“Broadway Bares” breaks previous record take

The Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fund-raiser “Broadway Bares” took in $340,000 this year, a 20% increase over last year’s record-breaking haul, according to Backstage.com. Producing director Michael Graziano says this year’s production had “a little bit of a story” to connect the opportunities to get some of the most attractive bodies on Broadway out of their clothes. The vignettes were scripted by gay scribe Charles Busch, who also employed his performance skills portraying the commander of a multigalactic pack of strippers. It was not all gratuitous nudity, however: Dick Cavett (The Rocky Horror Show) did a go-go dance, an effort Graziano deemed to be “a good job. He made some money.”