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I have lots of catching up to do. My quarterly updates will come soon, followed by a vacation summary and a write-up of the NPL con. But first, an overdue celebrity death watch and a theatre review.
Celebrity Death Watch: Beatrice Arbour played shortstop in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Pat Bowlen owned the Denver Broncos. Michael Jaffee led the medieval music group, The Waverly Consort. Charles A. Reich wrote The Greening of America. Franco Zeffirelli was a film director. Susan Bloom directed the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons University. Yehuda Levi was an Orthodox rabbi and a physicist who wrote books on science and Judaism. Susan Bernard was an actress, best known for starring in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and may have been the first Jewish Playboy playmate. Judith Krantz wrote trashy novels. Spiro Malas was an opera singer, who starred in the revival of The Most Happy Fella. Beth Chapman was a bounty hunter and reality TV star. Tyler Skaggs played for the Angels. Sid Ramin was the orchestrator for West Side Story among other musicals. Lee Iacocca was an executive at Ford and at Chrysler (not at the same time, obviously). Bob Gililand was the first pilot to fly the SR-71 Blackbird. Marie Ponsot was a poet. Rip Torn was an actor, primarily on television. Ross Perot founded EDS and ran for President. William Dannemeyer was an archconservative, homophobic congresscritter from Orange County, California. Fernando Corbato developed Multics.
Gloria Vanderbilt was a socialite, an artist, and a fashion designer. Her jeans were a huge success. I admit to having owned and loved a couple of pairs of them, largely because she designed for women with hips. I had assumed that everyone knew that Anderson Cooper is her son, but it is generally a fallacy to assume everyone knows something.
Arte Johnson was a comedian who appeared on Laugh-In and is probably best known as the German soldier who would pop up and say, "Very interesting."
Martin Charnin was the lyricist for Annie, as well as several other musicals, including Two By Two. The song "You’ve Got to Have a Rudder on the Ark" from the latter was a big favorite in my family.
Michael Sleggs was an actor in the British sitcom This Country. I got a ghoul pool score for him, largely because I believed a tabloid article that said he was near death, so I traded Ed Kranepool (who got a kidney transplant, meaning I was looking to replace him from the list) for him. I then backfilled with Denise Nickerson, who had played Amy Jennings on Dark Shadows and Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because I saw an article saying her family had withdrawn life support from her after a stroke. As a result, I’m now in 5th place in my ghoul pool.
Jerry Lawson was the lead singer of The Persuasions. His wife is a facebook friend of mine (and a cousin, though we haven’t figured out the exact relationship).
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the Yankees. More importantly, he wrote the memoir, Ball Four, which is a classic of baseball literature.
Blackbeard: Just before I left on vacation, I went to see Blackbeard at Signature Theatre. This is a new musical by John Dempsey and Dana Rowe and tells the story of the famous pirate, as he tries to evade the British Navy by raising an army of dead pirates, with the help of the enchantress, Dominique. She’s under a curse, which traps her in a coral reef - something the costume designers had a lot of fun with. To help him, she demands that he retrieve the three jewels she needs to break the curse. It seems impossible, but quest stories always have just the right helper and there’s a young stowaway who just seems to be able to come up with ideas on how to do impossible things.
The quest takes him first to Valhalla, where he wins a drinking contest with Odin, in a funny scene. Then it’s off to Japan to fight Kamikaze and, finally, to India, to get the final jewel from Kali Maa. And, by the way, each of those enemies has some supposed connection to Blackbeard’s father, who he never met – only it seems that none of them ever heard of the mysterious Whitebeard.
The songs are fun, especially the livelier ones like "To Be a Pirate" and "Valhalla." And there are several excellent performances, starting with Chris Hoch in the tile role. Nova Payton as Dominique, Bobby Smith as Odin, and Kevin McAllister as Caesar, the ship’s mate who escaped slavers in West Africa for the freedom of the pirate’s life, are all among my favorite frequent performers at Signature. I should also note the excellent choreography – both the theatrical fencing and the spectacular scene of the undead pirates, which took my breath away even though it was obvious how it was done (a mixture of costuming and puppetry).
However, I do wish the show had more focus. Blackbeard is motivated partly by his quest for fame, partly for his need to search for the father he’s never met, and partly for sheer love for the sea (personified by La Mer, who appears periodically to tell him he belongs to her). I think the show would be stronger if the creators had decided to focus on one aspect of this. It would even work to make it more explicit that he wants the fame to prove something to his father. As it is, the show is entertaining but thin.
Celebrity Death Watch: Beatrice Arbour played shortstop in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Pat Bowlen owned the Denver Broncos. Michael Jaffee led the medieval music group, The Waverly Consort. Charles A. Reich wrote The Greening of America. Franco Zeffirelli was a film director. Susan Bloom directed the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons University. Yehuda Levi was an Orthodox rabbi and a physicist who wrote books on science and Judaism. Susan Bernard was an actress, best known for starring in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and may have been the first Jewish Playboy playmate. Judith Krantz wrote trashy novels. Spiro Malas was an opera singer, who starred in the revival of The Most Happy Fella. Beth Chapman was a bounty hunter and reality TV star. Tyler Skaggs played for the Angels. Sid Ramin was the orchestrator for West Side Story among other musicals. Lee Iacocca was an executive at Ford and at Chrysler (not at the same time, obviously). Bob Gililand was the first pilot to fly the SR-71 Blackbird. Marie Ponsot was a poet. Rip Torn was an actor, primarily on television. Ross Perot founded EDS and ran for President. William Dannemeyer was an archconservative, homophobic congresscritter from Orange County, California. Fernando Corbato developed Multics.
Gloria Vanderbilt was a socialite, an artist, and a fashion designer. Her jeans were a huge success. I admit to having owned and loved a couple of pairs of them, largely because she designed for women with hips. I had assumed that everyone knew that Anderson Cooper is her son, but it is generally a fallacy to assume everyone knows something.
Arte Johnson was a comedian who appeared on Laugh-In and is probably best known as the German soldier who would pop up and say, "Very interesting."
Martin Charnin was the lyricist for Annie, as well as several other musicals, including Two By Two. The song "You’ve Got to Have a Rudder on the Ark" from the latter was a big favorite in my family.
Michael Sleggs was an actor in the British sitcom This Country. I got a ghoul pool score for him, largely because I believed a tabloid article that said he was near death, so I traded Ed Kranepool (who got a kidney transplant, meaning I was looking to replace him from the list) for him. I then backfilled with Denise Nickerson, who had played Amy Jennings on Dark Shadows and Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because I saw an article saying her family had withdrawn life support from her after a stroke. As a result, I’m now in 5th place in my ghoul pool.
Jerry Lawson was the lead singer of The Persuasions. His wife is a facebook friend of mine (and a cousin, though we haven’t figured out the exact relationship).
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the Yankees. More importantly, he wrote the memoir, Ball Four, which is a classic of baseball literature.
Blackbeard: Just before I left on vacation, I went to see Blackbeard at Signature Theatre. This is a new musical by John Dempsey and Dana Rowe and tells the story of the famous pirate, as he tries to evade the British Navy by raising an army of dead pirates, with the help of the enchantress, Dominique. She’s under a curse, which traps her in a coral reef - something the costume designers had a lot of fun with. To help him, she demands that he retrieve the three jewels she needs to break the curse. It seems impossible, but quest stories always have just the right helper and there’s a young stowaway who just seems to be able to come up with ideas on how to do impossible things.
The quest takes him first to Valhalla, where he wins a drinking contest with Odin, in a funny scene. Then it’s off to Japan to fight Kamikaze and, finally, to India, to get the final jewel from Kali Maa. And, by the way, each of those enemies has some supposed connection to Blackbeard’s father, who he never met – only it seems that none of them ever heard of the mysterious Whitebeard.
The songs are fun, especially the livelier ones like "To Be a Pirate" and "Valhalla." And there are several excellent performances, starting with Chris Hoch in the tile role. Nova Payton as Dominique, Bobby Smith as Odin, and Kevin McAllister as Caesar, the ship’s mate who escaped slavers in West Africa for the freedom of the pirate’s life, are all among my favorite frequent performers at Signature. I should also note the excellent choreography – both the theatrical fencing and the spectacular scene of the undead pirates, which took my breath away even though it was obvious how it was done (a mixture of costuming and puppetry).
However, I do wish the show had more focus. Blackbeard is motivated partly by his quest for fame, partly for his need to search for the father he’s never met, and partly for sheer love for the sea (personified by La Mer, who appears periodically to tell him he belongs to her). I think the show would be stronger if the creators had decided to focus on one aspect of this. It would even work to make it more explicit that he wants the fame to prove something to his father. As it is, the show is entertaining but thin.
