Theater News

BC/EFA Easter Bonnet Event To Be Held at New Amsterdam Theatre on April 18 & 19

A moment from the 2004 Easter Bonnet competition(Photo © Michael Portantiere)
A moment from the 2004 Easter Bonnet competition
(Photo © Michael Portantiere)

The 19th annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition, featuring company members of more than 20 Broadway, Off-Broadway, and touring productions singing, dancing, and sporting specially created Easter bonnets, will be held for two performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Monday, April 18 at 4:30pm and Tuesday, April 19 at 2pm.

Among the Broadway performers scheduled to host the competition this year are Delta Burke (Steel Magnolias), David Hyde Pierce and Christopher Sieber (Spamalot), Cherry Jones and Brían F. O’Byrne (Doubt), and Barrett Foa and Rick Lyon (Avenue Q). In addition, Maureen McGovern (Little Women) will sing “Help Is on the Way,” the David Friedman song that is traditionally performed as part of the event. Following the finale of Tuesday’s show, Harvey Fierstein (Fiddler on the Roof) and Jessica Lange (The Glass Menagerie) will present the awards to the top fundraisers and to the company with the best bonnet design and presentation.

Each year, the Easter Bonnet competition marks the culmination of six weeks of fundraising efforts by members of the theater community to benefit BC/EFA. Curtain speeches, sales of autographed posters and programs, auctions, etc. bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars from audiences prior to the competition. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS raises money for AIDS-related causes across the United States. Since its founding in 1988, the organization has raised more than $100 million to fund services for people with AIDS, HIV, or HIV-related illnesses.

Tickets for this year’s East Bonnet event are priced as follows: $350 for VIP orchestra tickets (front and center); $200 for priority orchestra (middle and side); $90 for rear orchestra and front mezzanine; $40 for mezzanine and $20 for balcony. For more information, visit www.BroadwayCares.org or call 212-840-0770, ext. 268.