Loesser's lasting impressions

Watching All the Girls Go By/photos by Charlotte Teagle and John Luhn



What fun to do the celebration of Loesser's music on Jan. 23, 2011 to a sellout crowd of 90+. A few of my favorite images from the experience:

• The older fellow seated directly in front of me who knew all the words to "The New Ashmolean Marching Society" from Where's Charley? and sang along with us as we did the number. I learned later that this is a standard piece often performed by barbershop quartets.
• The look on Ted's face as I sang "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" to him.
• Smiles across the room.
• Working with a small ensemble of four (a first for me), the joy of all the group numbers we did, and doing "Fugue for Tinhorns" with nary a wobble when I had thought it couldn't be done. It was also wonderful to hear the laughter in the audience when all three of us started singing our disparate verses together and staying on track.
• The satisfaction of knowing I hit that E-flat in "Coffee Break."
• Looking pretty darn good in a hat.
• The relief of waking up the morning before the performance and knowing that I didn't have a sore throat or cold; this despite the fact that colds were running rampant in our community all through January. I really think being compulsive about hand-washing helps.
• Fully understanding that drinking water is not needed during a performance if you have hydrated well in the days beforehand.
• A fellow whose opinions I respect saying that I had done a wonderful job.
• This thank-you note from the center director: "You have a beautiful voice and a wonderful stage presence--you made me laugh out loud a few times!"
• The thrill of doing a show with fine musicians and solid performers--Laura Leigh Owenby, Barbara Luhn and C.B. Henson. Love you all!

I've Never Been in Love Before



Once in Love with Amy--Ha, ha, ha, ha!

There's no coffee!

Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm

Guys and Dolls

Fugue for Tinhorns--"I've got the horse right here."



It's almost showtime!

Preparing for the Heart & Soul cabaret-style revue has been a great experience, and makes me wonder how people did things like this before the Internet age. Our pianist has a jam-packed schedule, but we three singers have been able to rehearse sans live accompaniment thanks to CDs I made by downloading all our songs by different performers via iTunes, and then transposing them to the keys we selected via some free software I downloaded called Vocal Remover, which is meant primarily to remove voice tracks from recordings (I've never been able to get this function to work), but also lets you change the pitch and the tempo of selected works. With the aid of this CD, we have been able to rehearse the entire show consistently over the past few weeks, working out blocking for our group numbers and practicing the brief dialogue between certain songs. Next week--the week before the show--we have three rehearsals scheduled with the accompanist. We've been able to honor her schedule as well as get our kinks worked out well in advance of showtime. And now I am really looking forward to hearing how we sound with the piano accompanying us rather than Ray Bolger, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Robert Morse, Megan Mullaley and all those lovable toughs from the original cast of Guys and Dolls.