Broadway Flea Market 2011 Heads Into Times Square

The annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction is coming up on September 25, and the event is getting a change of venue for its 25th anniversary. The popular Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit has historically been held in Shubert Alley, but this year, due to construction on an underground parking garage, it will set up shop on 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, stretching across Broadway into the Times Square pedestrian plaza between 43rd and 44th Streets. Fans can enter the market from 10AM to 7PM.

Each year at the Flea Market, merchant tables sell a variety of theater memorabilia including costume pieces, scripts, posters and photographs. A Grand Auction also takes place in which guests bid on prizes that often include walk-on roles in hit Broadway shows. Other highlights include a silent auction as well as a celebrity table in which Broadway stars greet autograph-hungry fans.

As a warm-up to the main event, three pre-Flea Market auction packages are now open for bidding online at the Broadway Cares website. One package offers a VIP experience at the Flea Market & Grand Auction, including an exclusive "line-hopper pass" and opportunity to meet participating stars with a personal celebrity liaison and escort for the day. Another package features two tickets to the opening night performance—and party!—of Follies, starring Bernadette Peters. The third includes two tickets to the final Broadway performance of Catch Me If You Can and passes to the cast party afterward.

A list of additional auction items and stars who will appear at the celebrity autograph table will be announced in September.