See opening number of Red Bucket Follies 2025!

This year’s Red Bucket Follies opening number took a delightfully meta turn, following Stephen Lloyd Rodgers von Schwartzenheim – played by James T. Lane – as he struggled to write the opening number for Red Bucket Follies.

In a Broadway musical-fueled twist on a Christmas Carol–style hallucination, he was joined by Jenna Bainbridge as the fabulous vision that warns him of the ghosts of Broadway past, present and future. They were brought to life with theatrical flair by Antwayn Hopper, Jermaine Miles and Rachelle Rak. The apparitions reminded him that, despite all the chaos in the world, nothing can extinguish the joy and glitter of Broadway – and in times this unprecedented, people need theater more than ever.

The number was directed and choreographed by Andrew Turtletaub, with music and lyrics by Chris Dimond and Michael Kooman. With a whirlwind of songs, skits and dances created by Broadway’s best, this year’s Red Bucket Follies delivered humor, heart and theater magic to the legendary New Amsterdam Theatre.

The annual variety show, performed December 8 and 9, 2025, celebrated 55 Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring companies that participated in the fall #RedBuckets fundraising for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Red Bucket Follies and the six weeks of in-theater fundraising raised a record-shattering $7,344,304. That’s the highest total ever raised in a Broadway Cares fundraising season, flying past the previous record of $6.8 million just set in the spring. Learn more at broadwaycares.org/redbucketfollies.