Let Us Pray The Peccadillo Theatre Company Does It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             Girls, I have just received the hottest tip from along the Rialto that I have heard, in the longest time.  It is early, and it is also Mermaid Parade Day, plus we may take Auntie Alvin out for his birthday, so I have to get this out, fast!

                                Several years ago, my beloved and I saw, at Theater At St. Clements, in Midtown. this wonderful production of the little oft done Lillian Hellman "Another Part Of The Forest," which is a prequel to "The Little Foxes," and shows the emergence of the Young Regina as a first class bitch!  I loved it, darlings, because you know how much I identify with Regina!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Well, just a few  days ago, I happened to run into this charming gentleman who turned out to be from the Peccadillo Theatre Company, at St. Clements.  In fact, they had just finished a run of William Inge's little seen "A Loss Of Roses," and, if I had known it was them, I would have gone, because how often do you get to see this play???????????

                                     That day, I noticed him carrying a script copy of Maxwell Anderson's "The Bad Seed," and he said the company was considering doing it.  We talked about the piece, which he could see I was a fan of, having played Rhoda in a reading, and relating to her so much, from the time I was a child!!!!!!!!  In fact, I offered to come down, and audition for the role of Miss Fern!  I know I would never get cast as Rhoda.

                                       Which is a quandary.  He said, with all the happenings, involving gun shootings, and sociopathic children, he thinks the play still has some dramatic relevance!  But, thanks to the cult popularity of the movie, it also has a camp label attached to it.  I told him about two productions I have seen, since living in New York.  One, back in 1998, was on Port Washington, Long Island, and was played straight, except, being community theater, not all of the actors had the skill to pull it off.  Though, as I recall, the ones playing Rhoda and Leroy sure did.  Hell, you could have brought them into New York.  But that was 16 years ago!!!!!!!!!

                                      The visiting gentleman asked me if I thought the play could be played straight.  I said yes, but it would have to be so tightly directed there could be no leeway allowed for the actors to veer into camp.  And, in the case of a couple of parts, like Monica Breedlove, and Mrs. Daigle, (nailed exactly by the late, great Eileen Heckart!!!!!!!!!) that could prove to be difficult.  I told him how I imagined a time, years back, of it being done, with Cherry Jones!

                                        So, this is a personal plea from the Raving Queen to the Peccaduillo Theatre Company, at St. Clements--please, Please, PLEASE do "The Bad Seed!"  It will be the hottest ticket in town, because people will flock to it, (when I told the head of our Playreading Group, she said, "Let's all go!") who have been dying for a genuinely good production of this play.  Which there really has not been, since the 1954 original!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        "May I call you Christine?  Oh, I'm quite aware you come
                                         from a higher level of society.  You probably made a debut,
                                         and all that.  Me?  I worked in a beauty parlor!"

                                        Now, who would believe that of me, dolls?????????????????????