Head Shakers 12/9/2019

More Things Which Make Me Shake my Head.

        Having heard from any number of Orlando friends of several rather egregious examples of boorish theater behavior at a venue which deserves better, let me begin by mentioning that we rarely, if ever see, that sort of latter-day rudeness here in The Villages. I’m pretty sure that’s because we’re an older crowd, generally, and that, for most of us who attend Broadway style productions, this ain’t our first rodeo! That said, it is interesting that the staffers of the local newspaper, generally an OK paper except for a rightward slant, are far younger than their readership in many instances.

        This is usually of little consequence when it’s high school sports, golf, national news (no local columnists, all AP feeds), regional news or state issues. However, today’s paper featured a theater review which pointed this lack of sophistication(?) out glaringly to me.

        Saturday we (Emily and I) were treated to as good a Broadway musical from a performance standpoint, as we have seen in some time. As one of the first stops on the current “Beautiful” national tour, which will play Orlando next year, we were treated to what I found to be a terrific “book”
adaptation of what could easily have become just another jukebox musical. This is largely because the events and persons portrayed are, or were, (unlike, say, “Mama Mia,” “Rock of Ages,” or “Movin’ Out”) real people, involved in the actual story and portrayed as themselves.

       Having said all this, I noted the review featured a photo (at least 5 X 7) of the superb female lead, Kennedy Caughell, at the grand piano as she begins (and ends) the show. I read the review, which limned the story line in much more detail than necessary and, as I finished, it struck me that nowhere in the review was the star (Ms. Caughell) identified by name. For that matter, none of the principals was identified.  Similarly, not one individual performance (and there were several noteworthy ones) was cited. Oddly, the reviewer did identify legendary producer Don Kirshner as “Donnie” Kirshner.

        I wondered what this young lady (the reviewer, perhaps 25 or 26, and a pleasant young lady with whom we have conversed previously) would have done with “Funny Girl.”  Would she have mentioned the young ingenue who played Fanny Brice? I’m not sayin’ Kennedy Caughell is another Barbra Streisand (yet), but she’s a superb actress who can sing her face off. Too bad you’d never know that from the review.   

        In more typically Floridian news, (and unsurprisingly, South Florida) a Fort Pierce man came home after a brief shopping excursion to find a woman unknown to him wearing a pink shirt and drinking soda from his fridge. When the sheriff arrived, she said she was hungry, so she was looking for pizza ingredients. She acknowledged also using the bathroom and picking up the man’s debit card “on accident.”  She is currently in custody on burglary charges. It must be something in the water.

        In the “Just how long before bankruptcy?” category, plans have been announced for the November 2020 opening of an “Alpine Village” at Dade City, Florida (of course.) For the uninformed, this is actually south of Orlando. There are no Alps, or even moderately large hills in the area. No worries, though, plans include a 60-foot-high, 400-foot-long “snow tubing” hill (yeah, I said snow!) with a “magic carpet” lift to take intrepid tubers (note the rhyme here with “goobers”) to the top. Really?  

        Am I the only one who finds Melania Trump’s anti-bullying rhetoric strangely at odds with her husband’s daily tirades and belittling “tweets?”  Or is it just a thinly veiled plea for help?

        And, finally on sadder note: we are all diminished by the passing of Caroll Edwin Spinney. While the name is relatively unknown to most of us, his creations are part of our collective histories and are well known to all who ever watched Sesame Street or any other Muppet endeavor.

        Caroll Spinney was a puppeteer, cartoonist, author and speaker, but was most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street from its inception in 1969 until 2018. He, as a principal collaborator with Jim Henson, invented and performed both the large, goofy, 8 foot, 2-inch, tall, canary yellow, Big Bird and the trash can dwelling, curmudgeonly Oscar, for just short of 50 years.  Mr. Spinney, also performed his characters in live concerts around the world and at the White House many times and was featured in films, documentaries and record albums. He died on Sunday at his home in Connecticut. He was 85.