Mercoledi Musicale

It has been said -  perhaps with a grain of truth - that I never saw a Christmas tree ornament I didn't like. This has led to a a stock of (garish) goodies for our Yule bush that has reached the point where we have to pick and choose - this year only 4 of our silver balls made the cut.  Now there are some ornaments that grace the tree every year because of  memories of people, places and Christmases past - that's a given.  Of course it doesn't help that our current tree is much smaller than the one we had back in the days of the big old Victorian house and grand Roman apartment.

Now means that there is an embargo on any new ornaments!  Yeah right, like that is going to happen in the lifetime of the reigning monarch!  Though I did say that the ornaments we bought in Copenhagen,  Helsinki and St Petersburg last year were the the absolute last!  Well okay I lied.

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity will know that one of the great loves of my life is Angela Lansbury.  Not the Angela of Murder She Wrote but the Angela of Broadway musicals, stage plays and incredible film performances.  I've been in love with her since the first time I saw her on stage in 1966 at the Schubert Theatre in Boston.  I posted about that eventful trip back in 2008 and that miraculous moment when a beautiful lady in a backless gold lame jump suit with a trumpet in hand appeared at the top of a spiral staircase and led us in a musical celebration of "Today" and erased all the horrors of that weekend.

Well that lady is appearing this year on our Christmas tree.  When I saw this ornament at Broadway Cares I knew that just one more wouldn't hurt.  Its the last one I swear.  No I will not get the other Broadway Legends ornaments - sure I love Gwen and Bernadette (Julie - not so much) but I now have THE Broadway Legend on our tree - so that's it for ornaments!  Honest!  

And here's the lady herself as an unemployed and broke Mame - heralding the season with the late, and wonderful, Jane Connell, Frankie Michaels and Sab Shimono. 

One of the lovely things that date's this a bit is young Patrick's observation that it's a bit early to be celebrating Christmas as its only "one week past Thanksgiving Day" - hell these days with "Christmas creep" the decorations seem to go up just after Labour Day!  A modern revival would have to change the lyrics to "it's two months 'til Thanksgiving Day".

And as much as the recording captures the joy of that original production there's nothing like seeing the lady in person to show you what "star power" is really about:

We've all grown a little learner (okay maybe not), grown a little colder, sometimes a little sadder and definitely a litte older but we still need a little Christmas.

December 11 - 1934: Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.

Mercoledi Musciale

One of the items I was translating today for Ballet2000 was a review of Matthew Bourne's new ballet based on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Based on the critique I was working on I've added it to my list of things I'd love to see.

In the meantime it reminded me of the 1945 version of Wilde's story of the degenerate young man who never grew old, as his portrait hidden in the attic reflected the degradation of its subject. Though no one knew it at the time it was a landmark as it was the first time that a 19 year old Angela Lansbury sang in a film. It gave little hint of what was to come in the next 70 years.



Who could have predicted that little Sybil Vane would one day become one of the most powerful producers in television and the winner of 5 Tony Awards. Today at 84 she is performing 8 shows a week on Broadway as Madame Arcati in a revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit.

Last month John Lahr sat down with her at the New Yorker and recorded a marvelous interview which can be viewed here. God I adore that woman!

05 agosto - Dedicazione della basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

Mercoledi Musicale

Back in March 1979 Laurent and I decided to celebrate his birthday in New York. It was a three day weekend packed with plays, musicals and dining. Laurent's father was good friends with the manager at the Plaza Hotel and we had a grand - and I do mean grand - room overlooking Central Park.

Friday night started with Wings, Arthur Kopit's riveting play about as a former aviatrix recovering from a stroke, Constance Cummings won the Tony that year and rightly so. It was a tour-de-force and I remember coming out feeling both elated and emotionally disturbed. But that mood didn't last the rest of the evening because we headed down for dinner at The Cookery in the Village and two late night sets by this incredible woman:



As remarkable as Alberta Hunter is in this video she was more so in person. I have a few of her older recordings - from the 20s and 30s - and they are great but I honestly think she was better at 82 then she was at 28. Here's a sample of the young Alberta:



That's some back up group: Sidney Bechet playing the soprano sax, Louis Armstrong on trumpet and his wife Lil at the piano.

And the whole weekend went pretty much like that. Saturday lunch with friends at the Café des Artistes surrounded by those kitschily endearing Christy murals; that evening, Eubie! starring Gregory Hines and brother Maurice celebrating the music of Eubie Blake (who had writeen for Alberta Hunter back in the 20s); followed by dinner at Cafe Argentuil on the Upper East Side. Mass Sunday morning at St Mary the Virgin - smells, bells and their incredible choir doing Rossini, brunch at the Russian Tea Room where we saw Salvador Dali being fluffed up by an attentive hostess for his grand entrance. And the weekend ended with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd.

It was quite the weekend.

30 aprile - San Pio V papa

My Mame - Back Where She Belongs

And speaking of the great Angela Lansbury, I found this draft that I had forgotten about in the archives.

My friend Blake was in New York a few weeks ago and managed to get tickets for the opening night of Deuce, the new Terrance McNally play starring Angela Lansbury and Marion Seldes. He took this great shot of the incredible Angela as she was leaving for the opening night party. She wasn't signing autographs but she turned to the crowd and called out: This is my night to howl! Blake says the cheers at that point where almost as loud as the applause at the curtain calls.
At 82 she still looks great and Blake says that both woman were wonderful but Lansbury has that magic on stage that says "Star."

14/05/07

I remember the first time I saw her on stage - Mame during the Boston try-out in 1966. It had be a disastrous few days. I headed for Boston and a drama school audition at MIT - I was all set to become the Michael Redgrave of my generation - notice not the Olivier or Gielgud, I knew my limitations.

I was eighteen and terribly naive. It was my first time flying and I honestly believed they brought a new airplane out for each flight - duh well 33 years in the airline business taught me better than that. I won't go into the gruesome details but that three days involved lying to my boss about where I was going; getting stacked up over JFK and missing my flight to Boston; losing my ticket in the transfer terminal; buying a new one on North East Airlines; having just enough money for a cab to my hotel in Cambridge and to get into Boston the next day; gave a horrible audition where I blew the test piece to hell; a call to my bank in Toronto for a draft; their call to my boss that cost me my job.

As I said it was a disastrous few days. Except my wanders through Boston took me past the Schubert Theater and a brilliant yellow poster announcing: Angela Lansbury as Mame, a New Musical. I had really loved Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame and really hated Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate (one of the greatest portrayals of evil in the cinema.) How could that horrid woman be the aunt that we all knew we were meant to have? I bought a ticket in the balcony - what would it have been $1.50 maybe $2.00 and strangely, considering it became the hardest ticket to get in New York, I don't remember it being a full house.

- Overture!
- Voice over reading of Patrick's father's will.
- First scene - Patrick and Gooch (Jane Connell) outside Beeckman Place.
- Party scene with Vera Charles (Bea Arthur) centre stage and then...

And then this woman appeared at the top of a spiral staircase in a backless gold lame jump suit, a trumpet in her hand and as she descended began singing, radiating love, joy and that magic that says "star." And for the next three hours every disaster disappeared.

28 gennaio - San Tommasso d'Aquina

Lunedi Lunacy

Twice a month - every second Friday if memory serves right - my father and I would head to downtown Toronto from what was still in those days almost country to go to one of the first run movie theatres. My favorite was The Imperial - a former Vaudeville/Movie house now a legitimage theatre - with its grand staircase, box seats, gilded proscenium, painted domed ceiling and big blue velvety seats. I remember sitting in the Mezzanine watching this brilliant piece of clowning written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama and played to perfection by Danny Kaye, Mildred Natwick, Glynis Johns and Ray Middleton.



And yes that's the incredible Angela Lansbury in the day's before she bacame the Queen of Broadway and Television.

28 gennaio - San Tommasso d'Aquina