Musicals in the Summer
Summer is here! Time for hot weather and taking vacations! While the absurdly high cost of gas has been on everyone’s mind lately, I found a great destination not too far outside of LA down at the Queen Mary. We booked a night in the Winston Churchill suite and upon arrival, dropped our bags to take a private tour and learned the history about this magnificent ship’s many lives. From luxury liner filled with royalty, to the “Grey Ghost” of WWII doing battle and transporting troops, Mary has served them all as a first class act. Now a hotel and entertainment complex on the water, the best part of this ship is its amazing art deco décor. We wandered through the shops filled with knick-knacks, mini museums filled with the ship’s mementos, and kept a look out for ghosts. (Rumor has it they’re most prevalent in the pool area and the engine room.) In the evening, we took in a fun show with Tibbies dinner cabaret and enjoyed the beautiful views from the deck. With so much going on, you need never leave the ship. Find out more on their web site. www.queenmary.com. All aboard!
Now from one queen to another, I went to check out the latest production of Hedwig the Angry Inch, this time featuring Donovan Leitch (Nancy Boy, Camp Freddy) playing rock’s favorite German trannie with the botched sex op. While Leitch seemed to be a suitable choice to take over the role, I have to say the performance didn’t have the dynamic energy of previous LA role lead Michael Cerveris (whose performance will be hard for anyone to beat!)
With the story told through lengthy monologues, Leitch’s performance dragged, he just didn’t have the comic timing to pull off the humor of writer John Cameron Mitchell’s vision. Plus, he needed to be an exceptionally dominant force to command the audience that gathered the Roxy (a concert venue rather than theatre) where people didn’t seem to get the notion that loud, drunken talking, taking cell phone calls, and text messaging during the performance is FREAKING ANNOYING to people around them who are trying to watch the show! However, Leitch rocked out during the music numbers, prancing it up in full glam glory, a role he is clearly comfortable in. But no matter who plays Hedwig, the story is a rock ‘n’ roll classic. For more on the making of Hedwig, read the interview I did awhile back with co-creater/songwriter Stephen Trask: coolgrrrls.com/hedwig
I went to a musical of a different tone as Burbank’s Falcon Theatre presented “Exiles in Paradise,” a virtual one-woman show created and performed by Contance Haumans that both examines and pays tribute to Europe’s exiled composers who were able to flee the horror of Hitler’s Holocaust and thrive in Hollywood. The show celebrates music and art set against the backdrop of the Third Reich’s invasion using 16 mm film, historical footage, and studio clips. But the stars of the show were the composers themselves, memorable works by Fredrich Hollander, Arnold Schoenberg, Emmerich Kalman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Eric Zeisl, Walter Jurmann, Ralph Bentsky, Hans Eilster and Kurt Weill, all performed by Ms. Hauman and a small classical orchestra. After the performance it was a treat to see the show’s presenter, mega-producer/director Gary Marshall (known for such hits as Happy Days, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Pretty Woman) greeting the audience in the theatre’s lobby.
One solo performer who can hold his own in a one man show is Richard Butler. The pop crooner best known as the singer for the Psychedelic Furs and later Love Spit Love, came to the Key Club to dust off his classic raspy croon. Promoting his recently released solo album, “Good Days, Bad Days,” a gutsy swing at a darker side, Butler tackles some serious issues in his life — the breakup of his marriage and the death of his father. Shielded behind tinted glasses and a music stand, Butler remained seated throughout the show, as he graced the audience with new songs and few crowd-rousing hits from the past. While I missed his old stage energy, this enigmatic Brit always did have some of the most sultry moves of the post punk/new wave era, Butler’s voice remains ever-charming. Some of the best pipes in pop, hands down.
Is it hot in here, or is it just me? Turns out, it might be Global Warming. I went to see the film “An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore’s presentation on how our big ol’ earth is getting hot, hot, hot! How frightening is it know that if we don’t make changes to slow global warming, the world as we know it will change in the next 10-50 years. 
Yes, IN OUR LIFETIME! We’ve already seen the devastating affects from weather changes. Two words: Hurricane Katrina. Don’t believe it? Find out more at undoit.org. And take action! Here are a few small steps that can make a BIG difference.
- Buy energy efficient light bulbs. You will save money on your electric bill. They’re cheap, 3 for $9.99 and easy to order (with free shipping) from: The Energy Federation. Go to: energyfederation.org
- Recycle. It’s so easy. Drop your cans and bottles in the colored recycling bins if your neighborhood provides them. Or just put them aside in a bag and take it to your local grocery store once a week. Many stores such as Ralph’s have recycling facilities that will give you a coupon to save off your groceries! For more options go to: earth911.org
- While 162 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol to address global warming, The United States has not. Now, individual Mayors across the country are stepping up with the Climate Protection Act. See if yours has at: seattle.wa.us/climate. If your Mayor hasn’t signed on. Petition him!
- Adopt an animal from the World Wildlife Fund. Polar Bears are in danger of starving to death from global warming of the North Pole and Alaskan areas. So now I’m the proud new mom of a Polar Bear cub named Ziggy Snowdust. Adopt one yourself. (Ziggy needs a backing band!) Go to: worldwildlife.org
- Join the Virtual March! Make the pledge to help stop global warming. Go to: stopglobalwarming.org
- Go see “An Inconvenient Truth” and bring all your friends. It’s not only informative, it’s entertaining. Gore is a delightful and moving presenter. Plus, by selling out this film, we send a message that we are taking this issue seriously. For more info, including a theater locator, go to: climatecrisis.net. Also pick up Gore’s book on the subject.
Now for me, books are like albums, I collect them and the writers become like rock stars (only with a slightly more moderate style of dress!) I’m just as happy cranking up Bowie as curling up with Hemingway, and I was happy to discover that I’m not alone. Books are still very much in vogue for the massive crowd that gathered at the LA Times Festival of Books on the UCLA Campus, to check out book vendors featuring everything from mysteries to travel to Los Angeles-centric books offered at discount prices for the weekend. But the best part of the festival is always the panel discussions with acclaimed authors. I dropped in on the very entertaining “Hip Chicks Packing Heat” discussion featuring authors Harley Jane Kozak, Susan Kandel and Patricia Smiley who have cornered the market on the hip female detective novels as they talked inspirations for their main characters that come from culture, cars, dating and Los Angeles city life. Now those are a bunch of cool grrrls!
A large auditorium filled with those who came to see the world’s most famous Hustler, Larry Flynt, promoting his book, “Sex, Lies, & Politics: The Naked Truth.” Although we had to wait 10 minutes for him to appear on stage because the wheelchair-bound icon was stuck in a broken handicap elevator (guess that’s not up to code), Flynt’s interview was filled with memorable words:
“I’ve been called a bottom feeder. Yeah, but look what I found when I got down there!”
“If parents are paranoid about what’s on the computer, then they should throw out the computer. Nobody made them buy it. But instead they send lobbyists to congress to limit all of us when really they’re just being lazy parents.”
“Every war has been fought over religion. When so many people die over God, something is wrong.”
“Most of Hustler’s breaking stories came from tips from reporters who couldn’t cover it for their own publications. Then Hustler breaks it and the reporter gets to cover it.
“If you think I’m obscene, then complain to the manufacturer, don’t complain to me.”
I stopped by the NoHo Arts Festival for their annual promotion of the area’s art, theater and small businesses (those who could afford the pricey vendor booth, that is). But the real talk of the day was luxury loft buildings being erected in this quaint neighborhood. A quick survey found that rents start around $1,400 for a single. Excuse me, but isn’t this an artist district? I don’t know any artists who can live on their own paying that kind of rent. I say if you’re going to develop Hollywood, Downtown and NoHo because of the character built by the artists who lived there (because of the affordable rent), then keep your fancy buildings and make living space that everyone can live in rather than having the cool people pushed out.
The flyer invite read “Wake the Dead” and that’s what we set out to do for a screening of the documentary “Betty Blowtorch and her True Life Adventures” at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery – the final resting place of other such notables as Dee Dee Ramone, Fay Wray and Rudolph Valentino. But who we really came to see is Hollywood’s own Bianca Halstead, singer for Betty Blowtorch who was laid to rest there in 2001. The rain had been threatening to come all day. With gray skies overhead and a damp cool breeze in the air, the crowd, clad in leather and studs sprawled out on picnic blankets and lawn chairs in a grassy knoll amongst the tombstones. Circus clowns, stilt walkers added an oddity factor in this cemetery party to celebrate a band whose biggest mission was just to rock out.
I remember seeing Betty Blowtorch play the club scene and it was always a ball, with their flame throwing go-go dancers and Bianca’s rage – at 90 lbs, all tattoos and leather, she had a fierce primal energy onstage that came from deep within. I remember the shock when I heard she was killed in a car accident while on tour and how our circle of club scenesters were almost paralyzed with grief over losing one of our own.
The documentary, screened on a mausoleum wall, filled in the blanks of what happened to the band leading up to Bianca’s death. With a “Behind the Music” vibe, viewers are led through the band’s personal struggle with no glossing over. The interviews are honest, sometimes brutal. We get the details on the band’s ugly breakup while on the road, the obstacles they faced, and the personal world of Bianca, the keys to her irrepressible rage and spirit.
At the end of the film the rain came down. “God is crying for Bianca,” said director Anthony Scarpa into the microphone as he introduced the former members of Betty Blowtorch who were all in the audience: Sharon Needles, Blare N. Bitch, and Judy Molish. It was the first time the three had been together since the band’s demise. And Bianca’s stepsister boldly told Sharon and Julie that she was sorry they didn’t invite them to the funeral (a big issue discussed in the film). Somehow it felt like closure and the perfect way to remember Bianca and one hell of an amazing band.
From one Betty to another. Much ado has been made about cult icon Bettie Page lately. With a major motion picture, an underground film and a photo exhibit hitting LA at the same time, it was clearly time to celebrate this iconic pin-up queen of the 50’s. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Page in person about five years ago when she did an online chat for the LA Times. Now in her elder years, she prefers to keep a low profile. During the interview, she only allowed a handful of people to see her as was escorted into the building through a private entrance. She only wants people to remember what she looked like back in her modeling days. I can tell you, she still looks like Bettie Page! Yes, she looks older, her body isn’t quite bikini-ready, but she still wears the same shoulder-length, wavy hair and bangs (only gray in color.) Her eyes sparkle blue as sapphires, and she speaks through her trademark ruby red lips. She told us in a slight southern drawl “I don’t know what all the fuss is about me now, I was just trying to do my best poses for the pictures.” It may have been just a job for Bettie, but a legend was born!
Thus the reason behind the, “The Notorious Bettie Page,” a delightful film that takes audiences through Page’s rise to fame. Filmed in black and white, we see how Bettie, just a nice girl from Nashville, wound up posing for sexually risqué photos. With director Mary Harron’s meticulous care in capturing the time period, and a knockout performance by Gretchen Mol perfectly portraying Bettie’s look and innocent charm, we get a glimpse into Bettie’s troubled past of sexual abuse and see how she fell into hardcore bondage modeling. We also get a clear view of photographers Irving and Paula Klaw, ultimate professionals who were just trying to cater to what their clients wanted to purchase, though it eventually led to a disturbing and scandalous censorship trial that criminalized Page and the Klaws for pushing pornography. In contrast, some of the film’s sassier moments come during the fun-in-the-sun photo shoots with photography Bunny Yeager utilizing Harron’s clever choice to film this section in heavily saturated Kodachrome-esque full color. “The Notorious Bettie Page” is destined to go down as a notorious film, with full credit going to Harron’s vision, superb casting and respect for Ms. Page’s story.
In the same week, I went to go check out the Clair Obscur Gallery exhibit of the Klaw’s photographs. Blown up almost life size, we see Bettie in bondage and girl on girl catfights. While Bettie was indeed a beauty, it’s her apple pie face and sweet expressions that make these pictures accessible and enjoyable even to those who aren’t into the rope and leathers scene.
Another film portraying Bettie’s life is the independent release “Bettie Page Dark Angel.” While the acting leaves a lot to be desired, the film tells Bettie’s story in a series of vignettes with effective recreations of her black & white short films with perfected shimmies and shakes by actress Paige Richards. I also enjoyed the rollicking soundtrack provided by Blondie’s Chris Stein (Blondie) and Danny B. Harvey (Rockats). More highlights include the casting of former Haunted Garage singer Dukey Flyswatter as Irving Klaw and narrations by Barbara Niles, which are a close match to Bettie’s actual voice and innocent take on her behind-the-bondage thoughts. The two-disc set is loaded with extra’s including photo galleries, interviews and for some extra fun, a segment on “How to Pose Nude” by Bunny Yeager.”
Ready for my close-up,
K.
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