Chuck Pelletier's new song "Christmas Came Rushing"...

...makes total sense to me.

Last year at Christmas we bought a piano

Dragged that thing up both the two flights of stairs

I polished the wood like that old man Geppetto,

Opened the door so it could breathe fresh air

My fingers were shy

Not sure they would still know

All the chords to the carols

I played years ago

Then Christmas came rushing back into my head

Don’t recall what I’ve given, or gotten, or said,
But Christmas came rushing back into my head

In a song

It drew my mind back to when I was just seven

We had a room downstairs we called the music room

My dad used to play an old walnut piano

And every December we’d ask for those tunes

He’d pause for a moment

He’d stare at the keys

Then play, just like magic

Those old melodies

And Christmas came rushing back into his head

We’d sing ‘til he carried us off into bed

And Christmas came rushing back into his head

In a song

            
That’s when I thought what this piano needs

 Is a few little hands dancing along the keys

So this year I badgered my brothers,

Got them to fly to LA, to spend Christmas out here

And my little nephew crawled up on the bench

To play jingle bells like he does every year

But he got discouraged

He couldn’t remember

Cause he hadn’t played it

Since last December

Then Christmas came rushing back into his head

You could almost see sugar plums dance in his head

Yeah, Christmas came rushing back into his head

Into his tousled-haired, four-year-old head                        music & lyrics by:

In a song.                                                                        Chuck Pelletier           

                                                              

http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/vote2012region.cfm#sthash.rqbHIgDI.Rwb0DXjY.dpbs

Boo...

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John Hurt is Inspiring

Read the following and weep! Guidelines have become as needlessly strict as the protestations of our Congress - God help us if we are led by a Republican President in 2013. Our democracy is no longer a democracy. We can no longer live with true freedom of expression.

L.A. GAY & LESBIAN CENTER’S ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION

OF IRA LEVIN’S “DEATHTRAP”

WILL NOT RETURN IN SEPTEMBER

DUE TO PERFORMANCE RIGHTS BEING REVOKED

Due to a last-minute revocation of performance rights, the much acclaimed, ‘Ovation Recommended’ production of Ira Levin’s classic comedy-thriller Deathtrap will be unable to return to the Davidson/Valentini Theatre at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center in September as previously announced. Net proceeds would have benefitted the entire array of the Center’s free and low-cost programs and services.

Directed by eight-time Ovation Award-winner Ken Sawyer, the Center’s production of Deathtrap enjoyed a ten week sold-out run in the spring of this year. Due to the original engagement’s runaway success, the Center planned to remount the production, but the Estate of Ira Levin that controls the performance rights abruptly revoked them, citing a brief moment of onstage nudity.

Following an impassioned appeal by the Center, rights were once again granted, but this time with very strict guidelines prohibiting any onstage behavior that portrayed the two lead male characters having a physical relationship—this despite the fact that in the play the characters are involved in a full-blown affair.

Deathtrap’s famously complex script provides genuine, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and is known for the jolts and surprises that occur along the way. The Center has decided that re-mounting the show with the imposed restrictions would force the play’s central relationship back into the closet, thus compelling the Center to compromise both its mission and its integrity. It would also result in a very different and less effective production than the one audiences had been lining up to see. Therefore the Center has been forced to cancel. 

The entire original cast was set to return. They are (in alphabetical order) Brian Foyster, Cynthia Gravinese, Burt Grinstead, Elizabeth Herron, Carl J. Johnson, and Stephen Mendillo. The design team included Joel Daavid (set), Luke Moyer (lighting), Paula Higgins (costumes), and Ken Sawyer (sound). Deathtrap was produced by Jon Imparato, artistic director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.

Patrons who had already purchased tickets for the extension will receive full refunds. The Center’s box office personnel is in the process of contacting all ticket buyers. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center is located at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood.   

Don's 59+ Birthday Bash

I'll start with the ice cream, then the cupcake, then I'll polish off the cake - simple!

gary warmee does his best rhoda 'bad seed' take 

allen surrounded by two dolls: renee and michelle bernath

stan with sharon michaels

carol, tony and vicki woop it up

henry holden lives to hold court

sandra, bix and miriam

Yummm! You mean, I have to share the cake?

An Honor to Meet Barbara Cook

What an honor and privilege to speak with Barbara Cook, who is so gracious and lovely at 84. This concert, postponed from May 19 to June 30 at Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, was much different as Ms Cook is trying out material from composers that she has previously not sung in concert, such as Cole Porter. Her voice is still wondrous, and she uses such control. "Imagine" was her encore: center stage,
a cappella, and you could hear every word, every note crystal clear. What an artist! God bless her as she embarks on her 85th. Anniversary Tour!