VIDEO: Highlight Reel of Record-Shattering 'Broadway Bares 25'

The epic 25th edition of Broadway Bares celebrated the golden age of Broadway with an evening of ripped dancers, cheeky choreographers and sumptuous showgirls, raising a record-shattering $1,598,501 on Sunday, June 21, 2015, for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

"Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque" featured 222 of New York's sexiest and most talented dancers, entertaining standing-room-only audiences at two performances at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom.

Since it began with eight dancers performing on a bar in 1992, Broadway Bares has now raised $14.3 million for Broadway Cares. Broadway Bares' two-time Tony Award-winning creator and executive producer Jerry Mitchell returned to the director's chair for this year's extravaganza with his co-director, Nick Kenkel, who expertly helmed the previous two editions of the one night only event. The overall success also was fueled by Stripathon, an online fundraiser by the show's cast and crew which raised a record $581,725.

This year's electrifying onstage spectacular featured a colorful cast of characters that included special guest appearances by Andy Cohen ("Watch What Happens Live") Laverne Cox ("Orange is the New Black"), Bianca Del Rio ("Ru Paul's Drag Race"), four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, two-time Tony winner Judith Light, Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita and two-time Tony nominee Christopher Sieber.

The evening offered a bodacious Broadway Bares spin to the classic Broadway musical 42nd Street, the story of a bright-eyed ing�nue looking to make it big on the Great White Way.

The show-within-a-show "Broadway Bares" opened with a curtain-raising reveal of 100 beautiful, bouncing booties, all auditioning for a part in the next Broadway hit, "Top Bottoms of Burlesque." As the delectable dance captain Callan Bergmann cuts wannabe bottoms, Fierstein takes to the stage to introduce a "parade of asses," a pageant of bottoms colorfully representing each season in elegant showgirl costumes designed by two-time Tony winner Gregg Barnes. The opening number, choreographed by Mitchell and Kenkel, was written by Andrew Lippa and Hunter Bell.

Broadway Bares was created by Mitchell in 1992 as a way to raise money to help those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. In its first year, Mitchell and seven of his friends danced on a New York City bar and raised $8,000.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states.