the stage for the finale of the Easter Bonnet show…




…and Banderas announced that Fierstein and the cast of Hairspray had raised the most money of any show over the past six weeks: $191,000. The total amount raised for BC/EFA this year was a whopping $2,149,744.














Back stage for Monday afternoon’s Easter Bonnet performance, TheaterMania’s Joseph Marzullo caught Deborah Gibson in a sexy mood…





…and Tom Wopat in drag.



Seen at the Lucille Lortel Award nominees’ cocktail party at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on Monday, April 21: Kate Mulgrew, the star of Tea at Five at the Promenade Theatre (and Star Trek: Voyager on TV)…







…Parker Posey and Pamela Payton-Wright, who co-starred in Fifth of July…

…Jeff Whitty, who wrote the book for Avenue Q…














…and Marian Seldes, who will be receiving the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence at the Lortel Award ceremony on May 5, pictured here with Charles Busch (l) and Carl Andress, the star and director of Shanghai Moon.







Among the opening night attendees of A Year With Frog and Toad on Sunday, April 13 were TV’s Kelly Ripa and son…












…and Bobby Cannavale, another TV star, recently seen Off-Broadway in Fucking A.












We leave you with this shot of Karen Akers, one of the stars of the original Broadway production of Nine, reunited with director Tommy Tune on Tuesday, April 15, the opening night of Akers’s cabaret show in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel.