It’s December, and that means it’s almost time for the Red Bucket Follies, the big show that Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS puts on every year to celebrate the end of their six weeks of fundraising. I’ve been hosting it for around 12 years and I’m so excited to do it again! There are two afternoon shows, on Monday, December 8 and Tuesday, December 9. This also happens to be Tom Viola’s final Follies because he is retiring as executive director of BC/EFA after running it since its very creation. 

Here’s our Stars In The House that we did to celebrate Tom, which features a fantastic live performance by Alix Korey singing David Friedman’s hilarious “My Simple Xmas Wish.”

I have so many amazing memories of Red Bucket Follies performances I’ve loved, but here are just a few. First, Mary Poppins parodying the junior version of musicals with junior versions of plays like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. This was written by Tom Souhrada and features fantastic kids!

I started hosting the Red Bucket Follies (née Gypsy of the Year) in 2008 and I would often write the opening number. I was also in a few as well! 

This next performance has me playing producer Fran Weissler when we were at the Palace Theater while Aida was playing. Felicia Finley was performing as Amneris at the time, so she began the number with the actual opening of Aida, but instead of the setting being a museum featuring Egyptian art, it was a Broadway museum (foreshadowing the current and fabulous Museum of Broadway). There are some jokes that are so “of their time” and here is one that I think needs an explanation. The brilliant Tony Award-winning dancer Scott Wise was in the all-dance show Movin’ Out….but he hardly did any dancing at all. He basically promenaded across the stage, and I remember watching and thinking, “Where are the double tours?”

Anyhoo, at one point in the sketch, as tour guide, I say, “If you’ll walk this way…you’ll be doing the choreography Scott Wise does in Movin’ Out.” I thought it was a hilarious bust! The whole thing ends fantastically with Donna McKechnie doing her Cassie dance from A Chorus Line.

Once I began hosting, I would get to watch the opening numbers from the coolest vantage point: the wings. I’ll never forget the year they honored Carol Channing and she herself performed!

Well, right after that number, Lee Roy Reams (who worked with Carol often and directed her revival of Hello, Dolly!) came onstage to talk to her. As I was watching from the side, I noticed she kept shuffling downstage. Lee Roy would turn towards her, ask a question, and she would shuffle forward. I knew she was getting up there in years and thought, “Poor dear. She’s forgotten where she is.” Well, after she shuffled forward yet again, Lee Roy finally asked, “Carol, Why do you keep moving forward?” I was mortified. She obviously didn’t even realize she was onstage, and her answer would be something nonsensical. 

Well, I was totally and completely wrong. When Lee Roy asked her why she was moving downstage, she immediately retorted, “Lee Roy. I’m trying to get you to face downstage. There is a whole audience out there and you keep turning to look at me. Look at them!”

OMG! Not only did she know exactly where she was, but she also felt it was her duty to make everyone around her connect with the audience. After schooling Lee Roy, she started commenting about her performance and how stiff her legs were. “Never take steroids. It’s why my knees don’t bend well!” End of story: she had it going on.

To sum up: Come to this year’s show. It is always star-studded. Look below to see who my two dressing roommates were one year! Tickets are available here.

And, while you’re there, get some Broadway-themed holiday gifts. This year’s Christmas tree ornament is Betty Buckley as Grizabella. Here she is doing her signature CATS song on Johnny Carson. Holy cow!

To catch up a lot, I need to mention some benefits I’ve done with James recently that I haven’t had time to write about. First, we hosted Broadway for Kamala (I know—I’m shut down emotionally and will discuss election results later).

Here are some of the fun moments that happened that night.

We were focusing on canvassing, so we had a free-standing door onstage through which celebs entered. It started with Anne Hathaway ringing the doorbell, entering, singing some of “Hello” from The Book of Mormon and then she and James did a little scene. Anne wrote the button of scene and both James and I had no idea what the reference meant. But the audience ate it up! (I think it’s a The Devil Wears Prada callback. I did indeed read the book and see the film. But it was 20 years ago!)

At another point, Stephen Schwartz came out and showed a parody of “Popular” with the title changed to “Kamala.” It featured Kristin Chenoweth and lots of other Glindas being fantastic. Afterwards, I asked Stephen if Elphaba was also campaigning for Kamala and, suddenly, there was knock on the door. I asked who it was, and the response was “It’s me!” I kept asking, the response kept being, “It’s me!” I finally opened the door, and it was former Elphaba Ana Gasteyer who then sang, “It’s meeee!” and launched into the final chorus of “Defying Gravity.”

Later on, James and I talked about all the different groups for Kamala. There are “White Dudes for Kamala,” “Swifities for Kamala,” etc. The doorbell rang, and it was A Chorus Line’s Priscilla Lopez. We asked who she represented, and she told us “Tony Award winners for Kamala” as she held up her own Tony Award. 

I asked what she prepared to sing and she sang the word, “Nothing…” (a call back to her A Chorus Line song) and then she strutted offstage while I played “One.” To rephrase the CATS slogan: Morales Now and Forever!

James and I also hosted an event on Election Day, a seven-hour “Vote-A-Thon” to de-stress people. There were so many amazing highlights. 

One of my favorites was Javier Muñoz singing “My Shot” and Lin-Manuel Miranda showcasing a Hercules Mulligan section that had been cut. Take a gander!

And then on Monday November 18, James and I hosted our 10th annual fundraiser for You Gotta Believe, the only organization in NYC dedicated solely to finding homes for older foster youth. Arielle Jacobs opened the show with an amazing version of “It’s All Happening” from Bring It On: The Musical (which people forget Lin-Manuel Miranda co-wrote).

Later, Rosie Perez talked about her years in an orphanage and horrific foster homes. She shared how thinking of the song “Home” from The Wiz stopped her from taking her own life when she was a teenager. We then brought out J. Harrison Ghee to sing it beautifully.

We also had former Dallas TV star Charlene Tilton, who talked about her childhood and her mom’s mental illness. Charlene’s mom simply couldn’t raise Charlene, so Charlene was sent to a series of horrible foster homes. The one fond memory Charlene has of her childhood was when her mother got a weekend leave from the hospital, and they saw the film version of The Sound of Music. Seeing that loving family singing together was one of Charlene’s only happy memories of her youth. 

We then brought out Ta’Nika Gibson, who was also in foster care (and has since been in numerous Broadway shows), to sing the title song. She was so great. Listen to the amazing high A flat at the end!

Author David Ambroz came out and talked about his childhood in poverty and terrible foster care experiences, but ended with words of hope (he is currently a foster dad!). James summed up his message with a beautiful rendition of “Beautiful City” from Godspell.

You can look into being a parent and/or donate to this great organization here! 

P.S. Back to The Sound of Music. Two things...

In the fabulous book Something Wonderful, I found out that Oscar Hammerstein wanted to call the show Love Song. Everyone begged and pleaded with him to change it, which he obviously did. But…is Love Song that much worse than The Sound of Music? I mean…Love Song is generic, but The Sound of Music is so literal. It’s not The Sound of Beautiful Music or The Sound of Harmony…. just The Sound of Music. Nothing specific at all. What if the aforementioned music is by Schoenberg? Is that the kind of music I’m supposed to be thinking of? Atonal? A headache? Is it too late to change the name?

Anyhoo, I based that final modulation of the title song that Ta’Nika sang on the version that Florence Henderson did for the Tony Awards back in 1970. She sounds so amazing! 

Before you watch, I must tell you the hilarious story she told me during my Chatterbox interview with her. Back in the day, Florence starred in Fanny opposite Ezio Pinza. At the time, Mary Martin was starring in Peter Pan, which was a huge hit. Florence told me that Mary Martin sent them an opening night telegram which stated, “Dear Ezio and Florence, I hope your Fanny is as big as my Peter.” 

Werk.

Here is Florence sounding fantastic (starting at 12 minutes in). Peace out!