Saturday, May 14, 2011

Birthday Revival



It's been about a year since I last blogged, though that thought seems unreal to me. As Judy Collins would sing, "Who knows where the time goes?"

Yesterday was my birthday (Friday the 13th) so it was full of good dance music and friends' and my brother's (recovering from Bell's Palsy!) well wishes by phone and e-mail so who can ask for more. My friend, Kevin, took me to Justin Sayre's monthly cabaret show. For May, Sayre and his guests comically revitalized the movie "Valley of the Dolls" (with songs) on Thursday night, so I had my "birthday on" when I awoke Friday morning, ready to deliver a stack of my new promo cd, "Fagtastic," which has been moving like proverbial hotcakes.

I understand that hunky Will Swenson, starring in the truly fabulous Broadway hit "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" (pictured above), snatched himself up a copy of "Fagtastic" the other week. (To help him get into character?) That show was just super-cute & discolicious with an amazingly talented cast, especially the three leads. Add disco balls, confetti dropping from the theater ceiling, hot retro tunes & Nick Adams lipsynching while seated inside (and strapped in, securely, one hopes) a giant, glittering Monolo Blahnik stiletto that hovers menacingly over the orchestra pit. There was a packed house hungry for cocktails & souvenirs, so my friend, Jade, and I thought Bette Midler (quoted as saying, "If there are three things I love, it's shoes, drag queens and live theater!") and other investors for this production will see themselves profit majorly.

Also recently, I -- quite by accident -- discovered a very nice assessment of my "Gay Sock Hop 2" promo. To read all about it, copy/paste and go to:

http://popmuse.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/viola-wills.html

3 comments:

  1. Glad to hear a good review of "Priscilla." I haven't seen it, but thought it unusual that a brand new hit musical was quite snubbed by the Tonys (except of Swenson and costumes). Has there ever been a dance mix of "Theme from Valley of the Dolls"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes and no. Yes: There is a rather shoddy Junior Vasquez remix of the k.d. lang cover; shoddy in that it unevenly alternates hard house-beats with a rather soft, loungey mix of k.d.'s vocals. This is probably from the era when Junior was doing all that meth. However, there is a bootleg mix called The Neely Nuthouse Mix that utilizes dialogue from the film along with the Junior's remix and turns it all into something that's pretty fierce. No: If you're referring to the Dionne Warwick version from the film. Maybe that's something I could work on. (I did a mix of Judy singing I'll Plant My Own Tree", though.)

    The "Priscilla" snub is all about the Tonys being so in the closet. No drag queens, feather boas or glitter balls for them girls.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loved seeing Priscilla with you Charlie. It was awesome! And thank you for treating me to this on MY birthday. Can't wait to get my copy of Fagtastic....hint hint...

    ReplyDelete