The show’s grand finale. Photo by Rink.

The Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation mounted their annual fundraising show, “Help Is on the Way,” acclaimed as Northern California’s largest annual star-studded gala concert. This year it was held on Aug. 5 at the Palace of Fine Arts, where the theme was “Going to the Movies,” and featured entertainers singing memorable numbers from the silver screen. Five Bay Area AIDS service agencies were the beneficiaries: Aguilas, AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Maitri, STOP AIDS Project, and Vital Life Services, Oakland. Producers of the gala went all out as usual, from the very first sighting of famous deceased stars in the lobby to the final curtain coming down. Attendees were greeted by impersonators of Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, and Elvis – to name just a few. As we left the lobby to enter the party room, we paraded down a Hollywood Walk of Fame, just like those glitzy stars on the Tinseltown sidewalks. On all the walls were movie posters from classics ranging from Beauty and the Beast to Wizard of Oz.

Inside the theater and on the stage were the white H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D letters on a hill, a gigantic director’s chair, a marquee, and a movie screen used to introduce each act with clips from the applicable films. Producers Ken Henderson and Joe Seiler welcomed everyone, explaining the charities and then bringing movie maven Jan Wahl to the stage. “I know I’m not the only queen in this audience,” she remarked with a laugh. “We know that movies change our lives in a million different ways.” Suddenly Leo the Lion from MGM roared on the screen and the show began with 42nd Street and Ruby Keeler’s “dancing feet” above Keeler’s actual granddaughter, Sarah Lowe below, who wore the identical outfit and tapped the very same steps as her grandmother was doing onscreen. Lowe was joined by several dozen 42nd St. dancers. Next came the first of a trio of numbers by Jason Graae, interpreting various verses from “Spring Spring Spring” from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, all about that season that brings about animal procreation and spring fever in people. Paula West gave a really sultry rendition of the title song from Stormy Weather – ironically billed as “a big GAY lilting lyrical lift” on the posters. Mary Jo Catlett always pulls something out of her creative hat, and that night was no exception. Thanks to an elaborate half-guy/ half-gal costume by Jeffrey Schoenberg, she was half-man/ half-woman in appearance - gender depending on which way she presented her profile. Catlett did a hilarious interpretation of “Me and My Shadow” and “How Can You Believe When I Say I Love You, When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life” from Royal Wedding. Her two-timing macho male side was a cad to her naive, vulnerable female side. Fans who watch the bizarre soap opera known as Passions will see the criminally insane version of a half-man/ half-woman serial killer. Check it out on NBC, before it goes exclusively to digital dish.

Joey McIntyre - recently seen on TV’s Dancing with the Stars and much earlier known as the youngest singer with New Kids on the Block – sang “I Got Rhythm” from American in Paris, and threw in a little dance routine a la Gene Kelly. Cate Caplin & Gary Franco are veterans of REAF shows, and for this dance exhibition they interpreted the scene from Breakfast at Tiffany’s where George Peppard gazes longingly out the window at Audrey Hepburn singing “Moon River.” The pas de deux by this pair was so incredibly exquisite – complete with lifts, spins, and splits - it brought tears to the eyes of my escort and mine, as well as several of our neighbors in the house. Changing the mood considerably was comic writer Bruce Vilanch and his pun on “Mein Herr” from Cabaret. Wearing a tee shirt reading “PSI: Porn Scene Investigation,” he confessed how disappointed he was in not landing his role in the movie version of his Hairspray Broadway gig; so he was going for a new image. This meant his hair stylist would cut his curly locks, which happened before our very eyes on stage, and resulted in his remorse for losing “mine hair.” The jokes flew as much as his hair did. “A whole number based on one focacta pun,” Vilanch quipped, and added the final phrase: “though you do quite a ‘do, yes you do, toodle-oo!” He then concluded, “Why should I have to change my image? Liza has had the same look for 50 years, and all she replaced was a hip?!”

Stage actor Andrew Samonsky sang the theme from the cartoon Hunchback of Notre Dame, “Out There,” evoking the bittersweet emotions of Disney’s disfigured character. Graae returned for the 2nd part of his “Spring to the third” triad, but this time dressed as Little Bo Peep – no, more like Little ’mo Peep in drag. He used his shepherd’s crook as a hook to pull himself off stage for such an audacious act. Susan Anton really knocked it outta the ballpark with “Better Than Ever” from the Burt Reynolds/ Candace Bergen/ Jill Clayburgh Starting Over movie. This was Anton’s fourth appearance for REAF, and as her song goes, she was “better than ever.” Blues in the Night is a musical revue opening Aug. 9 at Post Street Theatre, starring dance legend Maurice Hines, pop singer Freda Payne of “Band of Gold” fame, original London cast member Carol Woods, and Broadway and London stage star Paulette Ivory. Hines performed some amazing, intricate, lightning fast tap steps while joking about how gay he is and therefore happy to be in San Francisco for his show. He does not look or act at all like his 63 years. The trio of talented women performed the hell outta the title song from Cole Porter’s Blues in the Night (“My mama done told me”). For the final number in Act one, Kimberley Locke, finalist in TV’s American Idol contest, sang the quintessential SF song, “San Francisco,” from the movie of the same title. She sounded so much better than Jeanette McDonald, who sang it in the film with that annoying, jittery, elderly lady type warbling.

Act two opened with the original Tracy Turnblad from Broadway’s Hairspray, Marrissa Jaret Winokur, using that giggly girlie voice that just lifts you up and makes you want to dance. She sang the movie’s “Good Morning Baltimore” with her own special “uh uh oh” before each chorus. The newest male quartet from Jersey Boys – Drew Gehling (playing Bob Gaudio), Michael Ingersol (Nick Massi), Jeremy Kushnier (Tommy DeVito), and Jarrod Spector (Frankie Valli) did a macho men medley of songs that would appeal to a guy’s guy, a man’s man, and quite possibly a gay man’s man who’s into butch scenes. Their flawlessly synchronized choreography matched with hilarious new lyrics to manly movie selections ranged from The Magnificent Seven to Rocky to Bridge on the River Kwai to Top Gun to Green Berets to The Good, Bad, and the Ugly, and more, concluding with their own “Walk Like a Man” from Jersey Boys. BD Wong, an openly proud gay man who once played a man passing for a geisha in the play, M Butterfly, chose to sing Barbra Streisand’s “This Is One of Those Moments” from Yentl, where Streisand played a woman passing for a Jewish male scholar. Brilliant! Triple-threat Valarie Pettiford, has illuminated stage, screen, and TV in countless appearances. That night she perfectly mimicked Cyd Charisse’s choreography from The Band Wagon, and sang “New Sun in the Sky” from that movie. Everyone knows that Connie Champagne is the most impressive impersonator of Judy Garland, but that night she chose to sing Judy’s song as Connie with “The Trolley Song” from Meet Me in St. Louis. For his third and final installment of the Spring song, Graae dressed as Pan the satyr - complete with furry horse legs and horns on his head and hoofs on his feet - describing animal magnetism, literally, such as “the industrious beaver puts it down to spring fever.” Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior to you dear dykes; but for that performance she was blonde and beautiful) joined with Gene Reed to do “Footloose” from the movie of the same name. I would have preferred she had done it solo, because she was so fun and lively. Broadway’s Raul Esparza gave a torchy, melancholic “God Give Me Strength” from Grace of My Heart, about trying to get over a lost love affair, and skillfully employing crescendo and decrescendo throughout. Queer Eye’s Jai Rodriguez is also a Broadway star, and displayed his talent marvelously with “I Am Changing,” the part that the female Dreamgirl usually sings, but there was sung in role reversal as a male. Astonishing! Such a big voice from such a small man! Carole Cook always brings her hysterically funny sarcastic humor to REAF, and in the middle of singing “It Was a Good Time” from Ryan’s Daughter, she managed to lovingly dish quite a few of her Great White Way pals such as Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, and Liz Taylor. She also had a great time teasing the ASL interpreter, getting him to sign “tits,” “ass,” and “cock ring.” Cook quipped, “Cock ring? I didn’t know chickens wore jewelry.” The cast of Jersey Boys came out to sing a very moving “Seasons of Love” from Rent. For the finale, Vilanch brought out the entire company. He remarked bitterly, “If the government doesn’t have an exit strategy for AIDS, why should they have one for Iraq?” He spoke of the hundreds of friends he had who succumbed to the disease, and asked everyone in the audience to shout out the names of their friends and lovers who had lost the battle. It was an extremely emotional moment – with nary a dry eye in the house - and the perfect way to lead into the show’s inspirational theme song by David Friedman, “Help Is on the Way.”

Be sure to save the date for “Help Is on the Way for the Holidays IX” on Dec. 2 at Herbst Theatre.