Moving On, Girls, Let Us Remember A Speical Musical Theater Anniversary Day!!!!!!!!!!

Darlings, I cannot recall if I recorded this last year, though I may very well have. And if so, it is worth noting again. Forty- five years ago tonight, at the Winter Garden Theatre, the curtain went up on what turned out to be a true Broadway classic and one of my favorite musicals of all time!!!!!!!

"MAME!"

"Oh, Vera, I can't wait to hear that Overture. Tell me about the show!"

It must have been SO thrilling to have been in that first night audience, and hear that spectacular overture--one of Broadway's best. Then the lights dimmed, the sparkles shone on a glittery Manhattan skyline, and out from stage left walked Jane Connell as Agnes Gooch and Frankie Michaels as Young Patrick, who went into one of the most perfect of opening numbers ever written--"St. Bridget."

Girls, I could cry just writing about it!!!!!!!! And the score just keeps getting better and better--"The Man In The Moon," "My Best Girl," "We Need A Little Christmas,' the title song, and the penultimate solo showstopper by Angela Lansbury--"If He Walked Into My Life!!!!!!"

Let me tell you, loves, this was every burgeoning gay boy's dream!!!!! At the time of the Original, I was young enough to play Young Patrick, and you better believe I wanted to!!!!!!! Now, I would like to stage a production of my own OR act in it, as Gooch. Some say I could do Vera Charles, but I think I am better suited to Gooch. To open the show with "St. Bridget".....I get goose bumps, just thinking about it!!!!!!!!!

Forty- five years later, this show is still being written about, performed, sung, you name it. How many of today's fare can that be said of?????? Not "Spider Man--Turn Off The Dark," you better believe me!!!!!!!!!!

At 45, "MAME" is still a classic, fresh and exciting as the day it was born!!!!!!

Just like I am, at 24, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!