Red Bucket Follies Raises $5,320,146 for Broadway Cares

Powerhouse vocal performances, stirring dances and community joy swelled inside Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre at this year’s Red Bucket Follies. The annual variety show, performed December 9 and 10, 2024, honored 53 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies that participated in the fall #RedBuckets fundraising for Broadway Cares. See photos here! 
 
Red Bucket Follies raised an extraordinary $5,320,146. The total was announced at the conclusion of Tuesday’s performance by special guests Cole Escola (Oh, Mary!), Ruthie Ann Miles (McNeal), Jim Parsons (Our Town) and Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Blvd.).
 
Both the Broadway and national touring productions of Wicked took home Top Fundraising titles. The Wicked – Munchkinland tour raised a thrillifying $318,084, with the Broadway production raising $284,052 “For Good.”
 
Best onstage presentation went to Back to the Future: The Musical. After laughably lamenting that their show had been “Clooney’d” — a nod to their production closing to make way for George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck at the Winter Garden Theatre — the company of Back to the Future: The Musical celebrated their production’s well-loved run with parodied performances of songs from the show. The cast, led by Casey Likes, JJ Niemann and Jelani Remy, was joined in the number by several front-of-house staffers, including Sheryl Goldberg and Verna Hobson, who have proudly served at the Winter Garden for 25 and 33 years, respectively.
 
The Lion King earned the runner-up presentation title for “Mental,” a powerful piece that delved into the overwhelming anxiety and pain that often accompany mental illness, posing the question, “Who would prioritize me?” The resonant number was written by the show’s Mufasa, L. Steven Taylor, and directed and choreographed by cast member Ray Mercer.
 
Photo credit: Rebecca J. Michaelson, Curtis Brown