Photo of Grant Livingston courtesy of Grant Livingston.

The reason the event is so entertaining is because the participants (some experienced, some not) train and practice for one month before the performance, much like Dancing with the Stars. The twist, is seeing your favorite locals cut the rug like never before. Maybe you’ll see your favorite bartender from Village Pub perform the salsa. Or what if your preferred dancer from Boardwalk is going to be doing the tango?

Dancing with the South Florida Stars will also be presenting Peter Jackson with the “Making a Difference Health and Wellness Community Leadership Award” this year.

The event is sure to bring memories, and from now until the event on April 21, we’ll be unveiling each team for readers.

Boardwalk

Boardwalk features some South Florida’s hottest male dancers, and frequently sees appearances by world-renowned adult video stars, like Angel Rock, Jeff Stryker and many more. Chi Chi LaRue is also known to drop by for special events. Boardwalk also hosts the International Male Escort Awards (called the “Hookies”) once a year.

An 18-and-over club, Boardwalk features private lap dances and dancers to appeal to a wide range of ages and shapes, from twinks to studs. The club has two stages, located at either end of the main bar, and is also the home of the world famous restaurant, Beefcake’s.Boardwalk is popular with locals and visitors, with nightly events and special guest stars pulling in an international crowd.

Representing Boardwalk are dancers Esman and Eduardo.

Esman told us that he, like many of the contestants, is in it to win it. But when we asked what kind of dance the two would be performing for the crowd, Esman was protective of his performance.

“You’ll have to come out and see for yourself – it’s a surprise,” the spunky dancer said, flashing a smile.

New York Grilled Cheese Co.

Following it’s grand opening last March, it didn’t take long for New York Grilled Cheese Co. to become one of the Drive’s dining staples. Luring in people from all over the tri-county area, the restaurant amps up the traditional grilled cheese, transforming their selections into gourmet sandwiches that everyone will love.

Sandwich names are influenced by the Big Apple itself; The Fifth Avenue Yelp Melt (which just came to an end last week), the Broadway Classic and the Blue Buffalo to name a few. The sandwiches are made to order on a fresh country loaf, which is then pressed (giving it the appearance of a waffle) to give the ultimate crunch.

While we always knew it would be a hit, New York Grilled Cheese Co. has been mentioned (favorably) in a number of publications, including year-end “best of” lists.

The grilled cheese mogul will be represented by owner Leor Barak’s partner, Ryan Steinberg, along with the fierce Mia Patrick, who performs at a number of clubs in the area (Bill’s Filling Station, Rumors and Discotekka to name a few). These two dancers mean business!

Florida Agenda: For the uninitiated, Joan, would you please say something about how you came up with the moniker Joan As Police Woman?

Joan As Police Woman: I’ve been making music my whole life, but I didn’t start writing music until later, after I had had a lot of experience playing violin and being a session player. I began writing songs and playing under my given name. It would say “Joan Wasser solo.” People thought that I was playing solo violin shows because no one knew that I was writing songs. I was looking for a name that was not my given name. At the time, I was blonde and I was wearing some sort of ridiculous, three-piece, polyester, `70s, pale blue pantsuit. My friend Reuben saw me on the street and he said, “Joan, you are channeling Angie (Dickinson) in Police Woman.” Police Woman was a cop show that ran from 1974 to 1978. The moniker stuck. That was it. That’s been my name since 2003.

What’s the difference, if any, between the music made by Joan As Police Woman and the music made by Joan Wasser?

It’s all the same. I wanted a moniker for the music I released as my songs. Also, I think it’s fun to have a band name. It also has humor. Joan Wasser is not very funny. Joan As Police Woman is bordering on ridiculous, which I like in my life.

We recently interviewed Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini and we talked about the role that collaboration plays in his process. Joan, as an artist known for being able to play well with others, how does collaboration figure into Joan As Police Woman?

I love collaborating [laughs] with people. That’s how I came up in music. I studied classically. When I was a teenager, I was playing in orchestras. There, you were collaborating with a lot of people. I know it’s reading music off a page, but you’re all watching the conductor to know when to come in at the same time. It’s a very unifying experience with a lot of people. Then I went to college for classical music and I did a lot of chamber music. That’s just like being in a band. I love experiencing other people’s processes and how they relate to music and other musicians and how they get what they want from musicians. How they like to create textures and how they do it. It’s like going to the school of that artist. People have different ways of doing things. Hopefully, people also like to hear what other people have to say and are open and hear how other people have made sounds or feelings happen in the song. I’ve always loved doing that. I think it’s contributed to my own music; the experiences I’ve had in diverse situations collaborating with others.

R&B has always been a presence in Joan As Police Woman’s music, but on the new record The Classic, the soul vibe has more of a vintage feel, which can be heard in the 21st century hip-hop doo-wop of the title cut. What inspired the retro direction?

I have to tell you honestly that I don’t have some grand plan before I go in to make a record. Each record is representative of the time between the last record and this record. It’s not like, “I’m going to make this retro sounding…” No, it’s just the songs that have happened since the last record. I think on this record I made a decision to edit myself less in terms of the voices in my head saying, “You’re allowed to do this. You’re not allowed to do this.” It’s just me holding myself back, deciding what’s okay and what’s not. I made a decision to try my best to listen to those voices, to kick those voices out. I think that allowed the influence of the music that I really love the most, which is Motown and soul music, to really come out of me.

In “Witness,” you sing about taking something “as gospel sure as the day.” A “crown of thorns” is mentioned in “Shame” and you make use of the word “holy” in both “Good Together” and “Holy City.” Did you have a religious experience in the process of writing the songs for the record?

I can say yes, absolutely, if we define religious experience as the ability to allow my mind to sort of leave my body. I do not subscribe to any organized religion. I still love religion. I’m not saying I love how it’s affected our culture; it’s a very, interesting, fascinating, expansive topic and how it’s affected our culture and the way we think. I do often feel spirituality through creating music. It’s there all the time. I also love religious wording. There’s no better way to create drama than to get over-the-top religious wording into your songs. And guess what, I like drama [laughs].

Are you saying you are a drama queen?

I am not! I used to be a lot more into drama. I’m really not a drama queen anymore. But I do like creating drama in my songs.

The “Holy City” video takes viewers on a tour of the mid-20th century. What can you tell me about the concept for the video?

It was created by a woman named Alex de Campi. She said that when she heard the song it reminded her, like you said, of `60s, `70s soul stuff. Therefore she wanted to references `60s and `70s television show. In there are Soul Train, I Love Lucy, the country one is sort of like…

Hee Haw?

Exactly! Thank you! And The Tonight Show with the amazing (drag king) Murray Hill playing Johnny Carson.

Over the course of your music career, as a queer musician, how would you things have changed for out performers?

It’s hard for me to say because all I have is my experience. In my experience, there was nobody on the scene before Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons). Certainly, there were people similar. But Antony educated a lot of people about the trans community and what it means to be trans and what it can look like. That’s an incredible thing that’s happened in my lifetime. I feel like, in general, a wider range of people are just getting used to the fact that queerness is everywhere. It’s not scary. It’s just what it is. That’s clear because of all the passing of gay marriage and the support, in general, for gay marriage. I feel like there’s much more support than not. Whether people are open about it in your community, it’s there.

The story of three porn-stars – the seasoned Ray (Empire Stage Executive Director David R. Gordon), the enthusiastic Ricky (Ryan Mahannah) and the reluctant (and straight) Jack (Craig Moody) – as well as the men behind the scenes (director Keith Dougherty as Arthur and Larry Buzzeo as Jaime), Making Porn is alternately hilarious and hot (especially when Jack is in various states of undress). As it turns out, some of the best comedy occurs when the sole female character, Jack’s seemingly naïve wife Linda (Jennifer Zabalo) appears onstage. Her transformation alone is worth the price of admission.

Florida Agenda: David, you divide your time between NYC and Fort Lauderdale. How does that work out?

David R. Gordon: The most difficult part about dividing my time between New York and Florida is probably being away from my wife and my dog for extended periods of time. The other difficult part about it is the housing situation, because I don’t own my own place down here.

What was the impetus for founding Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale?

It all started back in the `90s and 2000′s. I was working in New York with a husband and wife team, Kevin Thompson and Garet Scott. She was a playwright and he was a director. Actually, now what they do is produce audio books. Back then they were producing theater in New York; very funny comedies. She was writing plays and I was playing the lead in most of her plays that she wrote. Some of the shows were Bongo Fever, A Town Called Shame, Down Down Down 30 Seconds to Hell, and they were a lot of fun. We got to know each other very well. She wrote a play called Roll With The Punches which was produced twice in New York. I I suggested we take the show to Fort Lauderdale. I’d find a theater, we’ll bring the cast down and have a good time for a couple weeks there. We ended up producing the play back in 2009 at the old Rising Action Theater on Oakland Park Boulevard.

How long have you been an actor and what are some of the favorite roles you have played?

I have been an actor for roughly 25 years. I have done lots of theater, lots of TV commercials, some soap operas and even some film. Some of my favorite roles include, Judd in Oklahoma, Frank in Body Awareness, Chance Cox in Bongo Fever, and I am also really enjoying playing the role of Ray Tanner in Making Porn.

I’m glad you mentioned Making Porn, a play in which you have performed in the past, and in which you presently appear. Please say something about the play, your connection to it and why you have remounted it, so to speak.

Making Porn is a play that I have performed in many times over the past 20 years. When I originally got involved with Making Porn I was playing the role of Jack Hawk, now I am playing the role of Ray Tanner. Making Porn is the first play that I chose to produce at Empire Stage four years ago. It was actually five years ago that I purchased the rights to Making Porn for the entire South Florida area from the playwright Ronnie Larsen for a term of 5 years. This term is up in April of this year. This is the reason why I decided to remount the play.

As one might expect, Making Porn “contains male nudity” as the poster and program state. What’s it like for you to appear naked onstage?

Like most things in life, it is something that you get used to the more you do it. I remember back in 1996 when I was first doing Making Porn, I was so nervous about knowing my lines that the nudity wasn’t even a concern.

Is it difficult to find actors who are willing to appear naked onstage?

It is not difficult to find actors who are willing to appear naked on stage, but it is difficult to find good actors who are willing to appear naked on stage.

The play also features simulations of gay sex, something that, depending on the part, can be an aspect of an actor’s job. In a show such as Making Porn, do you think it matters if the actors are gay or straight?

I don’t think it matters at all whether an actor is gay or straight as long as the actor is believable in his role. I am a straight married man, but I am also an actor. So, sometimes I choose to play roles and portray people on stage who are very different from who I am in real life, such as Ray Tanner in Making Porn. The trick is to make the audience believe that you are actually that person who you are portraying on stage. As long as you are able to do that it doesn’t really matter who you are in real life.

Making Porn is, first and foremost, a comedy. But it also takes a serious turn, due to the time period in which it is set (the mid-1980s), and deals with the subject of AIDS. With HBO’s production of “The Normal Heart” set to premiere this spring, how effective do you think theater and film and other mediums are at remind audiences that the AIDS crisis is far from over?

I don’t know much about HBO’s “The Normal Heart.” But one thing I do know is that it seems that society doesn’t really take the AIDS crisis as seriously as it did back in the 1980s and 1990s. You would almost think that AIDS has been cured, but as we all know it has not and should still be taken very seriously.

Making Porn has been playing to sold-out houses and has been extended through March 23. What does that mean to you?

Making Porn has been playing to sold-out houses for four weeks now. I am very grateful for the support that this production has received from the local community. One thing that it tells me is that there is still, and probably always will be, a market for this type of show.

Have you started thinking about what the next Empire Stage production will be?

I am fortunate enough over the past few years to have become friends with performer and playwright Jamie Morris. Jamie is the writer of plays such as Mommie Queerest, The Facts Of Life: The Lost Episode, and The Silence Of The Clams. All three of these hilarious plays have been produced by Empire stage over the past three years. I am happy to announce that our next Empire Stage production will be Jamie’s latest masterpiece, Redesigning Women, this summer.

Making Porn is showing until March 23rd. For tickets and more information, visit empirestage.com

SAVE Dade is Miami-Dade’s oldest and most active LGBT advocacy nonprofit organization, whose mission is to promote, protect, and defend equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in Miami-Dade county.

Enjoy a provocative play by Nobel-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa that focuses on “machismo in the Latino community, transgender issues, gay and lesbian relationships, and the individual journey that is discovering and embracing your sexual and gender identity,” according to a press release.

Join the nonprofit for an exclusive open-bar reception hosted by SAVE’s Guardians and Young Guardians Society before the performance.

Tickets for the performance are $40 ($30 for members) and include an open bar cocktail reception. Proceeds from your ticket purchase will help fund SAVE’s advocacy efforts.

For more information visit SaveDade.org

The show stars Jonathan Groff as Patrick, a gay man with a successful career in the video game industry, Frankie J. Alvarez as Agustin, an artist’s assistant and Patrick’s new best friend, and Murray Bartlett as Dom, a man who’s dealing with issues turning 40. While Indiewire was the first to call the series “a gay, West Coast-centric answer to ‘Girls,’” it’s apparent that the comparison is intentional – HBO is even airing the shows in the same hour time slot.

Jonathan Groff (of “Glee” fame) is a videogame developer who’s – wait for it – looking for love. Get it? You were thinking more along the lines of Grindr’s looking weren’t you? It’s okay, we all were. The trailer unveils some crisp, stylish shots of the show as well as something that’s all too common in the gay community: One friend telling another friend, “You have to find someone who understands you,” to which Patrick replies, “it’s not that easy to find.”

Longing for love in a metropolitan area is nothing new, but it still hits close to home. Will Patrick ever find love? If “Girls” is any indication of “Looking,” we’d like to think he’ll find love in some awkward way. In a time where gay marriage is popping up left and right (especially left, in California where the show takes place) and gay rights are on the rise, it’s refreshing to see a show that deals with more mature, subtle gay topics instead of just hookups and boyfriend drama.

“’Looking’ is specifically about the gay community, but partially because the characters aren’t having struggles with their sexuality, straight people can watch it and see themselves,” Groff told the SFGate recently.

Seriously, think of every show you’ve watched in the past year or two with supporting gay characters – They’re on fire and they’re here to tell you about their recent sexploits. While sex will undoubtedly be the topic of many subplots in Looking, it doesn’t appear to be the central theme, and for that we’re thankful.

Gregg Shapiro: What is the genesis of the Kutumba Theatre Project?

Kim Ehly: I founded Kutumba out of a desire to speak to, speak for, and entertain the community I have been a part of for 25 years. I love the theatre and I love the LGBT community. Kutumba means to leap, to strut proudly, a unique bond amongst community members, and family or kin. I want to create a place that people in our community look forward to experiencing themselves and our ideas onstage.

What are the challenges and rewards of running an LGBT theater company in Fort Lauderdale?

Challenges: Probably getting the word out about all of our productions and being sure that the people who want to do something cultural know about it. We often hear, “this theatre reminds me of the shows we used to see in Manhattan.” I think people in South Florida are hungry for stouthearted theatre. Our motto is “bursting with stouthearted creativity” and that is what we are striving for. The rewards are numerous. What a gift to reach people and make them think, laugh, cry, dream, desire, change, and believe in themselves, their true selves.

You previously mentioned there being a focus on the “L” in LGBT.

Many companies bill themselves as LGBT focused, but most are focused on the G. There is simply more material out there for the G. Our aim is to serve the L as much as possible in addition to the GBT. I am a therapist at SunServe and work a lot with the Transgender population. Kutumba would like to focus on any and all underserved populations.

Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre is located in the Galleria Mall. For Kutumba productions, you have the audience enter through what you described as the “guts” of the mall for a “backstage” feel.

Having lived and worked in NYC as an actor, I enjoy the industrial, off-off Broadway feel of having our audience enter through the back of the building. Patrons enjoy mingling and adult beverages in the lobby before the show. Once we open the doors to the theatre, the first thing our audience sees is the living, breathing theatre space where the action will take place.

The current Kutumba production Julie Johnson is set during the 1980s. What are some of your favorite ‘80s memories?

I loved the ‘80s! The music, the fashion, valley girl talk…the ‘80s were a fun time, pre-cell phones and computers in everyone’s hands. It really was a completely different world then.

What was involved in the process of selecting Julie Johnson?

I’ve been fond of this play for years and gave it to a producer eight years ago to do. I played Julie in that production. Happily, I am directing this time and get to influence the overall story.

One of the themes of Julie Johnson is how best friends Julie and Claire continue to learn new things about each other. Have you had similar experiences with best friends?

I think we are always learning new things about our close friends. Everyone has parts of themselves that are more challenging to reveal. Julie and Claire have likely been hiding their feelings for a long time. One of the best parts of life are the surprises, the unexpected, the moments when you are willing to be the most vulnerable with someone you know is safe enough to do that with.

Have you started to think about your next Kutumba project?

Our next project is a new play called, Outlaw Jean. We are looking to cast the show immediately. The play is a badass modern day outlaw story with a woman at the helm. It is written by MJ Kaufman, a recent playwright graduate of the Yale School of Drama. It is a last minute addition, so as long as we can find the right actors on short notice, we plan to open in April.

Julie Johnson runs through Feb. 9 at Galleria Studio Theatre (in the Galleria Mall), 2542B E. Sunrise Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. Visit brownpapertickets.com/event/511855 for more info.

Nabors, 82, flew with Cadwallader, 64, a macadamia nut farmer from Hawaii and his partner of 38 years, to Seattle (where gay marriage is legal, as in the rest of Washington State) for a ceremony presided over by a friend of Nabors who serves as a judge.

Nabors and Cadwallader, whom the actor calls his “best friend,” own a macadamia farm that is part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

There is an urban legend which maintains that Nabors and actor Rock Hudson were married in the 1970s, but the two were never more than friends.

As Hudson himself recounted during a 1985 interview (the actor died in October of that year, the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness), the Nabors marriage myth originated with a group of Huntington Beach, California gays whose annual parties included joke invitations.

“There appears to be a couple of elderly or middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntingdon Beach, which is just down the coast from Los Angeles, who every year give a party, a big party, 500 people or so,” Hudson explained.

“And they invite everyone they know. It’s an engraved invitation, and to make it amusing they will say ‘You’re cordially invited to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in Huntingdon Beach.’ One year the invitation was, ‘You are cordially invited to the wedding reception of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors,’” with the punch line being that Hudson would take the surname of Nabors’ character, Gomer Pyle, becoming “Rock Pyle.”

Those who didn’t get the joke spread the rumor.

“It went all over the country,” Hudson said, even though Nabors was datingCadwallader, whom he married last month.

Both Nabors and Hudson were closeted at that time, and because of the fear they might be outed, never spoke to the other again.

After accepting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, Foster opened her remarks by joking, “I’m just going to put it out there, loud and proud. I am, uh—single.”

The Academy Award-winning actress (“The Accused,” “Silence of the Lambs”) referred to her relationship with her former partner of 20 years, Cydney Bernard, with whom she has two sons.

With their children in attendance, Foster, 50, said that Bernard is “my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor, ski buddy, consiglieri, [and my] most beloved BFF of 20 years,” and added, “I am so proud of our modern family.”

“I already did my coming out 1,000 years ago, in the Stone Age,” Foster told the audience. “Those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually to everyone that knew her, everyone she actually met. But now apparently I’m told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance, and a primetime reality show.”

She continued, “You guys might be surprised but I am not ‘Honey Boo Boo Child.’ No, I’m sorry. That’s just not me. It never was and it never will be. But please don’t cry, because my reality show would so boring.”

Foster, whose breakout role was as a teenage prostitute in the 1976 film “Taxi Driver,” told the attendees about living her life in a fish bowl. “If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe then you, too, might value privacy above all else. Privacy. I have given everything up there from the time that I was three years old: that’s reality show enough, don’t you think?”

About her plans for the future, the actress offered, “This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else.”