Betty Garrett's first Broadway musical Something For the Boys will receive a tribute reading Sunday evening June 19 at Theatre West as the first annual gala tribute to honor the memory of Betty Garrett and to foster her ongoing musical theatre workshops @ the theatre. Program begins at 7 pm!
http://grigware.blogspot.com/2011/06/something-for-boys-star-studded-musical.html
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Barbara Minkus as Blossom
Bravo to Brian O'Halloran and a superlative cast at Theatre West who mounted the West Coast premiere of Something for the Boys on Sunday, June 19. Led by Barbara Minkus, a truly great comic actress and singer, the cast also included Lee Meriwether, Daniel Keough, Beau and Emily Bridges and Andrew Parks, among others. Cole Porter's music is ... swell. Who can fault a genius even if some of the numbers don't fit? They are pretty much lesser known tunes, but certainly fun to hear. "I'm In Love with a Soldier Boy" was written especially for Betty Garrett by Cole Porter in 1943, and in this concert reading was beautifully sung by Betty's granddaughter Madison Parks. The entire plot of the show is silly involving an inheritance of property in Texas by 3 cousins, who can barely tolerate one another. They turn the house into a military barracks, and along the way, some fluke radiation gets into Blossom's (Minkus) fillings in her teeth and she becomes a radio transmitter. Something handy for the military during wartime when airplane radios go out. Anything for the boys! Of course, there's a love triangle. Blossom loves Rocky (Keough), but Keough's in love with Melanie (Meriwether), a senator's stuck-up daughter. It's all fun, made even funnier and interesting by casting older folks in the younger roles!
Hopefully Theatre West will recast and mount this vintage musical at some point down the road. By the way, they are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary as one of LA's oldest and most prominent continually running smaller theatre companies.
Another Bravo!
Check out the old interview I did with Barbara Minkus in 2005 now reprinted on my Interview BLOG:
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