Dear Readers--
Needless to say, that last post was my entry in the "Write Like BK" contest going on in these here parts.
Dear BK--Lovely tribute to Miss Loudon. I always enjoy hearing stories about major stars who allow their humanity to guide them in the way the live and the way they work. Your behind the scenes stories were wonderfully informative about the recording process as well as what kind of person Miss Loudon was. We will miss her.
Dear BK again--So Linda Hart was a schoolmate of yours? I saw a production of Light Up the Sky at the Pasadena Playhouse a few years ago in which Miss Hart was featured, and she stole every scene in which she appeared.
Dear Reader Ron Your Excellency Ron Your Emminence Ron Your Holiness Ron So What the @#$% Are We Supposed to Call You Now Ron--I am not worthy.
Dear Readers--I saw a production of La Cage Aux Folles last night in Long Beach, mounted by Musical Theatre West. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular, either. David Engel was excellent as Albin. He has a great voice and looked great, in or out of drag. Norman Large was good as Georges. Les Cagelles were OK. My recollection of when I first saw the show (national tour at the Pantages Theatre, over 15 years ago) was that the Cagelles were absolutely thrilling. Over those 15 years, I also had forgotten how thin the book to the show is. Still, there are some marvelous gems in the score (what an Act I curtain!) So what song was going through my head when I woke up this morning? "Ann on My Arm." Yecch! (With all due respect to Dear Reader Ann, of course.)
Last Thursday night, I saw The Lisbon Traviata for the first time in a small production at a Hollywood acting company. Being the opera queen I am, I adored the first act. For those of you who have seen the play, you don't need me to tell you that the tone of the second act is very different from that of the first. On the whole, the play was well done.
Today, I saw Madama Butterfly at Opera Pacific in Orange County. This was a very innovative production, and although tradition was ignored in the staging in some significant ways, the staging worked well with the music and enhanced the experience, challenging the notion that a warhorse is a warhorse is a warhorse.