The Broadway Dolls, featuring Hollie Howard (center), bring the musical excitement to the Molly for A Taste of Broadway, a Monday night fundraising gala benefitting a group of Shore-based nonprofits.
It’s like something straight out of a Busby Berkeley musical: farm girl comes to the big city; goes from unknown to Broadway lead, and back to struggling trouper. Takes her career into her own hands by calling up her fellow under-employed ladies of the stage and crafting “an all-female revue with a sexy rock n’ roll twist” — one that becomes an international touring sensation, from here to such faraway whistle-stops as China and Dubai. Call it The Broadway Dolls and you’ve got a surefire hit.
Created by and co-starring former Hairspray lead Hollie Howard, the project known as Broadway’s Original Girl Group brings its mix of vintage showtunes, 60s girl group oldies and 21st century radio pop to Red Bank’s historic Molly Pitcher Inn on Monday, September 22 for “A Taste of Broadway on the Promenade,” a gala dedicated to the benefit of an array of locally based charities — and spotlighting the wares of several star-quality staples of the Monmouth County culinary landscape.
Presented by the Navesink Business Group, the event is the latest in a series of Waves of Support fundraisers; a campaign created with Jersey Promise to raise funds for continued Sandy relief for Shore communities and to support tourism at the Jersey Shore. The night begins with cocktails at 6 pm, and boasts a silent auction, plus five-course dinner and hors d’oeuvre spread prepared by some of the Green’s finest, including Ama Ristorante, Danny’s Steak House, David Burke Fromagerie, Soul Kitchen, Teak, The Bistro, The Cheese Cave and Zoe — in addition to the executive chefs from The Molly Pitcher Inn and The Oyster Point Hotel.
The evening’s honorees include The Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Clean Ocean Action, Hometown Heroes, the Buhler Family, and George Lyristis of Bistro Boys Management and Red Bank Flavour. Beneficiaries of the fundraising effort, selected at random by a group of ten local municipalities, are the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Sea Bright Rising, Keyport Ministerium Food Pantry, Churches of the Manasquan Area Ministerium, Habitat for Humanity, Visitation Relief Center, Hometown Heroes and the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau.
At center stage will be Howard and her troupe of “triple threat” cast members from such Broadway productions as Mamma Mia, Rock of Ages and Jersey Boys — performing a set of hits from those and other late-model shows (Flashdance, Legally Blonde, Memphis, Rent, Titanic, The Wedding Singer, Wicked).
Take it here to purchase last-minute tickets for the event ($195 per person). The Molly will be offering a special rate of $159 per night for guests who would like to stay the night, and for every room booked for the Gala, the hotel will donate 25 percent to Waves of Support.
