Broadway Bares
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A 360 Degree Look at This
Year’s Sexy Game Night
roadway Bares: Game Night, the 28th edition of the annual striptease spectacular, raised a record-shattering $1,875,090 from two performances on June 17, at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. And while the face of Bares is often the talented dancers sharing their hearts and bodies, there also are more than 700 volunteers offstage and 6,000 audience members devoted to making it a special evening working tirelessly to raise money for the most vulnerable among us.
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ix weeks of exacting rehearsals and passionate peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns led up to one night: an evening of unparalleled striptease production numbers inspired by beloved board games, video games and arcade games at Broadway Bares: Game Night. Nick Kenkel returned to direct Broadway Bares for the sixth year, joined by co-director Laya Barak, an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose work has appeared in the last four editions of Broadway Bares. “Broadway Bares is the most humbling, incredible, full-out thing I have ever had the honor of being a part of,” Barak said.
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Throughout the evening, a fun and friendly game night was given a seductive, striptease twist as Broadway’s best dancers shared sexy production numbers inspired by Clue, Battleship, Ouija, Life, Pictionary, Candy Land, video games, flashlight tag, Old Maid, Operation, Pinball and Parcheesi. From romantic, ballet-infused Behind the Scenes
choreography and breathtaking, sky-high aerialists to cheeky, comedic numbers and fierce feminist anthems, the performances exhibited the spectacular skill and spirited dedication of the show’s remarkable cast and crew. “We came together a few short weeks ago as strangers who believed wholeheartedly in this cause,” Wicked actor and Broadway Bares: Game Night performer Jeremy Thompson said. “We left this experience as friends who actively made a difference in each other’s lives and in the lives of so many people we’ll never know.” Get a real 360° look from the audience at Broadway Bares: Game Night with a panoramic video of the Flashlight Tag rehearsal at broadwaycares.org/bares360.