Do you ever have to get things out of your head and put pen to paper / fingers to keyboard? I do and last night / this morning I had the opportunity to do just that.
I have been up since 2am (thank you MS-related insomnia) and it gave me the chance to organize my thoughts, do some fun / necessary research online to get my facts correct and pull a story out of my head that starts in 1963 and answers that age-old question: Who has that fancy / classy perfume bottle?
I know…I can tell…..you’re on the edge of your seat. Well, hold onto your butt. Here goes…
On April 23, 1963, a new musical, “She Loves Me”, premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The musical featured Daniel Massey as Georg Nowack and Barbara Cook as Amalia Balash (Barbara Cook was also the Tony winner and original ‘Marian the Librarian’ in The Music Man). “She Loves Me’ is a ‘sweetheart’ of a show- a delightfully, charming show - and it features the funny / beautiful songs, “Will He Like Me” and “Where’s My Shoe?” and “Vanilla Ice Cream”. (See short video clip below of Judy Kuhn singing Vanilla Ice Cream).
The story is set in a perfume shop in Budapest. Appropriately so, as this musical was underwritten by Guerlain, a fancy / classy Parisian perfume company. The set of the show was adorned with their (Guerlain’s) fancy / classy perfume bottles. Over a year later on the show’s closing night, Barbara Cook secretly absconded with one of those fancy / classy Guerlain perfume bottles from the set as a keepsake. (www.guerlain.com)
Thirty years later, on June 10, 1993, the first Broadway revival of ‘She Loves Me’ opened at the Criterion Center Stage Right theater. The cast included Boyd Gaines as Georg and Judy Kuhn as Amalia Balash. On opening night, Judy Kuhn walked into her dressing room to find a gift bag sitting on her dressing room table. In that bag was a note from Barbara Cook (the original Amalia Balash) as well as the fancy / classy Guerlain perfume bottle she had taken from the original set / production 30 years ago. The note said, “This is yours now” - sort of a ‘passing of the torch (role of Amalia)’ to Ms. Kuhn.
23 years later, in 2016, the Roundabout Theatre Company presented a revival on Broadway which opened at Studio 54 on March 17. The production starred Laura Benanti (Tony winner for Gypsy, television - Younger, Supergirl) as Amalia, Zachary Levi ( television - Chuck, The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel, Film - Shazam) as Georg, and Jane Krakowski (Tony Winner for Nine, television - Ally McBeal, 30 Rock, Kimmy Schmidt).
My friends and I flew up to New York City from Dallas to see the production. We were completely spoiled / blessed to sit in the director’s house seats, get a tour of the stage / set after the show (see picture below) and meet Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti as well.
All of this was thanks to the finest Christine Daae to ever grace the stage of Broadway’s “The Phantom of The Opera” / childhood friend (see pic below) and her husband - but that’s another story for another sleepless night.
I had every intention of asking Laura Benanti if she was now in possession of the fancy / classy perfume bottle, but I completely forgot. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Cut to 5 years later (last week), I was talking to Judy Kuhn (4-Time Tony Award Nominee and the singing voice of Disney’s Pocahontas) via Zoom and remembered to ask her if she had passed on the perfume bottle to Laura Benanti. I finally / happily got the answer to the question - where was / who had the fancy / classy perfume bottle? See Zoom video clip below.
OK…I just needed to get that out of my head and organize it / see it on paper / computer. I am starting to write things down more and more. While MS has only attacked my spinal cord so far, there is every chance it could attack my brain (not sure why it would want to - there’s not much up there - LOL) and begin to rob me of things - memories. Mind you, I have faith that is NOT going to happen with the treatment plan I am on, but still, it is a remote possibility so I am writing / typing the good stuff down so it is not lost. Also, I may be a little paranoid.
No comments:
Post a Comment