Well, when you are 51, the phrase “a night on the town takes” on a whole new meaning. It’s 10:00 pm and we just got back to the hotel after our evening show…Gone are the days of dancing until dawn or staying up late at some piano bar. If you try to do that at our age, you just look kind of sad. Definitely not our style any more. One needs to know when to walk away from the dance floor while one still has some dignity left. We only go to piano bars early in the evening now…anyway, enough of that…
Tonight we saw “Everyday Rapture.” It’s Broadway “semi-star”, as she put it, Sherie Rene Scott’s one woman show on Broadway.
Sherie, who we’ve seen in a couple of shows, memorably “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” has put together this show about her journey from being a “half Mennonite” in Topeka, Kansas to Broadway. Religion seems to be our common thread in shows this weekend.
As Steve put it, “She’s a gay man in a white woman’s body.” She talked extensively about growing up worshipping both Jesus and Judy Garland. My favorite part was when she recreated singing “You Made Me Love” you to Jesus–like Garland famously did to Clark Gable–at her favorite gay cousin’s shunning ceremony.
She went to school with Becky Phelps, Rev Fred Phelps’ daughter. He is the so-called preacher who leads the protests at gay funerals, most famously Matthew Shepard’s and protests at soldiers funerals. He is the embodiment of all that can be wrong with religion and Sherie talked about seeing Becky change from when they were happy children together until he is the hateful woman she’s become today.
There was also a hilarious sequence were she interacted with a little boy on the internet because he had lip-sinked to one of her songs. He wouldn’t believe it was really her e-mailing him unless she would produce a picture of her with Idina Menzel. Quite the contrast from her simple, trusting youth to today’s cynical cyber kids.
It was 90 minutes of non-stop fun to share her journey. She is a very talented lady.
Here is a promo video:
Early to bed tonight so we don’t waste tomorrow morning. We have both had long weeks, so we are calling it a night. Hopefully tomorrow, brunch in Greenwich Village at the Riviera, then we have tickets to one of the hottest shows in town. The sold out production of “Fences” with Denzel Washington.
More to come…
Lost in the 21st Century 