Monday, April 07, 2008

The Ladies, One Honorary, Who Sing Sondheim

I won't be able to get over this one for a while. Talk about heart palpitations. Where's my monitor?! It was blockbuster after blockbuster and every moment was thrilling. John Doyle narrated the evening. On stage were Mary Mitchell Campbell at the piano and accompanying on voice and sometimes instruments were the Broadway Babies - Summer Boggess, Heather Laws, Lennya Rideout, Rebecca Jo Loeb. They sang a medley from West Side Story, Pretty Women, Pretty Lady and Broadway Baby. Leenya Rideout sang Cinderella's song from Into the Woods. Heather Laws brought down the house with I'm Not Getting Married by singing all three parts. Jenna Russell sang What More Do I Need, I Remember and Losing My Mind. Pamela Myers sang Another Hundred People and Not a Day Goes By. Debra Monk killed on Can That Boy Foxtrot, The Gun Song and I'm Still Here. Donna McKechnie sang In Buddy's Eyes and Some People. Donna and Pamela reprised Drive a Person Crazy, with choreography! We could see other ladies watching from the wings. Barbara Walsh sang The Ladies Who Lunch and Send in the Clowns. Raul Esparza was an honorary lady and sang Being Alive. Finally, Angela Lansbury made her appearance. She, who admitted to being nervous and warned that she might forget the words, completely nailed Worst Pies on tempo and pitch. The audience jumped to its feet for an adoring ovation. Her response was, "You made it worthwhile! I was so nervous! Well, the next song that I'm going to attempt..." She then gave us a beautiful arrangement of Not While I'm Around. My face is still aching from smiling so much. A special thing about being at an evening like this, especially when its all Sondheim and most people in the audience are singularly minded is that during the songs, you can hear a pin drop, and really everybody's hearts beating in unison and gratitude. There is just nothing like a evening of all Sondheim and it's going to be hard to top this one.

Celebrity sitings: Marian Seldes! Phyllis Newman! Victor Garber! Pia Linstrom! Patrick Stewart! Anne Hould Ward! Edward Hibbert! Cleopatra! Dina Merrill! Jack O'Brien! Raul Esparza (he was in the audience before taking the stage)! As we were leaving the theatre, we kind of got stuck in a hallway - between Angela Lansbury and her brother Edgar and just ahead of us was Patrick Stewart. We could hear Angela talking and then Patrick talking. I nearly passed out. We walked up to the corner and watched Sondheim waiting for the light to change. He's no jaywalker!





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang, this sounded like superfun. Raul! Angela! Be still my heart.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh. Today I went to Nick and Ivy's diner in Alpena. Saw no one. Then to an estate sale where the walls were painted like an aquarium with sea grass and bubbles and there were plastic flowers and pebbles glued to the fronts of cupboards and old medical books lining the book shelves.

And you say that YOUR life is exciting!