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 Vernal Equinox
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| Moon over Manhattan. 10:25 PM. Photo: JH. |
March 21, 2011. Vernal Equinox; first day of Spring. We had a sunny if somewhat chilly weekend in New York. Cold at night. The forsythia are budding in the park, and the neighbors are out once again, for a stroll or a run or a walking the dog along the Promenade.
Last night at the Palace Theater “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” opened to raves. The audience could not control themselves.
As you’re sitting there in the auditorium, waiting for curtain you’re looking at that lipsticked outline of Australia and you’re thinking: that’s kinda cool. Whatever.
Then it starts. The Divas, Tick and Company perform “It’s Raining Men." Incredible sets, incredible costumes. You wonder how are they gonna sustain this eleven o’clock number level at 7 pm?
Then, the lady in red, a Nubian red carnation, like Eartha in her prime, or ... Tina, (brilliantly parodied by Nathan Lee Graham), of course, and she’s singing “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” ... and so are you; and then they’re off ... and so are you.
What did I expect, going to an opening on a Sunday night at 6:30? An early departure and home by nine so I wouldn’t have missed the night. Other than that, nothing. I hadn’t heard the buzz on this show (and there no doubt was one because it’s been running in London for the past nine months). All I knew was the later it started, the later I got out. The curtain did not “go up” at 6:30. A lot of people weren’t even seated, the orchestra was half-full.
Broadway opening nights no longer have that glitz and glamour we saw in the old black and white movies about New York. But Broadway opening nights are still Broadway, baby; and there is real excitement; the theater is full of theatre people, actors, designers, choreographers, friends of, friends of friends of; backers, friends of backers, press (“There’s Cindy with Barbara Wah Wah,” the man behind me said to his wife who was seated while he continued stand and watch the entrances).
The show has almost as many producers as people in the cast – and it’s a big cast, even with many playing multiple roles. Here they are: Bette Midler, James L. Nederlander, Garry McQuinn, Liz Koops, Michael Hamlyn, Allan Scott, Roy Furman/Richard Willis, Terry Allen Kramer, Terri and Timothy Childs, Ken Greiner, Ruth Hendel, Chugg Entertainment, Michael Buckley,m Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley, Bruce Davey, Thierry Suc/TS3, Bartner/Jenkins, Broadway Across America/H. Koenigsbergm, M. Lerner/D. Bisno/K. Seidel/R. Gold; Paul Boskind and Martian Entertainment;Spirtas-Mauro Productions/MAS Music Arts & Show, and David Mirvish. In association with MGM On Stage, Darcie Denkert and Dean Stolber.
That’s what it took to take this very popular and well-remembered movie about the three drag queens traveling on a bus to Alice Springs, in Australia, and turn it into a production at the Palace Theater at 47th Street and Seventh Avenue.
It’s just the greatest. On so many levels. Visually – sets and costumes are brilliant and wild and witty and clean and smart. The characters are perfectly drawn and portrayed, the music is all the music that you could sit in the dark theater and listen to for hours and hours. It’s one of those situations where the musical show is actually the best version of the story. It’s powerful and mesmerizing. The music used to be called Rock until there was Disco. Disco doesn’t stop. Neither does “Priscilla, Queen of ... ” And neither do you. All that disco from the 80s has turned into the Gershwin and Cole Porter of the ‘Teens. Kinda takes ya back. |
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And the energy of the cast, the entire ensemble is unstoppable. You don’t even want an intermission; you just want them to keep going, like never leaving the dance floor.
And when it was over, the audience was screaming, whistling, whooping, yelling, and of course, applauding. Book by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, starring Will Swenson, Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams, it’s one helluva romp and ride, and you’re with them every minute of it. Get your tickets now; it's a smash.
I’m obviously not a theatre reviewer, but I tried to be honest without falling into raving. Because all of my impressions were superseded by the extraordinary energy and visual and musical elements of the show. Lights up your life. |
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Back to business. Perspicacious and fashion conscious readers may have seen the April issue of Vogue, which features an excerpt (“Debt Becomes Her” )from the about-to-be published memoir of a marriage, Innocent Spouse, (Crown Publishers), by none other than our own Washington Social Diarist Carol Joynt.
I know the story but only vaguely, because in the time we’ve known each other she’s rarely mentioned it. Carol and I met several years ago when she was still deep in the process of sorting out her life after her husband’s sudden death. She was talking about writing a book then. The Vogue piece is the first I’ve seen. It’s classic Carol, the reporter; she talks to you. It’s in the bookstores May 10th. |
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Last Thursday and Friday saw the opening of the 24th annual (The) European Fine Art Fair (known throughout the art and collectors world as TEFAF, in Maastricht, Netherlands.
NYSD readers may recall that JH and I have covered the opening several times over the past near-decade. The entire experience is remarkable not only to collectors and connoisseurs, etc. but also to the observer of contemporary life among the elite classes in our civilization.
The huge collections available to see and to acquire provide a kind of leitmotif of those who can in one way or another be called The Proud Possessors. The febrile desires of such men as Peter the Great and Charles II, of Louis XIV and JP Morgan, or Hearst and Frick, of Rothschild and Ephrussi, is present at TEFAF -- disguised by the proletarian style of modernity. This is a moment when the great art and artisanship, craftsmanship and genius prevail, reduce even the Proud Possessors to mere mortals. It’s quite a sight to acquire. And possess.
In the meantime Roger Webster and Jason Grant were in Maastricht over the past few days and have kindly filed with some interesting things for NYSD readers to see and to hear. On the Art Set. |
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