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Dr. Sue Joan Rivers Book Review Positive Entertainment

Joan Rivers Bood

Joan Rivers I Hate Everybody…

Joan Rivers’ book I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me should come with a warning label: if you’re recovering from surgery (preferably plastic) stop reading! Side effects include splitting your stitches from excessive laughter and releasing your inner bitch! At seventy-nine, the sharp-witted  Ms. River has slugged her way through a fifty-year career as a comic, media darling/she-devil, fashion maven, jewelry-hawker, etc. — endlessly reinventing herself after getting fired and banned from network TV, going bankrupt, and getting through her husband’s suicide by re-cycling it as comedy fodder for her stand-up act. Now Ms. Rivers has honed her razor-sharp talons (with a gel manicure) and serves up a collection of caustic cocktail canapés  – sniping at everything and everyone – beginning with herself. Chapter I targets (not tahr-ZHAY, the pretentious French pronunciation) Joan as an unwanted tot (“my earliest childhood memory was watching my parents loosen the wheels on my stroller”) proceeds through her fat tween years (to read her unprintable definition of “tween,” you have to buy the book) to current decrepitude (“Everything is falling apart…except for my face, which I’ve had lifted so many times I wear my earrings on my kneecaps”). Other chapters throw darts at children, old people, restaurant food, fad diets, cultural heroes, celebrities, political correctness and pretense of all stripes.  If you are offended (and you will be), move on to the next zinger until she hits your preferred bulls eye (just can’t get away from tahr-ZHAY, can we?).  Or take a break and pick up when you’re in the mood for another snarky snack. I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me is perfect for subway rides to the unemployment office (oops! I mean limo rides to Bergdorf’s), lounging by the pool (and I don’t mean the public one), and quoting to gossipy gal-pals (of every gender).  Final warning label:  unless you’re as funny as Joan Rivers, do not attempt this kind of humor on your own. Some kinds of performance art take a pro.  Fred Astaire invited us to “face the music and dance”;  Joan Rivers invites us to face her personal truth – and laugh! Happiness/Success Habits Be who you are and make it work – this is true for Joan Rivers, the designers on Project Runway, and everyone with a unique talent. When a door opens, go through it.  Joan Rivers (Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard) got her break writing the “Topo Gigio” puppet mouse sketches for The Ed Sullivan Show and jump-started her sputtering career by doing Fashion Police  – doing what was offered, not asking if it was beneath her. (Editor: Jay Berman)

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos    
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Dr. Sue Belly Dancing and Diamonds Positive Entertainment

Belly Dancer Sue

Belly Dancer Sue

As every Manhattanite knows,  the earth is the size of Manhattan –  and perfectly flat.  If you leave, you fall off. This truism is ringing in my ears as my bus pulls out of New York City and heads  for New Jersey. So far, so true. So far I’ve missed one bus, and the bus driver on the next bus, who is supposed to let me off at my stop looks none too friendly. So why am I leaving my NYC home for NJ – a strange land where people ride cars instead of subways and live near turnpike exits instead of numbered streets?   Why is this simple (Manhattan) island girl doing in the land of  Tony Soprano and (according to old gangster movies) machine guns in violin cases?  Why is my video camera and tripod packed in my guitar case ? The guitar case makes me look  like I’m going  to a folksinging gig.  But I am actually in hot pursuit of  “ice”  – which is what we wannabe gangsters/slangsters call diamonds.  (It’s also a hot summer day, so I wouldn’t mind some real ice.) Turns out the place I am heading has both – diamond earrings and Italian ices. Mamari Jewelers/Art Gallery in Nanuet, NJ is hosting an opening party for their new facility.  I’m supposed to do on-camera interviews of  artist/designers Philippe Valy and Bob Tyne (who are picking me up in NJ).  I’m also hoping  to borrow dangling diamond earrings for the shoot – for the head shots Bob offered to take,  and for my fantasy lifestyle – which includes ice of the non-flavored variety. Real life has more glitches than glitz.  I  miss my NJ  bus stop and travel to the end of the line because I don’t know the landmarks and the surly bus driver doesn’t tell me where to get off.  However, after that rough start (I even offer to go back to Manhattan to avoid making my friends late)  we  finally hook up – and  since the party starts late – we’re on time – even early! The store is actually a small building – a mini-jewelry castle owned by a middle-eastern family.  I instantly head for the jewelry counter, where I slide some fabulous diamond drop earrings onto my ears (a perfect fit). Then I slip into a black lace, clingy, spaghetti strap top – perfect for showing off diamonds! So far, so good. I go upstairs to check out the gallery. The walls are hung with my friends’ artwork; and there’s a table set up as a bar – plus soft drinks, bottles of wine – and no corkscrew.  I go back downstairs to look for a corkscrew –  where the party is well underway. Loudspeakers are playing middle eastern music with a  driving beat.  In the middle of the crowd is a belly dancer.  The videographer and photographer are snapping away, as she tries to coax shy party guests onto the dance floor.  I don’t need much coaxing.  The hypnotic rhythms  call to my ancestral Semitic roots- I am, after all, a Jewish girl from the Bronx (or maybe I just like to shake my booty).  Anyway,  the belly dancer and I start moving in perfect synch … as I live out my dream life – diamond earrings and belly dancing! The party moves outside, where Philippe Valy body paints a pretty young model (Lidia  Keenan) in the parking lot.  Then we all go upstairs where I interview  Bob Tynes and guests about his photographic/painterly images.  The guest pick out favorite images and give their interpretations – mainly about dreams of freedom and peace. I also talk Philippe Valy about his paintings and hand-painted hats (influenced by Greek mythology, surrealism, and Picasso-sqe eroticism).  The hats provide a sculptural surface for his fantasy designs – as does Lidia  – but (unlike pretty young models) you can take the hat home :)! I didn’t take the diamonds home – but maybe next time – especially  if I work on my belly dancing… Happiness/Success Habits
  • Don’t give up or be overly discouraged or anxious – I thought missing my bus stop would make everyone late – I was even ready to go home. But as it turned out, it was no big deal.
  • Step out of your comfort zone , habits, and habitat and try out new things – like belly dancing, diamonds and another state…of mind. The world isn’t really flat and and you don’t fall off – but you knew that!
  • Know when to stay in your comfort zone -and how far to stretch it.  Lidia didn’t want to be body painted in her bikini in the parking lot – so she compromised. She went along with the painting, but kept her jeans on.
  • Enjoy a taste of fantasy life – you don’t have to own something forever to enjoy it for now.  Besides, after a while, you get used to anything – even diamond earrings. If I got diamonds everyday -they might not be as much of a thrill as playing “dress up” for the party.
(Photography: Bob Baker)

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Dr. Sue Judy Garland “End of the Rainbow” Broadway Review Positive Entertainment

 
Tracie Bennett: End of the Rainbow

Tracie Bennett: End of the Rainbow

If rainbows were roller coasters, then Tracie Bennett takes you on the ride of your life!  Her enactment of Judy Garland, age forty-seven and at the end of her rope (and rainbow), careens between the dizzying heights of her breath-taking talent and her death-defying descent into desperation, tantrums, booze, and drugs. Peter Quilter’s bio-drama (ably directed by Terry Johnson) is set in 1968-69 London where Judy is scheduled for a five-week comeback engagement.  The show moves smoothly between the hotel suite Judy shares with her handsome, much younger fiancé/manager Mickey Deans (the handsome, masculine Tom Pelphrey) and and the Talk of the Town night club, where Judy is attracting a sell-out crowd (partly due to the publicity generated by her standing on the suite’s baby grand piano and threatening to throw herself out the window. The piano anchors hotel suite and nightclub orchestra (scenic/costume design by William Dudley) and is nimbly played by Anthony (the terrific Michael Cumpsty) Judy’s devoted, long-suffering, gay accompanist (plus volunteer makeup artist/confessor/caretaker). It’s Mickey’s and Tony’s job to keep Judy off the pills and in the spotlight.  Mickey sets her up with a BBC radio interviewer (Jay Russell) named Donald.  “As in duck?” Judy mocks before she cuts the interview short.   Her nightclub shows are more spine-tingling – both for Bennett’s spot-on reenactment of Judy’s pyrotechnic performance, stage fright, memory lapses, and the looming possibility of public collapse and disgrace. As Quilter’s “Rainbow” arcs toward its climax, Mickey, desperate for Judy to pull them out of their financial hole, feeds her drugs and booze – anything to get her on stage.  Anthony offers an escape into asexual domesticity with him as her caretaker.  Which will she choose? As the world knows, Judy never made it to forty-eight.  She picked Mickey Deans as husband #5 and slid off the rainbow into show business immortality.  (Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street, NYC (212) 239-6200) Happiness/Success Habits Every ride has a ticket price – is the thrill worth the fee?  It’s not clear how much control Garland had – at least not at this late stage.  Most of us don’t have her phenomenal gifts or her demons.  But we do make choices about our own talents, temptations, and intimates. Up close and personal, charismatic, outrageous divas (and divos) can be exhilarating but exhausting.   I like my drama-mamas on stage – not off.  How about you?

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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I Love Lucy with Glen Charlow Positive Entertainment

Glen and Lucy

Glen and Lucy

 Loving Lucy, a musical tribute show to Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and I Love Lucyby Glen Charlow, performer, collector, and  adoring fan, is a singing valentine composed of songs associated with Ball-Arnaz and artifacts from Glen’s home collection of Lucy memorabilia. Glen’s show opens with the I Love Lucy theme song – the cheerful sound track of the legendary TV program.  Show tunes include “Cuban Pete” Desi (Cuban Pete) and Lucy (Sally Sweet)’s duet from the vaudeville act the couple took on the road to convince CBS executives to produce the show that became I Love Lucy. My own book Queens of Comedy, (based on my interviews with legendary comedians like Lucille Ball), quotes a 1950 Variety review: “She pops the eyes out of the first row viewers with her hip-slinging activities to hyped beat of ‘Cuban Pete.’” The Sally Sweet ensemble, emerald green with a split skirt designed to showcase Lucy’s showgirl legs,  now outfits a vintage doll – part of Glen’s astounding array of memorabilia. I asked him to describe his collection of dolls, plates, figurines photographs, magazine covers, recordings, and designs for costumes and personal ensembles (like the aqua chiffon caftan with feather boa sleeves and matching shoes Ball wore to a Bob Hope Christmas special). Glen beams, “It’s precious.  If I had to describe it in one word, I’d say, ‘huge!’  When I first started, I didn’t consider myself a collector.  I was out shopping one day, and I found a beautiful picture of Lucille Ball. I bought it and put it on my wall. Weeks later I found another picture.  One thing led to another and I ended up with this!” By now, Glen has invested over $100,000 in his collection – whose worth has at least doubled.  Does Glen own the most extensive Lucy collection?  “There may be a bigger one – like the one belonging to Michael Stern, whom Lucy called her ‘number 1 fan.’  Michael owns the cast from the time she broke her leg when she was starring in the movie version of Mame, but I certainly have the largest collection on the East Coast.” Glen’s own collection and show include artifacts and songs from Mame, plus Lucy’s Broadway musical Wildcat – including the opening number “Wildcat” which was cut from the show because it was too hard for Ball to sing.  Lucy shows up in her Wildcat role as a poster, figurine – even a Broadway Care Bear.  Glen’s favorite piece is a leather-bound scrap book Lucy Day at World’s Fair 1964, put together by Lucy’s publicist. Glen’s fascination with all-things-Lucy began when he was eleven.  He first fell in love with The Lucy Show (on the air at the time) then later became acquainted with repeats of the original I Love Lucy.  How far does Lucy permeate Glen’s life?  “My cats are named Lucy and Ricky. When I’m with my friends who love Lucy, I quote from her TV episodes.  “Some of my facial expressions are like Lucy, and I sometimes do things that are very Lucy-like – like tasting salad dressing from the bottle the way she did on TV episode.”    If you want to learn more about Glen’s Lucy-itis, visit his website www.lucilleball.net , or come to his show Loving Lucy (June 9, 1:45-3:30pm  at New York Sheet Music Society, Musicians Hall 322 W. 48th Street NYC)  his musical tribute to the lady who lights up his life! Lucy-itis must be catching.  The day after our interview, I got an Email from Glen saying: “you left a tissue with your lip print on it…What a very ‘Lucy’-ish thing to do!”   My practical reason for the tissue was an attempt to avoid smearing my Lucy dress with lipstick when I changed for my photo-op.  My Lucy reason would be far more entertaining – planting evidence of a tryst with a strange man –then inviting Ricky over to make him jealous! The world of I Love Lucy is an innocent, exciting alternative to the boredom and burdens of reality.  This is true for Lucy fans and for the real people behind the Lucy-Ricky makeup at the annual Lucy Fest in Jamestown, NY) “Ball and Arnaz knew what we all know – that relationships are often problematic and painful. I Love Lucy gives us respite from that knowledge.  For twenty-six minutes…we take a family vacation.  We tune out the difficulties and dullness of daily living and tune in a dream of domestic bliss and a deluge of laughter.” (Queens of Comedy) Happiness/Success Habits Be Yourself…and Flaunt Your Own Feather Boa!  Composer/Lyricist Jerry Herman, who wrote Mame, also wrote the musical La Cage Aux Folles which spotlights the song “I am What I Am” – often considered the gay anthem.  Whether you’re gay or straight, famous or fan, collector or casual customer, the real road to happiness and success is living your personal passion! Surround yourself with beauty – whatever that means to you! In my blog about BookExpo America, I reviewed Barbra Streisand’s book My Passion for Design.  Streisand’s taste might be very different from Glen’s – but they’re both true to their own style and what brings them joy.

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Music-Theatre Group – Panel of Stars Positive Entertainment

Music-Theatre Panel

Music-Theatre Panel

Music-Theatre Group is hosting a series of panels/receptions with a constellation of stellar alum from the worlds of Broadway, alternative theatre, and music.  Moderator/Host is Disney Theatrical Group President Thomas Schumacher whose Broadway credits include The Lion King – all time highest grossing Broadway musical – King David, Aida, Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and this season’s Peter and the Starcatcher, Newsies – with combined 17 Tony nominations. May’s panelists were Julie Taymor (Director/Designer Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King, Juan Darien) and her art and life-partner Elliot Goldenthal (Grammy-winner, two-time Tony nominee, and Academy Award winning composer for his score for Frida). After a video screening of Taymor-Goldenthal collaboration replete with puppets (Grendel, The Magic Flute) and movie stars Anthony Hopkins (Titus) Helen Mirren (The Tempest), we settled in for the panel.  Taymor confessed to an “insatiable appetite for theatre.. .and a predilection for the visual and physical” which took her from Boston Children’s Theatre to Sri Lanka (at age 16),  Indonesia, and Paris, where she studied mime, to stints with Joe Chaikin’s Open Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, and Public Theatre, where she worked with Elizabeth Swados on “Haggadah.” Goldenthal confided that “music is my mistress and religion” – and obsession.  “I enjoy failure – my favorite composing tool is an eraser.”  The couple move fluidly between alternative theatre gigs and big-budget Hollywood commissions.  Schumacher noted that Academy Award-winning producer Harvey Weinstein was known to be “very challenging” and Taymor/Elliot responded that it “ helped to be a couple.“ Music-Theatre Group’s June 7 panel features another power/arts couple:  Diane Paulus (Artistic Director of A.R.T. who produced The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) and Randy Weiner (Producer/Playwright: Drama Desk Award-winning Sleep No More and The Donkey Show a disco version of Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Paulus directed.) Diane Wondisford, Producing Director Music-Theatre Group glowed:  “Our mission is helping artists turn inspiration into art. We commission, develop, and produce new works of music, theatre, and opera.  It’s exciting to develop productions like Julie and Elliot’s Juan Darien, see it in preview, and feel the audience response, and we’re looking to the future with musical theatre and songwriters who are now coming onto the scene!”    http://musictheatregroup.org (Photos by Elias Friedman) Happiness/Success Habits Commit to your passion – and relationships!  Your road may take you from puppet-making in Indonesia to Broadway – or to a local arts program (as in Mr. Holland’s Opus – a film about a composer who became a high school music teacher). Everything important takes commitment and sacrifice. Make your eraser your favorite instrument – and enjoy failure!  Writing is rewriting; inventing is re-inventing.  Those bright lights on Broadway would not exist without Thomas Edison, whose mistakes and persistence led to the electric light bulb. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison (Editor: Jay Berman)

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Dr. Sue Jazz Lincoln Center Johnny Rodgers Positive Entertainment

Lincoln Center Jazz

Lincoln Center Jazz

As twilight segued into evening behind the theatrical windowsof the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the stars inside offered a musical tribute to Broadway/Jazz composer Cy Coleman.  Michael Feinstein, singing host/director narrated details of Coleman’s brilliant seventy year career (three Tony’s and a host of popular song standards.)   Joining Feinstein onstage were musical director Ted Firth and four vocalists.
Johnny Rodgers

Johnny Rodgersflight vocalists

  .Johnny Rodgers,  a blast of impish energy fused with vocal/ piano chops and savvy showmanship,  ignited jazz/Broadway standards: “I’ve Got Your Number” “The Best Is Yet to Come” and Will Rogers’ anthem “I Never met a Man I Didn’t Like.”  Chuck Cooper, Tony Award Winner for The Life (Coleman’s portrayal of a pre-Disney, pimp-infested Times Square) brought the devil back from hell with his sinister rendition of the bluesy “Don’t Take Much.” Michele Lee, Tony-Nominated for her role in Coleman’s See Saw, played a funny, feisty, fallen angel – in recovery from an affair with a married man. A be-gowned Tamara Tunie (from TV’s Law and Order) belted “Big Spender” (Sweet Charity) and torched “He’s No Good (But I’m No Good Without Him)” an ode to the sweet misery of romantic addiction.  
Johnny Rodgers Dr. Sue

Johnny Rodgers Dr. Sue

Backstage, Johnny Rodgers shared details about his life and career with genial, boyish charm (“I always sang. My big brother threw pencils as me to get me to stop but it didn’t work.”) His big sister (also musical) wore down their parents’ resistance to buying a piano by drawing one on cardboard and pretending to practice, so Johnny got to play a real one – and still does, bouncing back and forth on stage from piano to vocal mike, and writing, performing and recording original songs ( including “I Would Never Leave You” for Liza Minelli). Born, raised, and trained in Miami (his grooves put the heat in Miami Heat), Johnny, who got noticed on the Chicago cabaret circuit, now travels the world as a musical ambassador for the State Department, and is poised to conquer the New York Cabaret and Jazz scene (next stop – a June 5 musical birthday party at the Iridium (1650 Broadway @ 51st , NYC ) As the stars faded into the night sky and the traffic on Columbus Circle orbited twinkling head and tail lights outside the theatrical windows of this elegant jazz room, I thought about how far we’ve come – not only from the nostalgically seedy version of Times Square portrayed in Coleman’s The Life but also from the backwoods juke joints and New Orleans brothels that gave birth to the blues and Cy Coleman’s Broadway/jazz. Happiness/Success Habits Do What You Love:  I love songs, singers, theatre, jazz and cabaret – that’s a major reason I write this blog.  What do you love? Enjoy torch songs – but don’t live them!  A great song and singer are as seductive as chocolate truffles. But helpless yearning for no-goodniks is not much fun in real life!  On the other hand, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “I’m In Love with a Wonderful Guy” doesn’t lend itself to bluesy jazz.  Is the song worth the suffering?  Personally, I like my bittersweet in blues and chocolate truffles – not romance.  How ’bout you? (Editor/Photographer: Jay Berman)

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Theatre Museum Awards Gala Positive Entertainment

Theatre Museum

Theatre Museum

  At the Theatre Museum Awards Gala, there were stars in everyone’s eyes –musical          performers, award presenters, and award recipients – notably Stage Door Manor – a performing arts camp that presents an astonishing thirty-nine shows (plays and musicals) a season!  Presenting the award was Richard Maltby, Jr. who conceived and directed two Tony-Award winning musicals (Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Fosse) and, as lyricist, co-created Tony-nominated Baby and Big – along with two gifted daughters, who are Stage Door Manor alum.  Konnie Kittrell, accepting the Theatre Arts Education Award for owner Cynthia Samuelson, glowed: “Stage Door Manor is designed to create a community where dreams are shared and validated – a safe place for dreams to soar!” Our ebullient host was John Bolton musical theatre star (Christmas Story and touring companies of Music Man and Same Time, Next Year). Award recipients included Frederick O. Olsson, actor, master carpenter, stage hand (Career Achievement Award)  who shared anecdotes about hauling up Cleopatra’s barge and auditioning for Richard Rodgers, Theatre Communications Group, and theatre historian Don B. Wilmeth. Presiding over the festivities were Theatre Museum Chairman Stewart F. Lane, five-time Tony-Award winning Producer, and President Helen Guditis.  The Theatre Museum presents events and exhibits in many venues –honoring theatrical history and nurturing the stars of tomorrow.  What better place to salute our theatrical heritage than the legendary Players Club?  As we drank a champagne toast to the award recipients, presenters, and performers, I imagined that the portraits of stars of yesteryear (Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, John Barrymore, Jason Robards, etc.) also raised a ghostly, gleeful, glass! Happiness/Success Habits Celebrate your heritage, community, and common interests.  There are many kinds of community (religion, ethnic, gender, family, work, friends, etc). Most of us belong to more than one community and have more than one heritage. and our need to belong can be satisfied in many ways. Celebrate and value the beauty and power of the arts and your own gifts, whether or not they lead to fame and fortune.  The arts touch the heart, and free the spirit, and express the deepest self.

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Dr. Sue Duke Ellington Birthday Bash! Positive Entertainment

Duke Ellington Singers

Duke Ellington Singers

The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts celebrated Duke’s 113th birthday with a swingin’ blast at the historic Players Club in New York City.  On stage was a twelve piece jazz orchestra directed by Frank Owens on piano with vocalists (Antoinette Montague and Marion Cowings). Right in front of the musicians, in true swing tradition were dancers who ran the spectrum –high-energy swing (The Mickey Davidson Swing Dancers)! tapping syncopations (Alexander Cowings) to ballroom grace (Michael Choi and his “peachy” partner)!! The event was hosted by ever-elegant Mercedes Ellington, Duke’s granddaughter, founder and President of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts. “Duke Ellington Week is one of the most exciting weeks of the year for me, all jazz lovers and for Duke Ellington aficionados,” Mercedes says. “With more than 3,000 compositions, Ellington was the 20th century’s most prolific composer in both volume and variety. His fame spread worldwide and he built a fantastic career as a musician, composer, songwriter, orchestra leader and innovator of American Music that began in the 1920’s and continued non-stop until his death in 1974!  It is one of the missions of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts to support the inspiration of all people to become Ambassadors for Peace and Harmony through the magic of the Arts—one note at a time.” The evening took us on a musical journey that celebrated Duke’s legacy, from his joyful “Take the A Train” through a medley of blues and ballads, and (after a pitstop for birthday cake), roared to a climax with a soulful singalong of Duke’s jazz anthem: “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing!” Happiness/Success Habits: Do What You Love and Support the Arts! Performing, composing, and enjoying music are sources of joy! Live your passion –as an artist, and/or arts appreciator and/or arts educator! The arts are our cross-cultural glue. They reach beyond our differences and bring us together – as a multi-cultural nation and as citizens in a world community. They are an uplifting force, and many a child has risen above limited, negative circumstances on the wings of an artistic vision. The arts are our cultural legacy and vision of our future. Duke Ellington’s music is as American as grandma’s apple pie and as full of possibilities as a grandbaby’s first toddling steps. So bake it, shake it, and let freedom ring – ‘cause it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  
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Dr. Sue Opera at the Grotta Azzurra Ristorante Positive Entertainment

The Enrico Caruso Room in Little Italy’s historic Grotta Azzurra Ristorante opened with operatic panache this week – and will continue with a weekly Tuesday evening series by featured duos plus Thursday night open mikes (with preference to advance sign-ups) all with the wonderful David Schaeffer on keyboards.   After a delizioso dinner in the restaurant above, we descended into depths of the musical cellar and ascended to the heights of glorious opera – in a setting that was both warm and elegant. The opening show featured singers Shana Farr and Vincent Ricciardi, who offered a bravissimo blend of arias and selections from the classical repertoire – with a nod to operetta and musical theatre.  The intimate setting of the downstairs grotto allowed for an up close and personal encounter with gorgeous singing and Italian-American history.  And what a setting!  Imagine a brick wine cellar with Romanesque arches displaying vintage memorabilia of the great Caruso –photographs, old acetate music discs and records, caricatures drawn by Caruso himself and other memorabilia, donated by Cav. Uff. Aldo Mancusi, founder and curator of the Enrico Caruso Museum in Brooklyn. Did you know that Enrico Caruso, the Italian-born tenor who ruled the international opera world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was the best-selling recording artist in the world in 1906?  His acoustic recording of his theme song from the opera I Pagliacci outsold all concert and pop singers of the time?  Neither did I, but this “homey” presentation of opera will your expand your cultural horizons, as the delizioso Italian food at the Grotta Azzurra Ristorante expands your um-waistline!  Producers Mort Berkowitz and Les Schecter also host opera competitions and hope that the Thursday open mikes will offer “discovery” opportunities for young opera stars to be featured in the paid Tuesday night spots.   I raise my glass of good Italian vino (wine) to their buona fortuna (good luck)! Happiness/Success Habits: Enjoy Your Comfort Zone…and Stretch It!  I love listening to great singing and enjoying great food and wine – how about you? And even if hours of Wagner at the Met make you snooze, the combination of dinner and an intimate opera cabaret may win your heart. Sing Your Way Out of Stress !  Many of those magnificent arias are about miserable subjects, but set to music, even misery can be beautiful. Even if you’re not Caruso, try singing about your troubles (if only in the shower). Turning your troubles into song will be entertaining (at least for you) and you may cheer up – unless your neighbors bang on the walls or complain to the cops 🙂

 

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367

Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net

 www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos  

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Dr. Sue Drama Desk Panel Broadway Stars Positive Entertainment

Blair Underwood

Blair Underwood

The Drama Desk luncheon at Sardi’s offered plenty of food for thought with a stellar panel of celebs from Broadway plus other media. Blair Underwood, starring in A Streetcar Named Desire (formerly of TV’s L.A. Law and Sex And The City) is the first African-American to play Stanley, the brutish Polish husband of a southern plantation belle. (A minor script adjustment removed his surname “Kowalski”.) As explicated by Underwood, his non-traditional casting is historically accurate since the New Orleans French Quarter has been long known for inter-racial mixing and there were free blacks as far back as the early 1800’s (some of whom owned slaves). Cynthia Nixon plays a brilliant cancer patient in Wit, directed by Lynne Meadow of Manhattan Theatre Club (also on the panel). Nixon’s current role, complete with a shaved head, is a far cry from  her portrayal of the red-haired lawyer in Sex and the City (Blair was her love interest in several episodes) though both roles share an edgy, in-your-face wit.  What’s next for Cynthia?  Perhaps working on new play: “The role becomes tailored to you as an actor, and since you know the character so well, you can become a resource for playwright.”  Or perhaps a gender-bending take on Shakespeare’s Othello. “I would love to play Iago because I like to talk. Iago is so fascinating, delicious, and hard to understand.” Lynn Meadow, Nixon’s director, helms the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) which mostly focuses on new work.  “When we do a revival (like Wit) we ask, why is it appropriate to do now? Also, Wit has never had a Broadway run.”   When moderator Elysa Gardner, (USA Today theater critic/Drama Desk Board Member) asked about stealing (aka being “inspired by”) ideas from other productions, Meadow noted: “We all ‘steal’ from each other. The previous Longwharf production of Wit stole its use of curtains from our MTC production of Ashes, so by using curtains in Wit, I’d be stealing from myself.” What about the influence of iconic performances of a famous role – like Marlon Brando’s Stanley in Streetcar?  “We all bring our unique voice to a part,” said Blair Underwood.  Michael McKean (starring in a revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man) added:  “I saw four major actors (including Al Pacino and Jason Robards) portraying the same role in an O’Neill drama, and they were each very different.” Hunter Parrish, a twenty-four year old who is playing Jesus in the revival of Godspell asked himself: “How do I emulate someone like that? Everyone has his own idea of Jesus. For two hour period, I play Jesus as a cool, young teacher – which he was!” Whether you are theatre apprentice or a senior craftsperson, live theatre presents a challenge to live in the moment – no matter how often you’ve done the role, who may have done it before you, or what a director, producer, or audience might think of you.  As Meadow puts it:  “Part of our profession is having access to our childlike playfulness.”   I agree – plus having access to theatre savvy, funds, talent, and everything else it takes to bring a Broadway brainchild to a Drama Desk Award! Happiness/Success Habits Stretch Your Mental Hamstrings: Casting an African-American as Stanley Kowalski gives audiences a fresh look at caste, color, and character in New Orleans.  A female Iago would open new, fascinating questions about jealousy, secret lusts, envy, etc. Beg, borrow, or steal inspiration – then re-combine, re-interpret, add new elements, and make if your own!

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos