The pair showed off the pep in their step while acrobatically tumbling across the stage, as the step team stripped to shiny booty shorts.
Steven Taylor and Jelani Remy, who play Mufasa and Simba, led a crew of increasingly scantily-clad students in an energetic step dance. The traditional pep rally got a significant step up when The Lion King‘s L. Choreographed by John Alix, the fiery performance of 20 women was backed by larger-than-life images of women through years standing up and speaking out before landing on a modern-day protest sign that declared, “The Future is Female.” Harrison Ghee as its gender-nonconforming guide, the number celebrated the historical fight of women – from suffragettes to American women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II to the rise of Pantsuit Nation. The patriarchy was stripped apart in Strip U‘s feminist studies class, which lifted the audience into a rousing frenzy to deliver the loudest cheers of the night. The opening number was written by Hunter Bell and Wade Dooley, with music by Matt Sklar and lyrics by Amanda Green. The opening number was choreographed by Nick Kenkel, who returned to direct Broadway Bares for the fifth year and created the Strip U concept. The welcoming, diverse campus proudly stripped down, celebrating self love and acceptance. As the dean of admissions at Strip U, Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita, flanked by some of Broadway’s best student bodies, welcomed Johnson to his new home for the next four years.
The show opened with Broadway favorite Jay Armstrong Johnson learning he was accepted to Strip U, the only college where clothing is optional and striptease is always in the curriculum. Two-time Tony Award nominee and seven-time Emmy winner Allison Janney started the show with a video invitation as Strip U‘s president, offering sexy salutations, a campus history and words of wisdom: “Our motto reminds us of our core values every day: Honorem, Integritas, Nuditas, Erectus.” This year’s Broadway Bares stripped away the fears of freshmen and saluted seniors as a journey across the Strip U campus took us to a seductive observatory, exploding chemistry lab, flirty fine arts class, frat party-turned-Greek god fantasy, a lesson in stiletto strutting and Havana, Cuba, for a sizzling semester studying abroad. Stripathon, the online fundraiser led by the show’s cast and crew, raised a jaw-dropping and record-breaking $686,135 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, marking the second year in a row and only second time in Broadway Bares history Stripathon was the single largest contributor to the grand total.
Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Broadway Bares: Strip U raised $1,568,114 in two performances on June 18, 2017, at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. My one qualm was the lack of details regarding Rafaela’s later years, though perhaps the author felt it more historically accurate as is, or is allowing the reader to decide the fate of beautiful Rafaela.A spirited audience of thousands went back to campus with stripped-down collegians who offered a sexy lacrosse scrimmage, a Pavlovian psychology experiment, a pumped-up pep rally and a fierce feminist studies class at Broadway Bares: Strip U, this year’s edition of the annual highly choreographed, highly produced striptease spectacular. Rafaela’s budding interest in fashion and Tamara’s painting techniques give the story, along with its setting in 1920s Paris, a great appeal for historical fiction readers, as well as art and biography fans. I found this to be an engrossing tale, with fascinating period details and excellent character development.
Tamara’s character, however, is an intriguing mix of credulous wonder and grudging admiration that has the reader questioning her motives. Mostly told through Rafaela’s perspective, we find in her an honest protagonist, sympathetically portrayed and easily liked. Once La Belle Rafaela was finished and set to appear at the Salon, selling even before the event, two mysterious art enthusiasts begin to vie for Tamara’s remaining works – especially the ones featuring Rafaela. Destitute and nearing desperation, a chance meeting with Tamara turned into a lucrative job, and eventually a relationship between the two women. On her way from the United States to Italy, Rafaela Fano stole away to France to escape an arranged marriage. In this stunningly intimate reimagining of an important year in the life of Tamara de Lempicka, we follow the young woman who was her muse for several famous paintings, in particular La Belle Rafaela.
0 kommentar(er)
