February 2002
Once again I made the trek up to Cindy’s place, stopping to pick up Jazz along the way. This time, however, we didn’t have to go any farther because the show we were seeing was at the Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, MD, right in Cindy’s neighborhood as it were. Which is not to say that Jazz and I didn’t manage to get misdirected along the way. We had made it safely past DC without being shunted off the interstate, but 95 and 495 were still running together so I was watching for them to separate. I followed a sign that indicated Baltimore, and almost immediately realized that I’d gotten on the Washington-Baltimore Parkway. Well, at least we were still heading in the right direction. After a little shuffling of routes we spotted a sign for I95 and followed it. So we weren’t lost for long.
We had no further adventures, thankfully, till the next day when we tried to find the theatre. Cindy had never been there before, but had gotten directions off the internet, which experience has now shown us are very untrustworthy. We left her house with plenty of time to spare, thinking we could scout out the stage door and maybe send a note back. We were foiled in that, however, when we turned onto Charles Street where the theatre was supposed to be and couldn’t find it. We were sure we’d gone past it, but this was a one-way street and we couldn’t turn around. After some confusion we found ourselves shunted off Charles and onto the parallel street going the other way, and I (in the backseat) had a look at the tiny map that came with the directions.
The theatre was indicated by a star and seemed to be on the block between Baltimore and Redwood. I advised Cindy to go past those streets then turn right at the next street where she could. This turned out to be Lombard Street, the one we had turned off of onto Charles in the first place. (We’re going in circles!) We were coming up to the intersection when we saw a sign that said “Parking-Mechanic Theatre”. Wonderful! we thought. If they let you park here for the theatre they must know where it is. And they did: around the corner, up the block, and across the street. Now we saw why we had missed it; there was no sign or any indication of what the nondescript building was. We realized later that we were on the stage door side, so that may have been why. We hurried in, not wishing to lose any more time by sending a note backstage. We still had plenty of time, though, and made discreet inquiries as to the location of the stage door for future use.
The show we were seeing was South Pacific. Now why, you may ask (go ahead and ask), would a self-proclaimed non-fan of musical theatre go to see a Rodgers and Hammerstein show, of all things. I can explain it in two words: Lenny Daniel. He is the dance captain for the tour and also performs in the ensemble, and I wanted so desperately to see him again that I was willing to watch nearly anything he was in. (Which explains how I came to be the owner of two Broadway Bares videos.) I learned after buying my ticket that Jaymes Hodges had joined the cast, making the prospect even more exciting. And believe it or not I actually enjoyed the show. The music was nice and the story was angsty without being overly sappy.
The show starts slowly and seemingly in the middle. (It is based on three stories from the book of the same title by James(?) Michener.) The hero and heroine have met a couple weeks prior, and we don’t get to see the courtship that brought together this unlikely pair, a middle-aged French plantation owner and a young US Navy nurse. The opening songs are light and soothing; we don’t get a rousing number until scene II. This goes against the usual construct of a musical show, but if one always sticks to the same formula, one gets rather boring and predictable, don’t you think? Michael Nouri as Emile de Becque had a nice baritone voice and a believable French accent. He was also rather handsome in an older sort of way. Erin Dilly as Ensign Nellie Forbush was bubbly, sweet, charming, and pretty, but her Arkansas accent needed work. It was a bit patchy during the first scene, as if she couldn’t decide whether she was from the South or New England. But it evened out after that.
The first scene seemed to drag a little, but that was mainly because I was eagerly awaiting the next scene when the sailors appeared. And it was well worth the wait! This being a tropical island port, many of the sailors were clad in shorts and tank tops, Jaymes among them. Others wore long pants and unbuttoned shirts. And then there was Lenny who wore shorts and a T-shirt, but had the front of the shirt pushed behind his neck so that his chest was exposed. Ah, a feast for the eyes. :~)
The sailors had two songs, “Bloody Mary” and “There is Nothing Like a Dame”, almost back to back, and between the two I think each guy got at least one solo line. They all had nice voices, though Lenny and Jaymes were my favourites. (Biased, me?) After them I liked Jody Ashworth who played Stewpot. He is a big, menacing guy, built like Jaymes, and with a deep rolling bass voice to match his build.
And while we’re on the subject, Gretha Boston as Bloody Mary is about the female vocal equivalent of Mr. Ashworth. She has a lovely throaty contralto with a hint of operatic quality with which she delivered the seductive number “Bali Ha’i”. Her performance credits show her to be very versatile. She has performed in Showboat, It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Rigoletto, Porgy and Bess, Handel’s Messiah, and Verdi’s Requiem, among others. Impressive, no?
The performance of the sailors was very high-spirited, I think because after scene II they don’t get much more stage time. Jaymes got a couple extra lines as Professor.
“We call him that because he’s the only one of us who went to college.”After that introduction from Luther Billis, Jaymes spouted a few words of incomprehensible Latin, to the amusement of the audience and the perplexity of Marine Lieutenant Joe Cable, a Princeton graduate.
Following scene II the sailors were little more than stagehands, managing set changes and sometimes hanging out in the background. They were fun to watch, but I think they could have improved their posture. They were supposed to be military men after all.
Another cute scene involved the navy nurses doing their laundry and showering on the beach. This was the setting for the well known song “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair”. (So that’s where it’s from.) Clad in shorts and a “bathing bra” Nellie actually showered and shampooed her hair right there on the stage. How she managed to keep her costume dry and makeup from smearing is beyond me. They were well into the number when Lenny and another sailor suddenly rushed on from the wings, eager looks on their faces. When they saw that the nurses were still clad as they had been before, the eagerness was replaced with chagrin and they carefully turned and slunk off the stage, amid much tittering from the audience.
A pivotal scene came when Lt. Cable traveled to Bali Ha’i and met up with the native woman Bloody Mary who introduced him to her daughter, Liat. She left them alone and after a feeble attempt at chit chat (in French) they seemed drawn to each other by an animal magnetism and were lip-locked. The lights went out and when they came back up Cable and Liat were sitting on a bed, he with his shirt unbuttoned and she readjusting her sarong. Uh huh, that was awfully quick.
Just before the interval came the scene of conflict where Nellie learns a little bit more about Emile’s past. Namely that he has two children by a late Polynesian lover. Unfortunately, Nellie’s little racist Arkansas mind can’t accept this. Contamination by association I suppose; this is set in the 1940s after all. We are left to mull over that as the first act ends.
During the break we discovered the picture brochure at the souvenir stand and eagerly bought one apiece. It had plenty of pictures, but unfortunately none of Jaymes as he had joined the tour after the brochure was made. All the same we had a nice time looking at it while we waited in line for the restroom.
The second act opened with some of the nurses and sailors, led by Nellie, putting on a Thanksgiving show for the rest of the company. Lenny and Jaymes were two of the three sailors “performing”, much to my delight. It is nothing short of hilarious to see people that you know are perfectly capable, even excellent performers acting bashful and uncoordinated in a play-within-a-play setting. But what made my heart leap with joy was when I saw Lenny reprise the Macavity spin from the fight scene in Cats. Not with Jaymes, mind you, though that would have been interesting to see. It was with one of the nurses, and was a good deal slower than it had been in Cats, but I was glad to see it once more since it was one of my favourite moves.
Following that was another scene of conflict. Bloody Mary brought Liat to Cable and essentially told him that if he didn’t want her she was going to marry her off to some navy officer. (Very cavalier attitude there.) Well he wanted her, but not to marry. (tsk tsk) So Bloody Mary dragged her away, all the while the poor girl was clueless as to what was going on since she only spoke French. No one seemed to care how she felt about it. Hmph!
We went back to the show-within-a-show as they were about to finish with “Honey Bun”. Erin Dilly was adorable in her oversized sailor suit (I don’t know how she kept from tripping over the pants cuffs), and David Warshofsky (as Luther Billis) was terribly cute in his coconut shell bra and braided grass wig. Then the nurses came marching in wearing costumes that looked as if they’d been cut from American flags. (Tut!) And I have to mention this because I come from a somewhat military-oriented family. (Dad is retired coast guard, his dad is retired marines, and Vince, of course, is in the army.) The nurses had taken off their dog-tags for the show, something that would be frowned upon, especially in war time. In fact, I don’t think Nellie ever had one on, not even when she was in uniform. (tsk tsk TSK) Anyway, that aside the dancing was cute, and the three sailors (the other one was Kevin Covert, another ex-Cat, but not one that I knew) joined in at the end. They finished and all the “performers” bowed, the sailors rather self-consciously. I was watching Lenny just then and Connie, the head nurse sauntered off the stage and tickled him under the chin as she went by. He immediately followed her off, a bewitched look in his eyes.
The next scene included a confrontation between Nellie and Emile where she tells him she’s getting a transfer. Emile wonders aloud how some people can be so closed-minded, “are they born that way?” Joe Cable (who had been lurking around feeling sorry for himself) answers him with the song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”. He sang it with a bitter ferocity that I felt suited it well.
Since both these men had been left hung out to dry by their lady loves, they agreed to embark on a near-suicide mission that had been brought up earlier in the show. Emile had originally refused to do it because he was planning to marry Nellie. Well, excuse me, but I think he still has two small children even if he lost his fiancée. Yet he seems to give not a thought for them. This show has an awful lot of misplaced values.
Well, to make a long story short, Emile and Joe go off on their little spy mission and Joe is killed along the way. Emile comes back alive and Nellie, relieved, takes him back. We never find out what happens to poor little Liat.
Just one more teeny little gripe. The company was preparing to ship out (I assume Nellie got a discharge or something since she stayed) and there was a short scene with Billis and the two commanding officers. Behind them the sailors were loading cases of artillery into the back of a truck, and I noticed a little continuity problem. Several sailors came on carrying the cases as if they were quite heavy. (I suspect they were empty.) One guy used his knee to get his case up onto the waist high tailgate, and another walked away rubbing his back painfully. But the sailor in the truck bed then came over and picked them as if they were nothing. *sigh*
With the show over we hurried in the direction of the stage door. We had goodies for the boys, of course. I had baked cookies; Cindy and Jazz went in together on a box of Wockenfuss truffles. As we stood waiting and watching the performers go by I leaned over to Cindy and asked, “Lenny was usually one of the last ones out at the Winter Garden, wasn’t he?” But before she could answer I looked up and saw him through the glass door. Speak of the devil…
I think Lenny’s gaze passed over us as he came out the door, but he immediately turned to hold it open for the little girl who played Ngana and I don’t think he registered our presence. Jaymes joined him and they started to walk past us when Cindy called out. Lenny saw us and exclaimed, “Oh, my God! Look who’s here.” Then there were hugs all around. I got a kiss from Lenny…on the ear. I think he was aiming for my cheek. ;~)
“I wish you’d let us know you were coming,” Jaymes said. “Now I’m wondering, did I have a good show?”
We assured them both that they had been fantastic. “The best part of the show,” I said with a grin.
“After the leading lady,” Cindy added.
“Oh, isn’t she great?” Lenny and Jaymes said almost in unison. And thus we proceeded to talk about how wonderful the show was.
And easy. Lenny, the dance captain commented that even though he and Jaymes have two of the hardest dance roles, it is the easiest thing they’ve ever done. Cindy noted that we had recognized the Alonzo/Macavity spin. Lenny smiled and told us he had added that himself.
“At least she wasn’t as heavy as Keith,” I said.
“Oh, God no!” Lenny cried.
We continued to talk for close to an hour on various topics: Cats’ closing and how certain people had become rather distant afterward; Cats in London; The Cats Tour V:
“It’s been following us”, Jaymes said. “Every theatre we go to has posters for that, too.”
Cats at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in New York: “They called me and asked me to do that,” Lenny told us, “but I turned them down. After all, why go out there and get paid a pittance when I can stay in this show and get a steady paycheck.” (He does have a point.)
We also talked about all the bootleg recordings that have been springing up like toadstools. “I know someone must have made a video of the final [Broadway] performance [of Cats],” Lenny said fervently, “and I would love to have a copy of it.”
(Hint hint! Send it to me and I can get it to him. If any of you bootleggers are out there, contact me at WitchCat07@yahoo.com)
The guys talked easily on just about every topic we introduced. Sometimes when someone else was speaking Jaymes, who was standing next to me, would think of something to add but apparently didn’t want to interrupt. So he’d tell me. Which was lovely, but I had a little trouble listening and responding to him while keeping an ear on the others. Quite a dilemma I can tell you!
Somewhere in there we got pictures taken by a very obliging security guard and also got the guys to sign our brochures. Since Jaymes wasn’t actually in the program yet he signed over the face of the guy he replaced. “Poor Justin,” Lenny snickered.
It was getting close to midnight and there we stood on a street corner in the heart of downtown Baltimore chattering away. I’m sure the guys would have kept talking into the wee hours of the morning if we’d let them; they weren’t in any hurry to return to their hotel, which was only around the corner. But we had to get back to the car before the parking lot closed. They offered to walk with us there and I was all for it. Cindy told them no, though, “you don’t have to; it’s only across the street.” (…and down the block, and around the corner.) They started to insist, but Cindy assured them it wasn’t necessary. I was a little disappointed, but we got our hugs goodbye there and went our separate ways. The car ride home was uneventful I am happy to say.
The next day I went to Mass with Cindy and her family. Sometime in the course of the morning she realized that even though she’d remembered to get a playbill for Bandersnatch (as requested) she had forgotten to get it signed. So we talked about catching the guys at the theatre again. We looked at the schedule and decided we’d do best to get them before the 6:30 p.m. show.
Before that we were copying tapes. I had brought, among other things, a tape of Cats clips, some from around the closing. I copied it for Cindy, and we thought Lenny might be interested in it so we made a copy for him, too. Then Cindy printed out a copy of the picture taken of all of us with her digital camera to give to them. So we went to see them bearing gifts once again.
Cindy’s son, Shawn came with us since there was no one at home to stay with him. I sat in the backseat with him and the directions. All went well until we were looking for signs for North Street. Suddenly Cindy saw blue lights in her mirror and had to pull over. Poor dear, she’d never been pulled by a cop before and was very flustered. Turned out while we were looking for street signs we had missed a stop sign. Oops! She gave him her license and registration and he went back to his vehicle. (Oh no, I thought, he’s not really going to give her a ticket, is he?) After he had gone Cindy realized she had given him the old registration. Double oops! When he came back she told him this. “That’s okay,” he said, “but did you realize your license is expired? You should have renewed it at the beginning of the month.” Argh! Triple oops! Fortunately there’s a month or so grace period, and she didn’t even get a ticket.
We had hoped to get to the theatre around 5:30 and just about made it. We sent Jazz in to check if Lenny and Jaymes had arrived yet. Then because it was extremely cold and windy we decided to stand just inside the stage door to keep from freezing. The security guard didn’t say anything to us; I think he remembered us from the previous night.
Jazz was told that all the performers were supposed to arrive by six p.m. Well guess what. Lenny and Jaymes showed up right at six. Lenny came in first, and when he saw us he gave us a puzzled look and said, “Uh, hi, guys.” It was probably on the tip of his tongue to ask, “What are you doing here?”
“Jaymes should have told you,” Cindy giggled, “we always come back.” Yes, just call us the boomerang fans. :~)
The guys seemed delighted to meet nine-year-old Shawn. I think he got more attention than we did! He had seen Lenny only once and Jaymes not at all, but when Cindy pointed to Lenny and asked, “Shawn, who is this?” he hesitated for a moment then said, “Alonzo.” Lenny and Jaymes were clearly impressed, but I feel it is only fair to point out that Cindy had several times during the car ride told Shawn (who is autistic BTW) we were going to see “Mr. Alonzo.”
Jaymes ran up to sign them in then came back to talk. We had intended not to keep them long, just get the playbill signed, give them the tape and picture, say goodbye, and go. But the guys were very unhurried, talking to Shawn and asking about his dance classes. Then Cindy told them about running a stop sign and finding out her license was expired. Lenny raised an eyebrow and commented, “You might want to get that fixed.”
“She even gave the cop an expired registration,” Jazz added.
“You are just a walking multiple violation, aren’t you,” Jaymes laughed.
We got the playbill signed, and gave them the tape and picture. The security guard came over then and asked, “Did I do a good job?” We assured him that he had and thanked him again. Then I asked the guys when they were going to be in Philadelphia. (They had been urging us to come catch them there since it’s not too far from Baltimore, relatively speaking.) Lenny showed me their schedule, which had them in Philly the first weekend in May. Alas, though I didn’t realize it then, I can’t possibly go as that falls just before my trip to London and Germany. I will have to wait and see them another time.
We parted soon after. I got a hug and “Goodbye, sweetie,” from Lenny. (Ooh, I get all tingly thinking about it! ;~)) Jaymes had his hands full and bent down to let me embrace him. As I did so my cheek brushed his and I noticed that he hadn’t shaved. As a blond he can get away with that for a day or two.
We returned to Cindy’s house and sat up talking and watching TV. Not much else to report. I took Jazz home the next day then went on to tai chi, orchestra/chorus rehearsal, and finally home. It was a fun trip and I would love to do it again, especially if it means I get to see Lenny and Jaymes again.