A splendid Sunday evening

As we emerged from the matinee of EARNEST we heard our names being called from across 43rd St and within seconds we were scooped up in the loving embrace of PRISCILLA's Tad Wilson and his family.

Tad was coming from the Brooks Atkinson Theatre where he had farewelled his castmates from his last Broadway hit ROCK OF AGES which played its final performance before going on hiatus until March. Tad and Julie's brilliant son Taylor had just finished his callback for a performing arts course. Taylor was quietly confident so they were in a celebratory mood. Fingers crossed!

We've been ardent fans of jazz singer Jack Donahue since we discovered his first album "Lighthouse" in 2004. We fell deeper in love with his smooth voice and artistry on his subsequent albums "Strange Weather" and "A Small Blue Thing" and were intrigued by his choice of material which runs the gamut from Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Alec Wilder and Johnny Mercer to Kenny Rankin, Jay Leonhart, Suzanne Vega and Barry Manilow. The gentleman also writes songs himself so he's no slouch. For years I've searched his website in vain to see if he had any plans to tour Australia and two days ago it suddenly occured to me to check for any upcoming dates in the New York area. BINGO!! A single appearance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at 6pm on a Sunday evening.

We hadn't realised that Mr. Donahue recently released a new "live" album called PARADE so the programme was mostly made up of new material, highlights which included a bossa nova arrangement of "Before the Parade Passes By", a glorious interpretation of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" (his favourite standard), a heartrending "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" , a complex funny/touching reading of "If I Only Had a Brain", and  two wonderful Barry Manilow tunes, "When October Goes" and "All the Time".We were seated ringside and I'm sure we made spectacles of ourselves as tt was in floods of tears throughout the set and I was sitting with my mouth agape with admiration. Not only is he a consummate musician but in performance he radiates warmth, is terribly funny and happens to be a major spunk. After the show he was waiting by the exit so we boldly made ourselves known as the crazed fans that we are and were somewhat astonished to be wrapped in warm hugs, handed free cds and invitations to coffee dates and tours of New York. The man is a gentleman and a prince and I truly hope he achieves the major stardom that he deserves.