The stars glittered, and the glitter starred, at the third annal Broadway Beauty Pageant on Monday, a celebration of chorus-boy pulchritude to benefit a worthy charity: the Ali Forney Center, which provides lifelines for homeless LGBT youth. The crowd at Symphony Space was highly gayful and abuzz, thanks to cocktails on sale throughout the show; and all five contestants were met with whooping approval at nearly every turn. (We were there with photographer Michael Alexander, 15 of whose shots grace the slide show above.) A full account is after the jump.
The delightful Tovah Feldshuh, of Irena’s Vow, played host—and played it to the hilt, looking glamorous and dashing off campy zingers left and right. “And now,” she said, introducing the swimsuit competition, “we go from the sublime to the pornographic.” (Jeffery Self, of the VGL Gay Boys, wrote the show; Ryan J. Davis directed it.) Offering supportive commentary from stage left was a panel of celebrity judges that seemed ready for a new edition of The Match Game: Ana Gasteyer and Seth Rudetsky in the Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly slots, Charles Busch as Richard Dawson and Beth Leavel, in a one-piece mini, as Jo Anne Worley.
The contest began with a dance number, choreographed by Christopher Gatelli, in which four of the boys nailed their steps while the fifth—Hair’s Anthony Hollock, not so much a dancer—camped it up on the sidelines, in what would turn out to be a winning strategy. In the talent competition, while the other four more or less earnestly strutted their stuff, Hollock emerged in a floral dress and ironic bangs to perform a hilariously weird medley from the movie Fame: singing, prancing, playing trumpet and piano, baring his chest in mock trauma. In the bathing-suit competition, what Hollock lacked in traditional studliness he made up in American-flag drapery and yellow fringe. And so for the third straight year, voters in the audience bypassed the more traditional models of male beauty on display to crown the quirkiest and funniest contestant instead.
We were happy to see Hollock win—though, to be honest, we had voted for the runner-up, The Little Mermaid’s hunky James Brown III, who not only danced sensitively in a green leotard, and rocked his bathing-suit strut, but also revealed that he had studied psychology at Brown University (no relation). The other contestants acquitted themselves well: Tony James of The Lion King shared a romantic pas de deux with longtime no-longer-secret-after-this-blog TONY chorus-boy-crush Timothy Bish; Wicked’s Adam Fleming gave his swimsuit walk a Wizard of Oz–ish drunken twist; and Billy Elliot’s David Larson dazzled the crowd with his pearly smile, before letting the air out of his own sails a bit by shamelessly flaunting his heterosexuality. (This straightness would probably have been clear enough, mind you, from his talent competition entry, an original hip-hop rant against Margaret Thatcher that culminated—for real! I kid you not!—with the following chorus: “Maggie Thatcher is a big old bitch/Maggie Thatcher can suck my dick/Maggie Thatcher, let me be blunt/I hope you die of syphilis, you fucking cunt.” Enchanté!)
The Ali Forney Center’s executive director, Carl Siciliano, explained his work eloquently and sensitively while the contestants were fluffing preparing themselves for the swimsuit competition. Once the votes had been tabulated—former winners Frankie Grande and Marty Thomas performed musical numbers to ease the wait—Hollock accepted his crown and the unofficial title of Mr. Broadway. (A theatrical producer has officially trademarked that title for himself.) Hollock was as charming and gracious in victory as he had been in competition. And really, everybody won.
