A Born Again Diva

I'm holding out for the next appearance of that hot Slovak tap-dancer.

....the one they call "Natasha"

Hoo-yeah!

When you go to YouTube and put Gold Dust Orphans or Ryan Landry in the search thingy (or just dagmaraka), you'll find about 45 short clips from the last four productions. All taken either by me or littlek. It does little justice to how funny they are in vivo.

As far as my participation is concerned, I'm not sure what's on the cooker for the Fall production, but we should be doing the Silent Night of the Lambs again in winter. So I'll be back on the wooden planks that represent the World (alright, another slovakism that translates poorly).

I got that slovakism this time, though!

....and it's back to the planks that represent the world.... or back on stage

Next production: WIZARD, the musical

Combination of the Wizard of OZ and something else...probably some film noir..... it's not fully written yet, so who knows what it will be.

I'll be dancing and singing again. Unfortunately, I'll be traveling at the worst possible time, 2 weeks before the show opens, when the rehearsals go up to daily basis.... so who knows how many numbers i'll be able to be in, but i don't care. it will be great to be around, even if just to sweep the stage after the show.

I love to hear theater stories, dagmaraka. Please keep us informed on your experiences with the new production.

When will the production be? And where?

Jespah - it's in a couple months at a bar called the Machine (near Fenway). She'll be back with more info........

Excuse me, but it's The Ramrod Center for the Performing Arts (which is a basement to the Machine, really)...but it sounds more respectable.

1256 Boylston St., just behind Fenway. It will open towards the end of April, I believe. And if you get on their (Gold Dust Orphans) mailing list, you can catch one of the performances on a 2-for-1 tickets deal the first week of the run.

Here, a little teaser from the current production MEDEA:

The messenger recounts the terrible death of Glauce..... If you know the story of Medea, Glauce is Jason's new wife, for whom he abandoned Medea. Medea poisoned Glauce with a golden wreath and robe...... here masterfully reenacted by the Gold Dust Orphans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pKPsSxyq00

[snort]

that was my EXACT response!

My response was, "respectable?" Where's the eyebrow raising smiley when you need it?

ppffft, it is respectable enough. Just coming from there, in fact. They even have decent karaoke (well, as far as karaoke goes) every Thursday. I almost sang, but i chickened out -- turns out that the only thing I was familiar enough with was Matchmaker Matchmaker, from Fiddler on the Roof. All the new popular songs are blue potatoes to me.... But my theatre colleague, who also has a band (Gene Dante and the Future Starlets) sang, so it was fun to lurk around. He's a David Bowie reincarnate. There were 2-3 other decent singers, so there. Completely respectable.

We did the first read-through of the first act of the Wizzened tonight. I can already see it on-stage, it's gonna be fabulous.. We found the best lion ever, by pure chance...he was a stage hand just standing, but he had us in stitches, so he got the role. songs are hilarious.... it's pretty much the wizard of oz, but camped out (Wizard of Bras, 12 steps road.... The second act is not written yet, so it's fun to be around, as we get to say in what it should be about. weee. zzzzzz.

It sounds great, dag! Keep us posted.

Boston Globe, feb. 29




I just met a girl named 'Medea'

Sometimes, OK 99 percent of the time, what we think we should do and what we actually want to do don't match up.

"I should watch this intellectually stimulating Godard film at the top of my Netflix queue, but I think I'll move up this goofy Will Ferrell movie instead."

"I should make myself a healthy tofu and veggie stir fry, but I'd rather just order a pizza."

It's the same with theater. There are so many classics to see -- Shakespeare, Chekhov, O'Neill -- but at the end of a long day, a silly comedy often sounds way more appealing.

So it makes me really happy when I can do both at once. Ryan Landry and his Gold Dust Orphans are putting on the Greek tragedy "Medea," Euripides' dark, bloody tale of a woman who murders her children to get back at her husband. Pretty intense, right? But presented Gold Dust style -- in drag, heavy on the camp and the one-liners -- it's much easier to take.

The beauty of it is, you still get the whole fascinating story, smartly told, you just get it with exploding eyeballs and glittery lip gloss and appendages tucked between legs. And when all the twisty, turny language is stripped away, the plot is easier to understand. A friend who saw Fiona Shaw as Medea on Broadway said Landry's version was much clearer, and definitely produced more belly laughs.

You have to hand it to Landry -- it's tough to make filicide funny, and even tougher to turn something you should see into something you want to.

Today, I am making evil sock monkeys.... for the Wicked Witch of the North End.