Oh, Girls, We Have To Talk About Betty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         I really had high hopes for "Boop! The Musical," now at the Broadhurst.  It is colorful, laced with generic choreography and has a star turning performance by Jasmine Amy Rogers in the title role.  But David Foster and Susan Birkenhead give it a lackluster score, and Bob Martin's book goes on for far too long, and there is no real story.  

                                              The show starts out promisingly, immersed in the black-and-white world, superbly recreated by David Rockwell's sets and George Barnes' costumes.  I was anticipating a sophisticated romp back to the Twenties and Thirties, the era of Betty Boop herself, and had the creators stayed with that they might have had a halfway decent show.  Hell, with that concept and a classic score, they might have created the greatest cartoon musical since "Annie."

                                                  Alas, no.

                                                 Because Betty gets in Grandpa's time machine where she is transported to 2025, and cannot figure out how she fits in.  Ho hum.  Angelica Hale's performance livens things up a bit, but I would rather have had the 2025 characters transported to Betty Boop's world.  My eyes nearly popped out of my head when this Jennifer Coolidge impersonating woman walks out on stage--and David told me it was Faith Prince!  He was right!  Oh, Faith, what has happened?  A girl has to work, I suppose,

                                                     All the color and glitz cannot make up for the lack of fun.

                                                       But I know what you girls want to know--

                                                        Yes, Pudgy is in it; actually, he steals the show!

                                                         And, yes, Betty says "Boop boop a boop!" at the beginning and the end.

                                                           Had she just done that, it might have been a fun evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Sad Anniversary, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Right away, this month challenges me.  Today is the 46th anniversary of my mother's death. I know that sounds like a lifetime, but I can remember back to when I was 24--I am now 70--and when it happened.

                          Two things I remember most.  First, I was just getting out of bed--it was around 8AM, when the phone rang.  I just knew this was it.  My father confirmed that a few minutes later, but what sticks in my head the most was that the radio was playing a song I never like from the start, but hereon in would hate forever--"Honey," by Bobby Goldsboro.

                             The second was going to the hospital to collect things.  My father stopped at the nurse's station, while I went on to her room.  The body had not yet been removed, so there I was, and there she was, as I looked death in the face. It was not pretty, and I recall both these moments to this day.

                                I still wonder what would have happened had my mother lived longer.  Would I have continued in Highland Park, or would I have moved to New York?  How would my mother have dealt with it; my father did pretty well, but I am not so sure about her.

                                My father would have had an altogether different retirement from what he had in Florda, because my mother was never going to go there.  And I was with her on that. But her passing allowed him to go to Florida, making for a peaceful transition into old age.

                                The image I hold most dear is me in our television room, reading, when my mother's car pulls up in front of the house, and, atop a love seat by the right front windows, our poodle, Baby Mouse, alerted us excitedly to my mother having arrived home.

                                   How I miss Mother, Daddy, Nana and Baby Mouse.  And so many others.  May God have mercy on my tormented soul and unite me with them all when my time comes.

                                     I think I have said enough, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"In An April Dream, Once You Came To Me................."

                            That is right, darlings.  Today is April Fools Day, where we ask ourselves whether or not we are just April Fools.  Or even April's Fools.

                             This is a tough month for me, personally.  Tomorrow, I go to the dentist, which is bad enough, but it also happens to be the 46th anniversary of my mother's death.  One never forgets especially as I was so emotionally young at the time, though I was 24. The next day marks the year anniversary of my friend, Steve, who suffered a terrible, cancerous death.  Saturday is the year anniversary of my fall on Ovington Avenue that nearly sent me to the hospital.  As well as the anniversary of the passing of my sister's husband.  April 22 is the anniversary--47 years, just one year before her daughter--of my maternal grandmother.

                              So, April is not exactly a great month for me or our family.  T. S. Eliot, in his opening to his poetic masterwork, "The Waste Land," remarked that it is the "cruelest month," and I agree.

                              But there is also Easter, the annual screening of "The Song Of Bernadette," and this coming Thursday, we are seeing the Broadway musical "Smash."  Will it be such?  I will let you know.

                               And I have so much to write about that I did not get to in March, so perhaps this will help to distract me from the malaise that is April.

                                For the rest of you, I wish a happy, sunny and bright April.

                                 Think of Judy Garland and Fred Astaire doing "When The Midnight Train Leaves For Alabam," in 1948's "Easter Parade!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                   Happy April, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!