Divamensch

I'm a big fan of Verdi's Don Carlo and my favorite moment in it is the wicked mezzo's aria "O don fatale." Here's the great Russian mezzo Irina Arkhipova singing it in Russian! It sounds even more desperate and acidic when sung in Russian. BTW is Princess Eboli truly wicked or simply misunderstood?

Once again we're at Best Play. The 1983 Tony went to Torch Song Trilogy, a Diva of a play written by and starring Harvey Fierstein. It wasn't the first time a drag queen was seen on Broadway but it was the first time she won Best Play! And Best Actor. One of the other nominees was Marsha Norman's searing two-person play 'night Mother. About a woman saying goodbye to her mother so she can commit suicide at the end of the night. Mensch with a capital M. I couldn't find any foot

I'm a total amateur when it comes to The Beatles. I know maybe only about half of their songs...? And this is a dangerous thing to say when so many of my friends are highfalutin intellectual types but I greatly prefer the early Beatles to the later Beatles. Am I being banished from the Cool Kids Table? I had the song "Boys" stuck in my head for a while. It doesn't get much earlier than this, it's from their first album, Please Please Me. I listened to the whole album last nig

The 1982 Tony for Best Play went to The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a two-part, eight-and-a-half hour adaptation of the Dickens novel. Major Diva attitude just deciding to bring it to the stage. Another nominee that year was Crimes of the Heart, a charming little comic drama about three sisters in the South, total Mensch territory

Ugh, the recap from the previous episode was hard to watch. I hate to see tough girl Bobby being a weepy mess. Chloe was sent home. Bless her Mormon heart, being grateful for the opportunity. Jeffrey was saved, which brought it down to Andriy and Bobby. Whoa, Bobby was saved and Andriy was sent home. That was a surprise. In the early days of PR they used to do a clear-cut litmus test: which dress would you rather wear, if you had to choose one? In that case Andriy would be th

I kind of enjoy this cliffhanger situation, where we find out at the top of the episode how the previous episode ended. Christian read the votes one by one and it turned out that Bi was the designer who was saved. Dani, Octavius, Bao, and Yangyang were all sent home. Poor Dani has to go back to being a flight attendant. Poor Bao has to go back to being disgruntled and feeling wronged. Octavius and Yangyang just put on their shoes and went home. A team challenge! And the butto

Did you know I'm going to Spain next week? I'm going with a group of friends to experience the total eclipse. Not really my jam but an opportunity to go to Spain and hang out with my friends for a week? Yes, I'll take that with a side dish of total eclipse. You say the word "Bilbao" and I'm instantly sent to this beloved Kurt Weill song. Here it is sung by the ultimate Weill interpreter, his wife Lotte Lenya: Would you believe it became a semi-minor hit for Andy Williams in 1

R'Bonney, Plane Jane, and Robby were all sent home. Fascinating that the two Drag Race alums were both sent home. Robby infuriated me by saying in his interview that the piece he showed wasn't good enough and he wanted to show the judges that he could do better. Um, you had your chance! What did you think this was? I have to admit that my fortune-telling powers were off on this one! I was sure that Robby and Plane Jane would be in it for the long haul, that the producers had

Lena Horne did Lena Horne, the Lady and Her Music on Broadway in 1981. It was a concert, mostly, but highly theatrical in its conception an narrative if not in its presentation. I taped it off of PBS and watched it over and over and over, it was one of those shows that planted the seed of wanting to live in New York and see that thing onstage. Horne came to Milwaukee on tour with the show and I BEGGED my parents to take me to see it. They said no, I'm sure it was ridiculous t

Freddy Cannon died at the age of 89. He was a pop singer best known for "Palisades Park." I'm a big fan of his song "Tallahassee Lassie," which I first encountered as sung by The 5, 6, 7, 8s (who I know from Kill Bill Vol 1). Here's Freddy's version. Love this song!

Stephanie and I saw the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Joyce Theater on July 23, 2026. It was a program called *American Heartbeat: Country and Western.* We'd seen MMDG at the Joyce the year before. That program ended with a piece called "Going Away Party," dances done to recordings by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. I was crazy for that piece and of course they were doing it again on this country and western-themed program. And I was curious to see how Morris would work wi

How can it be season 22 of Project Runway? I've seen ever damn episode of this show. Are we going to get into the 40s before I lie down for my dirt nap...? Is that a wish or a threat? First off I want to thank our corporate sponsor, my friend Francesca. I watch PR on Hulu and Francesca shares her Hulu subscription with me. Legitimately, of course. Um hello - - new guest judge Tyra Banks! TYRA MAIL! That puts fuel in my tank. Naturally the first episode has to start with Heidi

I was cleaning my apartment last Saturday and I don't know what possessed me but somehow I had a craving for Styx. I could go the rest of my life without hearing "Come Sail Away" but I think "Lady" is a pretty great song. A few observations: The video is clearly the work of a fan and not done by a pro. I love that. These guys are so authentically unattractive. The guy with the short hair (the bass player) is the pick of the litter but he has an unfair advantage. He's done a s

I never heard of Plas Johnson but I sure know his work. I read his NY Times obit the other day, he died at the age of 94. He was a saxophone player best known for playing the killer sax solo central to the theme from The Pink Panther. I'm not able to embed the video in this post but hopefully you'll be able to click this link...? It's a live performance, probably on some morning TV show. Henry Mancini, "Pink Panther Theme" Here's the single, just in case: Johnson was also a c

The 1980 Tony for Best Revival went to Morning's At Seven, a gentle little drama about (according to Wikipedia) "four aging sisters living in a small Midwestern town in 1928, and it deals with ramifications within the family when two of them begin to question their lives and decide to make some changes before it’s too late." Smells like a Mensch, am I right? Another nominee was Peter Pan. Need I say more? Diva: Peter Pan Mensch: Morning's At Seven

My friend Scott and I spent quite a while talking about Ann-Margret the other night. It's dangerous to put a quarter in that slot with me because I can go ON and ON about her. The next night I was looking for something to watch and realized that I hadn't checked the Turner Classic Movies streaming app in a while. Lo and behold, they have Viva Las Vegas, which I had never seen! Come on - - if I'm an Ann-Margret fanatic, this is must-see viewing, right? It says a lot that I've

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street won the 1979 Tony for Best Musical. A big operatic Sondheim musical about a serial murderer and his accomplice who bakes his victims into meat pies. Cut the throat of that Diva and put it on a plate! One of the other nominees was Ballroom, a warm-hearted musical about a middle-aged widow finding her way back into the world through ballroom dancing. A Mensch for sure.

Stephanie just informed me of the death of Sam Neill, age 78. He's best known for Jurassic Park but since I'm not a fan of those movies I looked through his imdb list for something else. I didn't find much of interest, frankly! I liked The Piano at the time but I feel like that movie might not hold up because of the drippy score by Michael Nyman and the now-problematic casting of Harvey Keitel as a Maori dude (with all those fake tattoos). So I'll give you the preview to Jura

I saw Obsession earlier this week - - my friend Lydia encouraged me to see it, it's an indie horror movie that's getting a lot of attention, has broken all kinds of peculiar records. I recently came up with two personal goals when it comes to movies and this one checked both boxes: To see more movies in the theater, rather than streaming at home. To see more movies about which I know very little. A little background on the second point: a couple summers ago I saw the movie *T

There were four shows up for Best Director of a Play in 1978, they fit neatly into pairs: Diva: Dracula, Deathtrap Mensch: The Gin Game, Da Melvin Bernhardt was the winner for Da, a quiet little Irish drama about a man acknowledging the father figures in his life. Total Mensch territory. I bet there were about eight lighting cues in that show.