Feature  

Bonnet Brigade

The 21st annual Easter Bonnet Competition raises well over $3 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

(© Michael Portantiere)

The 21st annual Easter Bonnet competition, held for two performances on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 and 24, raised $3,345,997 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The show got off to a great start with a roof-raising opening number written by [title of show]'s Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell. Here's Bell happily surrounded by a bevy of Broadway hunks, among them Barrett Foa and Cheyenne Jackson.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Also featured in the opening number were a clutch of lovely ladies, including vocal soloist Carla Hargrove (center) from the cast of Hairspray.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Here's Edward Hibbert (Curtains) in one of the competition's most fabulous creations.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Barbara Walsh (far left, in bonnet) and the cast of Company imagined what it would be like to audition for a production of A Chorus Line directed by John Doyle.

(© Michael Portantiere)

JoAnne Worley (center) and company presented The Drowsy Chaperone's bonnet.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Anne Runolfsson (The Phantom of the Opera) and Tess Adams (Les Misérables) stopped the show with a mother/daughter version of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

(© Michael Portantiere)

Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and the company of the Off-Broadway smash In the Heights did their own take on Fiddler on the Roof...

(© Michael Portantiere)

...while the women of The Color Purple sang a medley of Stephen Sondheim songs...

(© Michael Portantiere)

...and the company of Hairspray, inspired by The King and I, presented "Small House of Edna Turnblad."

(© Michael Portantiere)

As usual, the company of The Lion King made an extraordinarily beautiful presentation.

(© Michael Portantiere)

The men of Journey's End decided that putting some skin into their show might help improve business at the box office.

(© Michael Portantiere)

The Phantom of the Opera saluted veteran actor/singer George Lee Andrews, who has been with the show since it opened 18 years ago.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Beauty and the Beast made its last Easter Bonnet appearance. (The long-running Disney hit will close on July 29.)

(© Michael Portantiere)

Company star Raúl Esparza brought the show to a thrilling climax with his gorgeous rendition of the unofficial Easter Bonnet anthem, David Friedman's "Help Is on the Way."

(© Michael Portantiere)

Vanessa Redgrave (The Year of Magical Thinking) and David Hyde Pierce (Curtains) took the stage to announce the winners and runners-up in the presentation and fund-raising categories. Journey's End took the former prize, while the national tour of Jersey Boys took the latter -- the first time in Easter Bonnet history that a touring show raised the most money for BC/EFA.

 

Your Email Address:  *
Your Friend's Email Address:  *
   optional
   optional
   optional
   optional
Your Zip Code:
Subject:
Message: I recommend this article on TheaterMania.com. And, while you're there, you can read news, reviews, features and more, covering theater everywhere!