Terry LaBolt, who'll be music director and entertainment coordinator for the 2008 Acclaim Awards on Monday, May 18, reports a growing cabaret crowd for his weekly Sunday night gig at Below Zero (1120 Walnut in Over-the-Rhine.)
You might want to circle Oct. 21 when guest is Broadway veteran Jessica Hendy, back home thanks to her husband's job transfer. (Good news for local musical theater.)
Which is no reason not to stop by for this Sunday's open mic.
LaBolt also weighs in on what just drives him nuts at the theater. "My pet peeve is at the end of a musical or play when the house lights come up too soon and too fast (before the applause has dwindled.) It seems like message from management saying, “Show’s over, now get out.” Very jarring if you have been transported at all by the piece to be thrown back into the gutter of reality too quickly.
"Backstage story: Where to begin? I would have to start with Fred the tuba player in Tulsa in 1983 or so (when we still actually had a tuba in the orchestra).
"It seems that Fred was a little hard of hearing, as we used to say. When he stood to fix his tuba at one point in "Hello, Dolly!" (with Miss Channing of course) he knocked his metal chair down a flight of steps and into a large metal fire door (during the quiet "Efram" monologue just before “Before the Parade Passes By”).
"Only problem: Fred didn’t seem to hear his chair fall, so as he went to sit back down his chair was no longer there. The drummer and I whispered loudly to Fred, “Fred! Don’t sit down!”
"Fred’s last words were, “Huh?” So down the staircase went Fred, his tuba, and 3 metal pipes which secured the runway leading over the pit, all crashing into the metal door. “Before the Parade Passes By” has the entire cast come marching around the runway full force.
"So I get on the phone and get my crew guys down there to repair the ramp, all of this happening during Carol’s monologue; she is inches from me on the center of the runway…(”an oak leaf fell out of my Bible....”)
"The crew gets out large hammers and are about to pound the bolts back into place on the metal pipes (“....so I have decided to re-join the human race.....”) when I realize this will create a terrible racket just as the soft verse leading into “Parade” begins.
"So I get their attention and have the crew follow me as I conduct, pounding the pipes in time to the music. Brings new meaning to “anvil chorus.” The ramp was back in place just an instant before yjr first actress, dressed as Brunhilda with the horns and trident, stepped onto the runway."
Ah. A life in showbiz.
Jackie Demaline
Jackie Demaline
Theater Critic
Cincinnati Enquirer
513-768-8530
jdemaline@enquirer.com
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