First of all, let me say a big thank you to
Mary Zelle, who frequently comments on
Airy Persiflage, for writing to
me yesterday morning to let me know that there were Judy Garland movies on TCM.
Turns out it was Garland marathon, starting with The Clock, which I
saw the end of at about 9 a.m., all the way through to Judgement at Nuremberg,
which ended at 1 a.m. With one exception (an Andy Hardy movie) for which
we switched over to The History of Comedy, I just sat here with my feet
up and wallowed in Judy Garland. Oddly enough, even A Star is Born,
a movie I have seen surely more than 100 times, somehow was like seeing it
through new eyes, since I had not watched the whole thing, start to finish, in a
long time. A very good day. Thanks, Mary!
Walt and I had a great time on Friday night.
We went to view a production of The Gondoliers (Gilbert & Sullivan) at
Light Opera Theater of Sacramento (LOTS). Gondoliers is not one of
my favorite G&S operettas, though I like them all, so why was this evening so
special?
The theater where LOTS performs is a place where
I like to sit in the back row, but there are a lot of stairs to climb to get
into the theater, so we chose the "accessible" entrance, which brought us in at
the first row, between the orchestra and the audience.
The theater itself reminds me a lot of
Presentation Theater, where The Lamplighters performed for all the years I was
an active part of the company. It was a school theater, but one of the
best theaters of its size in San Francisco and perfect for the LLs.
There was no orchestra pit, but the
orchestra was just kind of jammed together at the stage with a bit of
walking space for the audience to get by. They decided that the two seats
behind Gilbert, the conductor, had such limited view of the stage that they
never sold them, so whenever I went to the show I sat there, so often that seat
became known as "The Bev Seat" (after Gilbert died, they decided to sell them,
so the Bev Seat was no more).
The set-up at LOTS is the same, but the musicians
put the cases for their instruments on the first row, so I couldn't sit in the
Bev Seat, but we chose to sit in the first row, but on the side.
This
put us in the clarinet section of the orchestra, which meant we didn't always
get the full blend of the orchestra sound, but instead the clarinet parts
overshadowed, which was just great since it gave us a feeling of what it must be
like to be Jeri, who would be playing that part if she were there. It also
gave us the chance to hear the clarinet lines, which were often in harmony with
the melody that we knew so well.
I was fascinated by the music stand for the two
clarinettists. They seem to have been the only musicians in the orchestra,
that I could see, who had them. They were computerized stands, where it
was like the music was on a program and to change the page, they stepped on the
pedals on the floor. An easy no-hands approach! (I don't know what they do
if there is a sudden power outage!)
It was a new way to enjoy a familiar show.
I was reviewing it for the Sacramento paper,
which limits me to 250 words, but I was so excited about the show, I convinced
my editor here to let me review for Davis too, since there was a lot more I
wanted to say than I could in 200 words. Permission came this morning and
I look forward to writing it.
It was an excellent production, with great
voices, good orchestra, and even a pregnant chorus woman (for real, not for
theatrical purposes!). I don't know why, but the whole experience took me
back to Presentation and the shows we saw in the 70s, while the LLs were very
good, but had not quite achieved the professionalism that they have now.
Walt was feeling the same way, apparently, and we
talked excitedly all the way home about how much fun it was to see this
production, and remembering similar shows in San Francisco 30+ years ago.
My Lamplighter years were very special, and still
are very special and so this ability to step back in time, a little, was a lot
of fun.
We have another G&S show next week, after not
seeing any G&S in awhile. Next week we are going to Pirates of
Penzance, this time by The Lamplighters.
I thought she would be happy when given the OK to leave, but she is beyond feeling happiness, I fear.