Anthony Hollock by Michael Portantier
Irena's Vow star Tovah Feldshuh led Tuesday night's audience at Symphony Space down the road to Vaudeville as she emceed the Broadway Beauty Pageant—a benefit talent competition starring five actors in current Broadway shows. In raising money for the Ali Forney Center, Feldshuh talked about Jews and menopause, while shameless raunch spouted from judges Seth Rudetsky, Charles Busch and Beth Leavel (who revealed her shameful 201 area code while coyly giving her phone number away) and SNL alum Ana Gastayer merely threatened to spray her breast milk into the audience. "A blind Jewish man is sitting at the Passover table," quipped Feldshuh, "when he finds a piece of matzoh and says 'Who wrote this shit?'
The whole show includes a swimsuit competition and an interview, but the talent portion began in a serious tone as James Brown III of The Little Mermaid and Tony James of The Lion King each performed emotionally charged modern dance. For lighter fare, Billy Elliot's David Larson profane Margaret Thatcher song ("That big old bitch/ you can suck my dick/ I'm gonna be blunt/ we hope you die soon/ you fucking cunt!) was a good segue to the ridiculous as Anthony Hollock of Hair, dressed up as Coco from Fame, back flipped, trumpeted, danced and sang his way into our hearts—and the ballot box.
The after party was a flurry of mixed cocktails, frustrated cruising and celebration of the April 20th holiday out on the sidewalk. To my disappointment, Hollock, who won the title of Mr. Broadway, informed me that he didn't do any acid to get into character for Hair. Before he scampered off, the actor told me “it's still all love and peace." The folks smoking nearby could surely have offered him something stronger.
