Broadway Bears

[SueleenGay]

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

Did anyone go? What is the news?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 11:47am

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

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:29pm

Thanks for the report about the Broadway Bears event. Sounds like the White Christmas girl, the Billys, and the Chris Seiber bits were worth the price of admission.

Any idea how much money was raised overall?

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:41pm

Does anyone know where I can find pictures of all the bears?

[Mikers]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:46pm

See All of the bears here

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 12:56pm

^^^Thanks!

[bwaydoc]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:01pm

I was there last night as well. My sister took home the Shrek bear who is beyond adorable. I think they said at the end that they raised about $150,000 last night, about $20,000 more than last year apparently. I wrote down the winning bid for all the bears, so if anyone would like me to post them I'd be happy too.
I was sitting at the table next to the little girl from White Christmas and it was very amusing listening to the conversation between her and her father, he kept telling her to wait to see what the bid was going up to and if it was finally slowing down, then he would tell her "Up!" to put her paddle up and bid. It was obvious that she really wanted it and I was happy she got it, although I did feel kind of bad for the phone bidder.

[Mikers]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:04pm

Please post the list of all of the winning bears and the final bids.

[sking]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:20pm

Yes please do...I THINK I(WE actually) won the Billy Bears but have not been contacted, probably the only internet winners there.lol

[bwaydoc]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:23pm

Glinda (Wicked) - $7,000, Ali Mauzey introduced the bear
Growltiger (Cats) - $5,500
Wendla (Spring Awakening) - $1,100
Tank Showgirl (The Producers) - $1,700
Rose (Gypsy, 2003) - $2,400, Bernadette Peters introduced the bear
Kira (Xanadu) - $2,900, Kerry Butler introduced the bear
Bernardo (West Side Story) - $2,200
Mimi (Rent) - $1,800
Gabriella (Boeing-Boeing) - $900
The Eggbeater (Beauty and the Beast) - $2,000
Agnes Gooch (Mame) - $600
Edna Turnblad (Hairspray) - $1,900
Elizabeth (Young Frankenstein) - $1,400
The Drowsy Chaperone - $1,700
Edith Herbert (My One and Only) - $2,200
He/She Masquerade (The Phantom of the Opera) - $2,800
Louise (Gypsy 200- $1,000
Sir Thomas More (A Man For All Seasons) - $3,400
Evillene (The Wiz) - $1,100
Uncle Sam (State Fair) - $1,200
Sir Robin (Spamalot) - $16,000, Christopher Sieber introduced the bear
Billy Elliot - $4,000, all the Billys introduced the bears
Nellie Forbush (South Pacific) - $1,600
Wendy Darling (Peter Pan) - $1,600
Rose (Gypsy 1959) - $1,100
Zach (A Chorus Line) - $3,600, Michael Beresse introduced the bear
Christmas Eve (Avenue Q) - $1,000, Ann Harada introduced the bear
Mother Abbess (The Sound of Music) - $1,700
Linus (You're A Good Man Charlie Brown) - $700
Tommy Walker (The Who's Tommy) - $4,000
Bird Woman (Mary Poppins) - $1,600
Ashley (Starlight Express) - $3,800
Merlyn (Camelot) - $1,600
Usnavi (In the Heights)- $2,600
Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) - $2,200, Kate Shindle introduced the bear
Ariel (The Little Mermaid) - $1,000
Betty Haynes (White Christmas) - $3,700
Shrek - $3,600, Christopher Sieber introduced the bear
Alan Strang and Nugget (Equus) - $10,000
The Child Catcher (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) - $3,400
Countess Aurelia (Dear World) - $2,400
Ethel Merman/Little Orphan Annie (Forbidden B'way) - $1,200
Brother Bear (I.A.T.S.E) - $3,400
Eva Peron doll (Evita) - $700
Annie Oakley (Annie Get Your Gun) - $2,400

There were other actors who introduced some of the bears, I just listed the ones I remembered clearly.

Updated On: 2/16/09 at 01:23 PM

[sking]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:29pm

Thanks!...well if so then we DID win the Billy bears...got plans for those.And can you remember the sweeteners for those and if for SURE they were included?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:37pm

The sweeteners for the Billy Elliot bears were a prop from the show (the letter he reads to his mother at the end, signed by the four boys), and a backstage tour, lead by whichever boy is on as Billy that day. Incidentally, they did not say if tickets were included in that tour, so you might have to get your own tickets to the show.

The sweeteners definitely seemed to be included, because there was a lot of bidding after they were announced.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:53pm

Thanks so much for all of the details bwaydoc and adamgreer. There are some pictures from the event posted at http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?ref=broadway%20bears%20160209&version=int

[sking]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 1:58pm

Thanks for the info..very nice. I assumed Id have to pony up for the tickets...lol. Lots of others in my group will too, we really need to support the struggling BETM, hehehe.(And I'm happy to do it!)

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 2:02pm

There was also a very clear bias towards people in the room winning, by the way. The auctioneer repeatedly dropped large hints about how high the bidders in the room would have to go to defeat the internet bidders.

[sking]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 2:15pm

Did ANYONE else internet bidding win? I think I got REALLY lucky.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 2:37pm

I don't think so, but a number of phone bidders won.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/16/09 at 8:02pm

When speaking of Broadway Bears, there must always be one passing reference to Marc Kudish.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 2/18/09 at 7:01pm

YouTube of opening number with Chris Sieber and Christine Pedi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kIGpFQWdL8

There are some other brief YouTube clips from the event that show up as related videos, but this is the longest and funniest.

[nlm]

Posted: 2/18/09 at 8:00pm

Thanks for posting the final bids. Sounds like it was a great night for a great cause.