I concur with Mr. Kimmel. The evening and the wonderful music was so swellegant that any negatives would be quibbles. I also concur that Lesley Anne Warren was gorgeous, sang Sweetriver beautifully and shared swell memories. Susan Watson was also looking quite lovely and also sang beautifully... a couple of lovely songs I was not familiar with. Orson Bean recited the opening of "The Fantasticks...I suspect as a last minute substitute for Elliott Gould. And John Raitt got up, seeming a bit frail (but then I suspect he's in his eighties) to introduce Tom and Harvey with some amusing stories about his near casting misses in I DO, I DO and 110. I must say the stories were subtlely unkind to Robert Horton. You got the idea Horton was not much wanted.
Funniest line of the night. Tom Jones: "David Merrick was deaf in one ear and mean in both ears."
Jones also shared reminisces that Inga Swenson, unable to attend, had passed along.
My favourite: She apparently refuse to use a body mike and got into a big fight with David Merrick about it, but stood up to him, saying: "Mr. Merrick, if they can't hear me, fire me! But I want to control my performance!"
Isn't that a great quote? And a great lesson for all modern performers these days. It should have made the heavily miked performers last night blush with shame.
I'm not one for Japanese food ordinarily, but I just found the perfect choice last night. Pork cutlets on a bed of rice, slathered in a curry sauce...curry gravy would be more apt. Yum!
The only other restaurant choice was a Mexican up the street...which The Lovely Wife nixed as too heavy for such hot weather. As it turned out, ours was the restaurant of choice for the theatre crowd. Even Mr. Jones and Mr. Schmidt ate their pre-show meal there a few tables away. Theatre Historian Miles Kreuger, an acquaintance of both BK's and mine, came in with a group. We were explaining to Tammy Minoff that Miles WAS the Institute of The American Musical and that his house was filled with theatre memorabilia, albums and recordings and programs..."He's probably got an original program from The Black Crook," I said jokingly, mentioning the show that is more or less considered the first American Musical from the 1800's...and I thought well, Hell, he's right there..."Hey, Miles, do you have a program from The Black Crook?" "From opening night, " he shot back. "I can get you a xerox, if you want." Miles is interviewed in BROADWAY -- THE GOLDEN YEARS.
As I was sitting directly behind and above Mr. Kimmel and Tammy (They were in the stalls, we in the front row of the dress circle above...I could have spit on his head), I can attest that he indeed was the first one up for the two standing ovations Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Jones got...although the Lovely Wife was a half second behind him. I...old geezer that I am...can't move quite that fast.
Japanese/Chinese...dishes with either beef or chicken, rice and some sort of savory sauce...sweet and sour, orange-flavoured, lemon...are usually my choices. Pork-fried is always a good adjective for me in dealing with Asian food.
I found the laments about Union practices a bit amusing and a bit naive when I came home last night. Feeling sorry for all the tourist trade jobs affected and how unfair to the deprived audiences and all that...
Well, gee, folks, that's the point of a work stoppage: To create an untenable finanicial situation that puts pressure on the fatcats to negotiate fairly. It wouldn't do any good for them to strike the touring shows, if more and more of them are already non-union. Where's the finanicial burden for the owners in that? Get them where they hurt...the most and the fastest. That's the strategy. Never used lightly, usually as a last resort. But without the real threat of a work stoppage, a union would have very little clout in getting big business to deal fairly.
The simple fact is that anyone who wants to consistently play in the Big Time in the Business of Show is going to have to be a member of at least one or more artistic unions or guilds.
BK, thanks for getting Julieanne's program signed. Would we had known it was so easy to crash the party, we would have.
