Bollywood dancers from Ishaara: Neerah Kohirkar, Neju Desai and Nickesin Viswantham. Photo by Rink.

A Help Is on the Way Valentine benefit gala, “All You Need Is Love 2,” featured stars from stage, screen, and music studios donating their time and talent to put on a fabulously entertaining show for charity at Marines Memorial Theatre. Produced by Ken Henderson and Joe Seiler of the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation (REAF), the spectacular event benefited two HIV prevention programs, Stop AIDS Project and AGUILAS. The stage was covered with Valentine hearts and red roses as the first act, Ishaara, danced a medley from the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, and other Indian tunes and choreography a la Bollywood. 

Changing the mood to humorous, funnyman Leslie Jordan came out as Cupid in nothing but a red satin Valentine-patterned diaper, red sunglasses, red tennis shoes, white feather wings, and a quiver full of arrows. He told bizarre tales of a past lover shooting him with a crossbow and about his upcoming comedy film with Jennifer Coolidge (“Stiffler’s mom”) in a trailer trash role and him as a high school drama coach along the lines of TV’s Glee. 

Grammy and Oscar award-winning (“The Morning After”) Maureen McGovern wowed the house with her captivating a cappella version of “My Funny Valentine,” sung without a microphone. Impressive volume control! David Burnham (Fiyero in Broadway’s Wicked) sang a sexy “Proud Lady” from The Baker’s Wife, in which he sang of the love of his life who happened to be another man’s wife – the one true love (for the second time that day anyway). Kim Nalley explained her love of blues and jazz, especially Billie Holiday, and gave a brilliant version of “Crazy He Calls Me” (which was chosen as her recent wedding song) with Tammy Hall on piano. Nick Lazzarini (winner of TV’s So You Think You Can Dance) staged an erotic modern dance interpretation to Prince’s “How Come You Don’t Call Me” with his shirt seductively open to reveal abs of death as he whirled, twirled, and executed tricky acrobatics across the stage. Tim Hockenberry on keyboards joined the amazing Maria Muldaur (who can forget “Midnight at the Oasis”?) to both sing Issac Hayes” “To Make You Feel My Love” with voices blending in a smoky duet. 

Jordan the Cupid returned holding a huge pink heart-shaped pillow to his crotch and announcing, “I’ve got a heart-on!” He spoke of one of the oddest moments of his career, filming a Japanese commercial for sakĂ© with a heroin-addicted Boy George in the triple-digit Mojave Desert heat dressed in a monkey suit, riding on a white horse. Disco diva Jeanie Tracy is in town to play the title role in Mahalia Jackson, so she took us all to church with “When the Saints Go Marching In,” getting everyone to sing and clap along. Terrance Spencer and Greg Haney (both dancers from Wicked) created their own choreography to “End of the World” with these two male dancers in a gorgeous pas de deux, acting out such phrases as: “I just want to stay with you tonight.” Closing the first act, La Toya London (American Idol runner-up and star in Broadway’s The Color Purple) knocked it out of the park with her version of “Somewhere” from West Side Story, gradually building from decrescendo to vibrating crescendo echoing throughout the hall. 

Hockenberry opened the second act with his special slower rendition of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” relating how his home City is his favorite of all the cities he has visited. Carly Ozard showed off her classically trained mezzo-soprano as well as twisted humor in a set from Bitter and Be Gay, about her experience of turning straight men queer and being The City’s famed fag hag. Her operatic upbringing kept shining through, despite her crazy fruit fly rewording of the Candide number, “Glitter and Be Gay.” David Burnham joined Karen Roberts to romantically yet bitter-sweetly duet in “Written in the Stars” from Aida about star-crossed lovers in paradise “for only one day.” Teal Wicks (the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked) picked up the pace with a lively “I Love You I Do” from Dreamgirls, singing of “the perfect man.” Sharon Gless (direct from her hit play, A Round-Heeled Woman, also known for TV’s Cagney and Lacey and Queer as Folk) spoke of her first really impressive kiss as an adolescent and then gave a dramatic reading of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.” So enchanting! 

Jeanie Tracy returned to disco-fy the audience with her famous “It’s Raining Men” (everybody singing along with gusto) followed by her latest hit “Party People” (“shake your body; lemme see you sweat”).  Jordan made a final appearance, commenting he wanted to take Quaaludes and snort poppers after Tracy’s hot ‘70s set. He confessed there was only one person who could make him dress in just a diaper on stage – David Galligan, director of the show, who he admired very much, and told on him about going to an all male strip show together to see “swingin’ dicks.” Muldaur, accompanied on keyboards by Hockenberry gave a bluesy, gritty “Please Send Me Somebody to Love” with an introduction about how the song back in the ‘50s was not just a cry for a lover but for the whole earth to love one another and stop war. She noted that the song still holds true during this current time of war overseas when we continue to cry out for world peace. Muldaur turned the one word “please” into a seventeen-syllable cry and got a huge well-deserved round of thunderous applause. 

Rita Moreno (Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner) made her fourth appearance in a “Help Is on the Way” production. She gave a moving monologue about love coming along when one least expects it, and then burst forth into “The Way He Makes Me Feel” from Yentl and “He Loves Me” from She Loves Me, with this dignified woman ending by giving a Michael Jackson crotch-grab. Wild! 

McGovern returned to sing “Ordinary Miracles,” but not before introducing two people very much connected to REAF, Deb Scheer the mother of Dillon, who she adopted as an AIDS baby, and who has grown into a fine young man joyously celebrating his 20th birthday that night at the after-party.

McGovern spoke of the more than 30 AIDS service organizations that REAF has helped over the years. These are surely examples of “ordinary miracles” that “happen all around, just by giving and receiving,” as the song goes, and continues, “Love in its extraordinary way, makes ordinary miracles ev’ry blessed day!” 

For the grand finale, the entire cast assembled to sing the most appropriate Gershwins’ “Our Love Is Here to Stay.” REAF love is definitely here to stay, and will return very soon with its ongoing series of “One Night Only Cabaret” AIDS fundraisers, featuring the cast and crew of hit musicals in town for a local run. Check out richmondermet.org for the latest musical night of love and giving.