La Divina Andreas

I had the good fortune to meet the preposterously beautiful and talented Christine Andreas and her husband Marty Silvestri when we were all performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival about five years ago. I had long adored her peerless vocals on the New York cast albums of MY FAIR LADY, ON YOUR TOES and CLUES TO A LIFE so imagine my surprise and delight when she turned up at the matinee of the show I was doing with Miss Lamond and proclaimed herself to be an instant fan!

At the time, Christine had just signed to star in the U.S. national tour of LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA so we kept in touch over the next twelve months and met up again when she came to see PRISCILLA in Melbourne. Now she's back on Broadway in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES so after she gave us a quick tour of the gorgeous Longacre Theatre (including Harvey Fierstein's vivid fuchsia dressing room and the broom cupboard Kelsey Grammar used to dress in) we caught up for a meal at a splendid Italian restaurant called La Masseria and solved the problems of the world. TT and I were also treated to a spontaneous and breathtaking rendition of the "11 o'clock number" from Marty's upcoming musical version of CASANOVA over the appetisers. A moment to remember forever.