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Another day, another post. I'm getting very excited about Diana tomorrow night. Check back Monday for a full report on the fabulous night.

Playbill.com had an interview with Janine LaManna today. She discusses, among other things, standing in for Chita in Spider Woman. She doesn't specifically talk about the opening night experience, but she does allude to having to overcome audience expectations when filling in for an established star long associated with the role. It's a good article and I have even more respect for her now than I already did. At the end, there's some brief tidbits on other divas and it mentions that Liza is preparing an album of Kay Thompson material. After seeing her perform some of the numbers two weeks ago, I'll be running to get that CD as soon as it hits shelves.

Another guest star, another chance for Comcast to fuck up. Rita Moreno will be on Ugly Betty sometime next month. That show knows its audience. While Rita isn't as big of a get as Patti, it's still an inspired bit of casting. Actually, if this was 10-15 years ago, it would be bigger than Patti, but time has not been kind to Rita. I saw her a couple years ago at Ravinia and it was a disappointing experience, to be generous. She has not aged well and her voice has lost its brassy luster. It was very thin and she had a hard time projecting over the 3 piece band. I thought she was going to break a hip just standing there center stage she was so frail. She did about 5 songs, took an intermission, came back for another 5 songs, and that was it, no encore. The entire show, including the intermission, was over in an hour and I paid $75 apiece for myself and my companion to be there. It was his birthday present, and I was kind of peeved that it wasn't better, although he enjoyed it more than I did. I was disappointed that she did a lot of jazz songs (and I HATE jazz) instead of theatre or torch songs, and while she did a LOT of name dropping, she did not say one single thing about West Side Story, nor did she do any of the songs. I completely understand about not wanting to be typecast or associated with one thing for an entire career, and I understand and admire a performer's attempts to branch out and try new things instead of sticking to past glories, but why did she think the audience was there in the first place? It certainly wasn't to hear her scat the words "salt peanuts" over and over in her opening number. However, she is theatre royalty, and I'm very much looking forward to her appearance on my new favorite show. Here's hoping Comcast can keep it together this time and show her the respect she deserves.