Guest
At the 2016 edition of Broadway Backwards, Chita Rivera performed a razzle-dazzle performance of Kander and Ebb’s “All I Care About is Love” from Chicago. Following prolonged cheers, whistles and applause when she appeared, Rivera delivered an unforgettable take on smarmy lawyer Billy Flynn, surrounded by a bevy of feathery beauties, many from the original 1996 Chicago revival cast: Nili Bassman, Mindy Cooper, Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Gabriela Garcia, Mary Ann Lamb, Dana Moore and Solange Sandy. Broadway Backwards, the annual Broadway extravaganza celebrating the LGBTQ community through the great songs of musical theater, returns to Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre on Monday, March 13, 2023. The beloved evening and its star-studded cast will embrace love and self-expression in true Broadway fashion. The sold-out audience at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre was dazzled Monday, March 21, 2016, by this year’s stirring edition of Broadway Backwards (#broadwaywaybackwards). The annual celebration, where men sing songs originally written for women and vice versa offering this audience the chance to see LGBT stories told through the great songs of musical theatre, set a new fundraising record. The evening raised an incredible $480,287 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City. Broadway Backwards creator Robert Bartley wrote and directed this year’s show, with choreography by Bartley, Al Blackstone, David Bushman, JoAnn M. Hunter and Adam Roberts. Mary-Mitchell Campbell served as music supervisor and Tim Rosser was music director. The creative team included lighting designer Paul Miller, costume designer Matthew J. Kilgore and sound designer Matthew Kraus. The production stage manager was Chris De Camillis. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS 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 , at , at , at @bcefa and at
