Broadway Bears

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Broadway Bears

Posted: 2/16/09 at 9:40am

Did anyone go? What is the news?

PEACE.

I was there and had a fabulous time watching people spend over $10,000 on teddy bears!

The big ticket item, once again, was the Spamalot Clay Aiken bear which fetched $16,000 this year, to a telephone bidder. The other big items were the Glinda Wicked bear, which was the evening's first lot, that brought in $7,000. The Equus bear made about $9,000 (I forget the actual number).

Some other highlights...

-The little girl from the cast of White Christmas (little meaning like...8 years old) bidding on the White Christmas bear against someone on the phone. Every time she wanted to place a bid, she looked over at (presumably) her dad, who continually cringed as he gave small nods of his head. Her face lit up every time he nodded his head, as the bid went up to $3600. The phone bidder was hesitant to keep bidding, and at this point the audience was clearly pulling for this adorable little girl to win, who had to stand on her chair so the auctioneer could see her. The auctioneer was quick with her gavel and right after she called it for the girl, the phone lady yells out, "My client was willing to go to $3800!" However the auctioneer said, "Too late, she should have been faster, the kid gets it!"

-There was a family seated near the front who had collected something like 16 bears over the years. Tonight they won the Ariel bear.

-All four of the Billy Elliot boys were there- there were four Billy bears, auctioned off as a set. Each bear was in a different costume, signed by a different Billy. The Billys added a backstage tour at some point to sweeten the deal. They got around 4 grand for their bears, I think.

-The coolest looking bears, in my opinion, were the Elle Woods bear, the Childcatcher bear (from Chitty), and the Phantom "He-She Masquerade" bear.

-We had the pleasure of talking to John Henson, one of the bear designers, during the pre-show reception. It was so fascinating to hear the level of detail and how much work goes in to creating these bears. Most of them are exact scaled replicas of the larger costumes, down to the number, placement, and size of the rhinestones. He also told us that next year's Wicked bear was probably going to be either a Madame Morrible bear or a Chistery bear.

-The funniest moment of the evening was when Christopher Seiber began offering people free tickets to Spamalot as a way to increase bidding. He even came down from the stage to talk to a woman who was bidding by telephone.

Updated On: 2/16/09 at 11:47 AM