another home

(tt)    Well dear readers I am in Sydney after a very long but surprisingly easy trip from Seattle. I slept most of the flight and saw "The Relic" in two parts. A stupid Exorcist rip off with silly Antony Hopkins paying off another Swiss chalet.
I got to the gate of my home away from and the blue case collapsed!   Thank God. I hate the fucking thing. It is going into storage next week.
The arched window is my room in the Glebe house of our wonderful friends, Robert Alexander and Barry Blight.

Now that picture took eighteen hours to upload. So I will put more on once I have been to Telstra and got a modum so I can be my own internet person and not be reliant on cafes where I get wired or can't skype. More soon. I love you all and YOU especially!!

Broadway Royalty

Three of 'em in the one audience tonight!

The lady in pink in the middle of the picture below is Sydney Anderson who appeared at the Palace as Mme. Renaud for the entire original Broadway run of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. Here she is at one of the many cast reunions over the years (that's Cady Huffman second from right).

Ms. Anderson has also appeared on Broadway in OKLAHOMA!, A BROADWAY MUSICAL and CHARLIE & ALGERNON. She liked our show muchly.

Gary Chryst has re- staged Ann Reinking's choreography for every production of CHICAGO around the world. He gave Nick Adams his first Broadway job and Oliver Thornton his first gig in the West End. He saw PRISCILLA in Australia and liked it even better here.

Mitzi Hamilton, who danced on Broadway in APPLAUSE and PIPPIN,  had cosmetic surgery and became the inspiration for the role of Val in A CHORUS LINE ("Tits and Ass"). Mitzi subsequently played the role in London and on Broadway and directed several companies of the show around the USA. She liked PRISCILLA heaps.

Musto Revisited

I wrote earlier about Nick and I attending Michael Musto's book launch and now this item has turned up on his blog La Daily Musto:

​"My recent book party, as I've written 100 times, was a lively swirl of reality show people, Broadway stars, comics, and old Italians.

I was very happy to have gotten an rsvp from two of the luminaries I'd invited--Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams, from Broadway's Priscilla, who had a performance that night and generously said they'd come afterwards.
I warned them that it might be a tad dregsy at that point, but was thrilled they'd actually make the effort.
Well, my party started at 8 and was filled with photographers and food and excitement for two and a half hours, which culminated with a stage revue of outrageous and delectable acts that had the audience cheering.
I swear!
And then the Priscilla guys walked in.
The place suddenly had an apocalyptic pallor about it, with a handful of drunks littered around and not an attractive tableaux to be found for miles.
It was as over as Rick Santorum's chances for Grand Marshall of the next Gay Pride parade.
The event had the feeling of something that might have been semi-serviceable at one point, but was now just a shell of a shell of a carcass of a deceased dog, with a couple of flies feasting on the remains.
Things were so dire I expected to see a tumbleweed blowing by--and was actually hoping for it because it would liven things up a little.
The guys nicely stood there as my mother was lifted down a few stairs from the VIP area en route to being shipped home.
"I invited them for this?" I thought, appalled that a potential celebratory moment for them had turned into an experiment in horror.
We had to make an announcement to find a photographer just so I could record the fact that these two guys had really shown up.
But still, they were lovely and understanding, like stars ought to be.
Alas, that wasn't the end of the humiliation. The next day I emailed Sheldon and thanked him for bringing his mother.
In my post-bash daze, I'd confused his email address with that of someone else with the same first name!
I could just die! What should I do? Hide?"

Of course I have sent him a message telling him how thrilled we were just to be invited.

oh vwah Miss V C and Baz

((tt)  A rather teary Miss V C waved "See yerz" this morning.

I think little Baz was a bit sad too

 But these two guys will not be sleeping in this room for much longer.  All who read this put a white light round them both and the word "Branford" into the ether.

sunday stroll

(tt)   Miss V C went off to squawk in St James Cathedral so I walked up the Broadway and had brekky

Wonder what the last real film was

 This is where Priscilla will be playing in 2018
 It is where I had my omelette

The Biltmore from up the hill

Le Tout Manhattan

The wonderfully witty Village Voice columnist Michael Musto invited me to his book launch last week. He is wicked in print but very sweet in person and I was thrilled to be asked even though it was all winding down by the time Nick and I arrived after the show. The disco music was ear splitting so I only lasted ten minutes but we did have our pictures taken with MM. Sadly they haven't surfaced anywhere so I'll leave you with Mr. Musto's own review of the event:

"The Copacabana turned it out last night with food, booze, percussionists, and dancing Copa girls for the gala launch of my book Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back, promoted by Chip Duckett.
Countess LuAnn de Lesseps and Lisa Lampanelli co-hosted and were pure delight, both taking the stage to gab, followed by Lisa singing a spoof of "Show Off" from Drowsy Chaperone with lyrics about how she doesn't want to chew people out anymore. (I pray it's just a fantasy!)
Murray Hill, Bridget Everett, and Dirty Martini were all a wow. These three hilarious and sexy artists of extreme delight belong on Broadway immediately.
Jerry Springer showed up and people went nuts.
And Jackie Hoffman, Book of Mormon Tony winner Nikki M. James, the cast of Russian Dolls, Priscilla's Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams, Larry Storch, Rutanya Alda (Carol Anne in Mommie Dearest), Tony winner Daisy Eagan, the Glamazons, and a slew of downtown's finest -- everyone from Basil Twist to World of Wonder's Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey to Robin Byrd to ...
Oh, trust me, everyone was there who counts."

Once A Year Day

My favourite event on the Broadway calendar unfortunately fell on a two-show day so I was up with the sparrows to get to Times Square by 9 a.m. I was committed to scribble for an hour at the "Celebrity Autograph Booth" (giggle snicker) from 10.30 a.m. and I wanted to grab a few bargains beforehand. In my haste to spend my hard earned moolah I bolted from the apartment without my camera so I've pilfered these pics from the "Dancers Over 40" website. They ended up with most of my cash so it only seems fair...

The "Priscilla" table did a roaring trade in posters, Playbills, production shots and pots of lip glitter

and naturally our super-fan Hollis snared the three drag bears

our PRISCILLA spruiker at the TKTS booth was ever present

and by 10 a.m. the market was in full swing. I picked up a couple of books and dvds of this year's "Broadway Backwards" and "Broadway Bares" shows

 and a gorgeous set design from the 1983 revival of MAME which appeared to be from Jane Connell's private collection. She was Agnes Gooch on Broadway and in the movie, and there were also a few flyers on sale from when she starred in the West Coast company of ANNIE. And who else's name did I spy in the cast? Miss Toni Lamond, I believe...?

Moneybags Sheldon arrives at the Dancers Over 40 table

I finally got the chance to talk with one of my longtime faves, the beloved Mr. Harvey Evans, whose career I've followed since he was a teenager on Broadway dancing in NEW GIRL IN TOWN with Gwen Verdon. He's still working more than 54 years later. Anyone familiar with FOLLIES knows him as the original "Young Buddy" (2nd from right)

and he's gone on to play "old" Buddy in five other productions

I was so excited that I parted with almost $300 at this table alone. It's all for a good cause and I didn't dare look at any other merchandise on my walk to the Autograph Booth. I mean, the Celebrity Autograph Booth (titter smirk)

Was able to tell the delicious Jonathan Groff how much I enjoyed his work in THE SUBMISSION last Wednesday night. He looked genuinely surprised and said "Why did you come to see my play?" I said, "Because you're in it." People are always surprised that I see other shows on my night off. Can I thus assume that no-one in other Broadway shows comes to see PRISCILLA on their night off?

I was seated between Patina Miller from SISTER ACT (about to adopt our killer schedule and do their first five show weekend...she's petrified)

and Ilene Kristen from tv's ONE LIFE TO LIVE.

Joel Grey, Sutton Foster, Bobby Cannavale (soon to be Nick Arnstein in FUNNY GIRL), the MORMON boys Andrew Rannells and Rory O'Malley, FOLLIES star Terri White and the genetically disadvantaged Nick Adams were further down the table but I didn't see them.

Someone paid $50 to have a Polaroid taken with me!!! Another performer effusively congratulated me on the show and then asked if I played Shirley in the Broken Hill bar scene. When I recovered my tongue I said I played the role of Bernadette. He didn't seem to recollect that character but assured me that he and his mother had loved the show. Then all at once it was midday and I sped to the theatre, light of heart and pocket, for the fastest male-to-female transformation on record. Heigh-Ho, the glamorous life!!!!

Some local kulcha

(tt) One of Miss V C's Seattle workmates, Andrew Murray, is appearing in a production of

  and he kindly arranged tickets. We cabbed to a great thirties style community theatre way up north.

Here is Andrew. He drove us home after the show

 He was one of the Fosse dancers in "Steam Heat" and he was very good.  In fact the cast was really fine and as always that script and score show what a little gem the play is.  Pity there were only three rolls of fabric and one pair of jim jams in the whole evening. Lots of  noddy-chatting and not much work going on.  But we had a great time.

over the sea to...bainbridge

(tt)  Seattle is situated in a sound. So loads of islands and lots of quirky geography. We took the ferry to the Bainbridge Island where we had a very pleasant lunch and saunter.
Here we are at a bus stop near Miss V C's apartment building.

Some bus stops feature a frosted glass tribute to the water and mountains of the area.

 In a desperate bid for attention Miss V C performs some witless improv.

This is the cruise boat that we tried to book for. The woman on the information line who we finally got through to was in Punjab in a call centre and did not even know where HER ferry goes from. The Seattle Visitors Centre is CLOSED on the weekend. We decided to take a local ferry and give the Argosy the finger

From our ferry about to sail

And there he is aloft

Just before this went by a grey seal did a tummy turn

Looking back at Seattle

Coming in to Bainbridge

The Seattle crows are everywhere!

Miss V C often finds herself singing that folk song that precedes the attack on the school kids in "The Birds"

The main street of Bainbridge was full of  touristy twee plus 2 persian rug stores.

 Where the locals buy a carton of milk and a french stick is a mystery. We had a nice nosh at the place with the neon sign. I don't care if it is a boring picture I just wanted you to know

Here is some twee. One place was called "The Churchmouse Yarns and Teas" Oh stick your finger in the back of your throat and jiggle

There was a lot of this on the way back