"Where Did You Get Such Long Legs?" - Third Weekend Of "Mame"

The third weekend went pretty well. For me, Friday was a weak performance - I stumbled over a small line near the opening ("the first lady of the American Theater is in there - out cold!": the second 'the' always trips me up), and made any number of small mistakes throughout the first act.

Saturday felt fine. Ryan Adame and crew showed up. Ryan laughed about my tights in the modern dance sequence, and the way they made him feel. It felt to good to be objectified as a sexual object, even if only fleetingly. Wendy Young Carey's class of music kidz showed up and gave her a rousing round of applause at curtain bows.

On Sunday, the audience was eager to laugh. They even chuckled when I said my opening line, which was odd, because it isn't that funny. Monique McKisson was in the audience, and helped lead audience applause during the "Mame" kick line sequence.

Mary Young got slightly rattled in the 'That's How Young I Feel Dance' because of a wardrobe malfunction: a belt came loose. Mary signalled to Monica Parisi to help reattach the loose belt while everyone was seated at the bar during the 'doo doo doo' sequence, but there just wasn't enough time, and so Mary continued dancing with the loose belt. The loose belt loosened Mary's tongue as well, and in the middle of the fast dance routine, when everyone else is beginning to gasp for breath, Mary began babbling, almost scat singing, and improvising a modernist, Bauhaus-style, stream-of-consciousness commentary on the dance number underway that had the audience laughing. Almost like old SNL Sprocket's host Mike Myers saying "now ve dance!"

While we were doing a series of 'chug' steps, Mary commented that "there were too many of these!" When Robert Coverdell stepped forward for the 'Charleston' sequence of steps, Mary asked "where did you get such long legs?" When we stepped back into a line, Mary distracted both myself and Monica by mugging at us. Mary's dancing began careening out-of-control during all this, with all the distractions, but by bringing the audience into the dance sequence, she heightened everyone's enjoyment of the show.

We even got a standing ovation during curtain call. Go figure!