Sounding the Depths

Ahh, hell, Amy

You could have had it all.  I can't say your death was unexpected.  Nobody lives that kind of crazy life for long.  You even got to the point where you blew it at the one thing you were fantastic at, performing.  You actually abused your fans, screaming at them and throwing things at them.  

But it seemed like you were turning a corner. I mean, there was even a headline about you showing up for a party sober.  That's what made headlines in your life - that you came to something sober.  It's frustrating that with all your money and all your talent, you couldn't find someone to save you.

NPR says you "revitalized soul music."  A writer from Rolling Stone pointed out how amazing it was that you, a "scrawny, tatooed" kid would get on stage and sound like a sixties soul singer.  You wrote your own songs, strange as they sometimes were.  When you sang, "They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no," I knew you were in trouble.  But I loved the song and during a very tough time in my life, I created a humorous version that I performed at open mics - "I tried to get them to let me go to rehab but they said no, no, no."

Like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain, you were 27 years old.  What is it about that age?  That's not old enough to have lived.

I heard about your death on the way to the beach today. I needed to get away, to spend an afternoon alone, driving through the woods, swimming, getting baked by the sun, jumping into waves, watching the tide come in and out.  I wish you'd had something like that in your life that could make you feel better, that could ground you.

In the late afternoon, I went over to the inlet side of the beach to change and take some picutes. A  storm was brewing.  A flock of pelicans zipped across the bay in front of the dark clouds, spun, and headed towards the shore.  One lone pelican came along behind the others, alone, stuck in  the storm.  Wish I'd gotten a picture.

It's My Party - Suds - the musical!

When I heard that the Hippodrome was offering a musical that contained 50 songs, I did a quick mental calculation and decided that had to be a misprint.  Fifty songs in a play that actually had a plot?  The musical would have to last for hours.  But "Suds: The Rocking 60's Musical Soap Opera" was so much fun, I wish it HAD lasted for hours more.

Cindy, who works in a laundry, thinks her life is going well, until her pen pal boyfriend dumps her on her birthday for someone with better penmanship. As her life unravels, Cindy decides the only thing to do is end it all.  She tries to strangle herself in a washing machine, using a pair of pedal pushers as a noose.

Two guardian angels, Marge and Deedee, who have come to rescue her, think she’s doing a new dance – what else?  The Locomotion.  And they join in.  Marge and DeeDee are competitive angels who’ve been sent to help the laundress resolve her problems, but they’re so busy fighting with each other that it takes them a while to see the big picture.

 When they finally realize that poor Cindy is trying to kill herself, they each tell her about their own problems with men.  Here’s where the genius of the play comes in.  The songs are medleys of great hits from the sixties.  The two angels sing, DON'T MAKE ME OVER, ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART, WALK ON BY and ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME.  I found myself frantically scribbling the names of songs I wanted to download, songs I’d forgotten.  I was a little kid in the early sixties, but I remember these songs as if they were written yesterday.  The hardest part for me, watching the play, was trying   to keep from singing along, thereby driving my fellow audience members crazy.  After all, they paid big bucks to hear the professionals sing.

Oh, and sing they do.  Wow.  Poor pathetic Cindy is played with snarky heartbreak by Wendi Stoltzfus.  Wendi dramatizes the ups and downs of Cindy’s love life with passion.  The angels arrange for a birthday party and set her up with a boy named Milt Dudman  (love that name).  Cindy is horrified by the geeky date the two angels set her up with.  She does a fantastic job with one of my favorite “Whiney” songs, “It’s my Party.”  That Leslie Gore favorite includes the classic lines, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to.  You would cry too if it happened to you.”

Marge, played by Kelly Atkins, is a strong, passionate woman who once had a relationship with a fellow named Johnny, a flashy guy who shows up after the disastrous birthday party.  Marge is devastated when Johnny, whose full name is – what else – Johnny Angel, falls for her rival, DeeDee, aptly played by Lia Sumerano.

The very funny Billy Sharpe plays all the male leads in the show, including the postman who brings Cindy her break up letter, the pathetic Mr. Dudman, and the charming Johnny Angel.

But the girls, oh, boy the girls can sing.  And they get more opportunities than you would ever imagine.  Those fifty songs include some of the most difficult music ever written.  But these ladies pull it off with aplomb.  When the audience recognized a song, they laughed and clapped hysterically.  A washing machine repairman comes in to fix the washer Cindy used for her suicide attempt, and the two angles sing RESPECT, YOU DON'T OWN ME, and THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKIN', until the poor repairman, again played by Billy Sharpe, runs for the hills. 

What a phenomenal idea for a musical.  Combining the songs give the audience a chance to enjoy unfettered nostalgia.  But the three little girls sitting next to us, who had no idea what these songs were, laughed and clapped hysterically.  Maybe they’ll go home and download a few themselves!