We Got Bruce
Bruce Vilanch To Receive REAF’s Lifetime Achievement Award 7/14/2024
By Mister D
July 10, 2024

The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation presents Help is on the Way: 30th Anniversary Concert & Gala on Sunday, July 14, 2024, at the Marines’ Memorial Theater (concert) and Beacon Grand Hotel (VIP after party with the cast). This show will feature cast members for the Broadway touring cast of Mrs. Doubtfire, with the lead actor, Rob McClure, hosting the evening as Mrs. Doubtfire.

This year’s event, honoring Bruce Vilanch (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Delta Dental of California (Corporate Partner Award), whose support has never required pulling teeth, will be preceded by a silent auction in the theater lobby and a VIP After-Party at the nearby Beacon Grand Hotel.

In 1994, the groundbreaking decision was made to cast openly gay, HIV-positive Cuban-American Pedro Zamora as part of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco. Zamora’s time in the Real World house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis. The darkly handsome, funny, surprising, and in-your-face activist died at 22 just after the final episode aired.

That same year, Peggy Ermet lost her son to AIDS and joined lifelong friend Barbara Richmond, whose son John died in 1990, to launch a special kind of musical AIDS benefit to honor their sons — it would become Help Is on the Way: San Francisco Cares. Later in 1999, REAF began the “One Night Only” cabaret performances utilizing touring casts of Broadway shows appearing in San Francisco. These fantastic nights give the entertainers a break from the scores they perform every night by offering their chosen music.

Help Is On The Way: 30th ANNIVERSARY: BROADWAY & BEYOND
6:30 pm: Limited silent auction in the theater lobby
7:30 pm: Performance
9:45 pm: VIP After party with the cast at the new
BEACON GRAND HOTEL, 450 Powell St. at Sutter (formerly The Drake)
for tickets or additional info: REAF-SF
$39 – Reserved, Performance only/ Balcony tickets
$59 – Reserved, Performance only/ Dress Circle tickets
$150 – Reserved, Performance & VIP After Party/ Orchestra tickets
$500 & up: – VIP & Gala Individual Sponsor Tickets 

JASON BROCK Top 10 from X-Factor/cabaret star
DEBBY BOONE Grammy Award-winning recording star
DAVID BURNHAM Broadway Star (Light in the Piazza, Wicked)
FAITH PRINCE Tony Award-winning (Guys & Dolls) Broadway Star
LISA VROMAN Broadway Star (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miz)
JENNIFER LEIGH WARREN Broadway Star (Big River)
PAULA WEST Jazz / Cabaret Star
BRUCE VILANCH Broadway (Hairspray) / TV Star Comedian
CAST MEMBERS from the BROADWAY TOURING CAST of MRS. DOUBTFIRE
Featuring Rob McClure hosting as Mrs. Doubtfire

Musical Director MICHAEL ORLAND
Producers: KEN HENDERSON & JOE SEILER
Honorees: BRUCE VILANCH, Performer Lifetime Achievement Award)
DELTA DENTAL OF CALIFORNIA, Corporate Partner Award

The post Bruce Vilanch To Receive REAF’s Lifetime Achievement Award 7/14/2024 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

We Got Bruce
One Night Only with the cast of FUNNY GIRL
By Mister D
April 10, 2024

On Monday, May 20, 2024, there will be a special benefit cabaret called “The Diva’s Toast,” presented by The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation (REAF). Here are the details:

Event: One Night Only with the cast of FUNNY GIRL
Time: 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM PDT
Location: Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA 94102
Purpose: The cabaret salutes the grand dames of Broadway.

Featured Guests:
*Cast members from the national Broadway touring cast of FUNNY GIRL – These seasoned performers will bring their theatrical magic to the stage, celebrating the grand dames of Broadway.
*Melissa Manchester – A renowned singer-songwriter, Melissa Manchester’s soulful voice and emotive performances promise to be a highlight of the evening
*Special guest Bruce Vilanch – Bruce Vilanch, a celebrated comedy writer, actor, and performer, will add his unique flair to the cabaret.

Beneficiaries: The event will benefit REAF and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Tickets: Available on Eventbrite

REAF provides aid for HIV/AIDS services, hunger programs, and programs that support homeless youth. It promises to be an unforgettable evening celebrating the magic of Broadway and supporting important causes. ??

For more information and to secure your tickets, visit the official Eventbrite page. ???

The post Bananas, Boas, & Broadway: Sipping Sparkle at ‘The Diva’s Toast’ first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Live Nation
Bruce Vilanch To Host A Benefit Concert For The Billy Barnes Foundation, April 7, 2024
Sun Apr 7 2024

The Billy Barnes Foundation and Fraser Entertainment Group Present
 
INTRODUCING BILLY BARNES – A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR THE BILLY BARNES FOUNDATION
Music Director – Todd Schroeder, Hosted by Bruce Vilanch
 
Doors open at 11:30 AM. Show at 1PM. Tickets $35 plus 2-drink or brunch minimum.
 
All proceeds benefit The Billy Barnes Foundation, an organization dedicated to building and educating an audience for future generations through music and theatre education. Billy Barnes was one of the most influential composers and lyricists of the 1960s and 1970s. This inaugural year, the Foundation will award two full-tuition scholarships to the Young Actors Theatre Camp, a non-profit organization in the Santa Cruz Mountains, that focuses on discovering and developing each individual student’s talents in ALL areas of the performing arts.
 
Scheduled to appear: Eileen Barnett, Kay Cole, Nancy Dussault, Shelly Goldstein, Jane A. Johnston, Jackie Joseph, Roslyn Kind, Karen Morrow, Shawn Ryan, Todd Sherry, Joanne Tatham and Jo Anne Worley – plus young artists from YATC. 
 
https://www.thebillybarnesfoundation.org/
https://www.fraserentertainmentgroup.com

The post Bruce Vilanch To Host A Benefit Concert For The Billy Barnes Foundation, April 7, 2024 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

San Fran Bay Times
Bruce Is the Best!
By Jan Wahl
March 4, 2021

He’s often called “a gay icon.” The internet lauds him as a six-time Emmy winner. His appearances on Hollywood Squares and writing for the Academy Award shows are the stuff of comedy legend. To get the details of the work of Bruce Vilanch, find Get Bruce, a 1999 documentary with everyone from Lily Tomlin to Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, and so many more explaining working with this man who supplies them with comedy, magic, and wit.

After another night with a fundraiser for one of my favorite organizations, the Richmond Ermet Aid Foundation, Bruce and I chatted about showbiz from his unique point of view. We began with a couple of famous actors, both in the closet and both miserable for it. He also told me the kind of movies he enjoys now: “I go for special effects, superhero movies because the guys sleep with me afterward. Go with a Marvel guy and you get laid. There is a whole new generation that worships Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. Who gives a rat’s ass? Britney is a big ol’ Ann Margaret knockoff. Madonna is, all the same, the Judith Anderson of rock and roll.” (See Anderson in Rebecca.)

Of course, we had to get into some recent controversy surrounding one of my favorite movies recently, The Prom. He said, “I saw The Prom on Broadway; it was much sharper. The movie was pitched to a different audience. The edges were shaved a bit.”  When I asked about the idea that James Corden, who is straight, should not play a gay character, Bruce replied, “That is anti-art.  Liz Taylor should only play someone married seven times? Zachary Quinto is a great Spock. Who knew Spock was gay? You play characters you are not.”

Over the years, Bruce has worked or known everyone (OK, maybe not William Haines or Gable, but close!) “I knew Rock Hudson,” Bruce said. “He was such an unhappy person; he made others unhappy. He was so conflicted, could never be authentic. Paul Lynde was absolutely hateful to people; his career didn’t happen the way it had to his colleagues. Also, he drank. Two drinks and he turned into the Nazi High Command.” 

When I worked with Lynde, I had the exact experience. I also agree with Bruce that sometimes meeting stars today is not terrific.  “The stars I meet now are submissive or exhausted,” he said. “But it always depends when you meet them. I met Katharine Hepburn and instead of Pat and Mike I got Coco Chanel. [Hepburn played Chanel in the Broadway musical Coco.] Bette Davis was more bitterness than Margo Channing. But Elizabeth Taylor was amazingly funny and all the things I wanted her to be.”

Bruce wrote for Olivia de Havilland. I like to think Olivia and Errol Flynn got between the sheets, or “in the feathers,” as Ava Gardner called it. He didn’t get to that with her, but did ask Alexis Smith (costar in my favorite Flynn flick Gentleman Jim) a similar question. “She didn’t let on, of course. She was a lesbian.” 

That led to a few quips on the subject of marriages between gays in Hollywood. At a time when being out of the closet was nearly impossible, Bruce referred to these as “a lavender marriage, twilight tandem, a Boston marriage.” Janet Gaynor and Adrian, Lilyan Tashman and Edmund Lowe, Hudson and Phyllis Gates. There are many examples. 

“I had two pugs named Tallulah and Hattie,” Bruce said. “But I think McDaniel’s and Bankhead’s relationship was mythical. I don’t think they were part of the same lesbian underground. It seemed unlikely, but who knows?” Bruce and I both loved the Netflix series Hollywood (“fantasy and reality”) that has sequences with the two women together. For more information on this and other LBGTQ in Hollywood stories, one of my favorite books ever is Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood 1910–1969 by the gifted William Mann. 

I am waiting for more to come from Bruce. He is working now, of course, but we always want more from this warm and wonderful man!                

Jan Wahl is a Hollywood historian, film critic on various broadcast outlets, and has her own YouTube channel series, “Jan Wahl Showbiz.” She has two Emmys and many awards for her longtime work on behalf of film buffs and the LGBTQ community. Contact her at www.janwahl.com

The post Bruce Vilanch Talks Actors, Movies, The Easy Lays, And More… first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Equality California raised $1 million at its 20th Anniversary Gala, September 28, 2019, celebrating 20 years of legislative activism. It was a star-studded event with Ana Navarro, Jai Rodriguez, Bruce Vilanch, Kim Petras, Kim Ahn, Scot Weiner, J. Alexander, and many more.

With 800,000 members, Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. And we’re California’s only LGBTQ civil rights organization working at the local, state and national levels.

The post Bruce Vilanch Attends Equality California’s 20th Anniversary first appeared on We Got Bruce!.