The annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction, produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares, was held in the heart of New York City’s theatre district September 22. Thousands of fans stopped by to shop for theatre keepsakes, helping the event to raise a record-breaking $1,421,675. See photos from the day below.
The funds raised will help provide meals, medication, health care, and more for artists in entertainment and the performing arts, as well as those living with HIV/AIDS or facing other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.
Some of the day's surprise guests included Once Upon a Mattress' Ana Gasteyer and Michael Urie; Cabaret's Auli'i Cravalho; Hadestown's Jordan Fisher and Maia Reficco; David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris; The Outsiders' Dan Berry, Tilly Evans-Krueger, RJ Higton, Ryo Kamibayashi, Sky Lakota-Lynch, Sarahgrace Mariani, Emma Pittman, Melody Rose, Jason Schmidt, and Victor Carrillo Tracey; and many more.
The Once Upon a Mattress table
The Suffs Grand Auction Table
Dennis Stowe, Sonya Balsara, and Adi Roy of Aladdin
Danny Burstein
Maia Reficco
Nick Nicholson, Richard Jay-Alexander, and Norm Lewis
Norm Lewis
Neil Patrick Harris
The Hadestown table
Nick Nicholson and Bryan Batt
Fans at the Grand Auction
Jordan Fisher and a fan
The Shubert Organization and Telecharge auction table
A fan with Eden Espinosa
The ATPAM auction table
A fan at the Autograph Table
Ana Gasteyer and Michael Urie of Once Upon A Mattress
Jason Schmidt and a fan
David Burtka, Neil Patrick Harris, and fans
Jordan Fisher and fans
Fans at the Grand Auction
Fans at the Broadway Flea Market
Maryann Plunkett, Dorian Harewood, and fans
Jason Schmidt and fans
Michael Goddard, Todd Buonopane, and Jen Cody
Among the flea market's offerings were the actual stage door from Broadway’s Barrymore Theatre signed by the entire cast of this season’s Our Town; a plunger used onstage and signed by Bebe Neuwirth in Cabaret; Mary Todd Lincoln boots worn onstage and signed by Cole Escola in Oh, Mary!; and gravel from the stage of this year’s Tony Award-winning Best Musical The Outsiders.
The tables at this year’s market raised a record $694,282, led by perennial top fundraiser the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers (ATPAM) with an all-time table fundraising record of $95,733. The remaining Top 10 tables were: The Outsiders raising $55,619; Hadestown with $44,258; Telecharge and The Shubert Organization with $33,918; Moulin Rouge! The Musical with $27,083; Suffs with $24,559; United Scenic Artists with $23,830; The Notebook with $20,981; Stage Directors and Choreographers Society with $19,575 and Once Upon a Mattress with $17,540.
The live auction raised a record-breaking $524,400, and the most popular lot was a luxurious business-class trip to London, courtesy of Broadway Cares’ official airline United, and tickets to three West End shows of the winner’s choosing. The trip raised $26,000, closely followed by the opportunity to play a walk-on role in Chicago, which raised $20,000.
Other popular lots were an exclusive screening of the Wicked movie at $16,000; the original and only crucifix ever to appear on stage in the first Broadway run of Les Misérables at $12,000; and a walk-on role in & Juliet at $12,000. Attendees were also able to bid on opening-night tickets and party passes to 14 upcoming openings, including Gypsy, The Last Five Years, Sunset Boulevard, Othello, and more.
Theatrical memorabilia from Broadway and Off-Broadway shows as well as treasures from theatre owners and producing organizations, unions, guilds, marketing groups, ticket agencies, concessionaires, and fan clubs lined West 44th and West 45th Streets. The day-long event also featured a silent auction in Shubert Alley and the anticipated live grand auction in the Times Square pedestrian plaza between 45th and 46th Streets. Auctioneer Nick Nicholson returned for the live auction alongside Bryan Batt. Todd Buonopane, Jen Cody, and Michael Goddard joined forces to host the silent auction.
READ: 9 New Reasons to Love the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction
Additional Broadway favorites who were on hand to autograph theatrical treasures and pose for photos with fans included Nick Adams, Sonya Balsara, Danny Burstein, James Carpinello, Gabriela Carrillo, Wayne Duvall, Biko Eisen-Martin, Eden Espinosa, Andrew Barth Feldman, Santino Fontana, Jasmine Forsberg, Julie Halston, Melora Hardin, Dorian Harewood, Jessica Hecht, Grey Henson, Vincent Jamal Hooper, Sarah Hyland, Amber Iman, Elijah Rhea Johnson, Storm Lever, Kimberly Marable, Andrea Martin, Isabelle McCalla, Donna Murphy, Paul Alexander Nolan, Maryann Plunkett, Michael Rishawn, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Didi Romero, Marissa Rosen, Adi Roy, Stark Sands, Jason Schmidt, Kyle Selig, Helen J. Shen, Dennis Stowe, Max von Essen, Khaila Wilcoxon, Joy Woods and Kara Young. Jim Caruso served as the Autograph Table and Photo Booth host.
More than 50 tables sold theatrical memorabilia this year, including tables from Broadway's & Juliet; Aladdin; Back to the Future: The Musical; Cabaret; Hadestown; Hamilton; Hell's Kitchen; Illinoise; The Lion King; MJ the Musical; The Notebook; Oh, Mary!; Maybe Happy Ending; Moulin Rouge! The Musical; Once Upon a Mattress; The Outsiders; Six; Suffs; and Wicked as well as Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors and Titanique. A special Curtain Call table hosted mementos from shows that have ended their runs, including A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical; Company; The Phantom of the Opera; SpongeBob SquarePants; Sweeney Todd; and more.
Fans had the opportunity to bid on 156 silent auction lots, which offered handwritten and signed musical phrases from Aladdin, Hadestown, The Last Five Years, The Prom, Side Show, and Six and other unique items signed by Orlando Bloom, Wayne Brady, Darren Criss, Ariana DeBose, Danny DeVito, and many more stars.
The top-selling silent auction lot was a pair of sneakers worn onstage and signed by Tony Award winner Daniel Radcliffe in Merrily We Roll Along, which raised $11,500. Other top lots included a Rent guitar signed by original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp; Sutton Foster’s skirt from Sweeney Todd; and a Merrily We Roll Along poster signed by Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Radcliffe.
The Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction had its humble beginnings when cast members of the original A Chorus Line set up two tables outside their stage door in Shubert Alley. Last year’s fundraiser brought in a record-breaking $1,237,179. Since 1987, the 37 editions of the event have raised more than $18.7 million.
Broadway Cares is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 Broadway Cares has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
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