Three Notes and Two Beautiful Women

Posted by Bruce Miller

What was the best thing about last night’s Home for the Holidays benefit cabaret? Betty Ann Grove (pictured in her heyday to the right) was there—all smiles, looking like a million bucks and back in Richmond once again. We almost lost her to New Jersey, but turns out this Broadway Baby is a true Richmonder after all. When it came time to return home for the holidays, Richmond was the home that called to her the most.

You may remember that not too long ago we said “God Speed, not Goodbye” to Betty Ann (Oct 7, 2007), as she moved to the Actors Home in New Jersey. It was one of those moves that was supposed to be forever. Years ago, when Betty Ann was starring on Broadway, her dear mother had moved into the Actors Home and lived quite happily within commuting distance of NYC. And so Betty Ann thought that she too would be happy there.

But that was then. “When I got there, I couldn’t find anyone who would smile,” Betty Ann said last night. (That's B A again in the pic to the right, beaming down at her TV co-star Bert Parks.) More importantly, her “family”—that’s all of us, my friends—and her heart were here in River City. After making this discovery, she quickly called her old landlords in Richmond and re-leased the same apartment that she had released not more than a few weeks ago. “If I’d called two days later it would have been gone,” she said. She trundled her downsized possessions back to town, bought a replacement sofa at The Dump, and re-established the old homestead.

We couldn’t be more thrilled. I’ve already made her promise to sing a number at next year’s benefit cabaret.

What was the weirdest thing that happened last night? Well, it all began just as we were about to open the house. A nice older gentleman who arrived early to see the show walked up to one of our veteran actresses, who shall remain nameless. (It was not Audra Honaker or Janine Serresseque, pictured to the left). The actress looked gorgeous by the way in her sparkling cabaret get-up. “Has anyone ever told you you’re aging?” he asked. Both the actress and I, who happened to be standing nearby, thought we had misunderstood. “Excuse me,” she said.

“I’ve been watching you on stage and on television for years and years,” he continued. Then he proceeded to recall performances and commercials from the 70s, 80s and on. Our beloved actress smiled and nodded along, and as I remembered those same performances that he was recalling, I couldn’t help but look at her and think how unbelievably young and beautiful she was. “So, I just can’t believe you’re aging,” he said.

“Ageless,” she blurted out, diplomatically determining to keep that beautiful smile on her face. “I’m going to take it that what you’re meaning to say is ‘you’re ageless.’ And thank you for that.”

“I can’t believe you’re aging,” he repeated, with a huge admiring grin.

I’m convinced he was trying to be complimentary. Obviously he hasn’t spent a lot of time around actresses. Or a dictionary.

On a third note, our hearts go out to Durron Tyree, whose grandfather passed away yesterday morning. Durron has had to bow out of these final two performances to be with his family. We miss him. He was one of the four new voices in this year’s cabaret, and added immeasurably to the performance. I hope he’ll join us again next year.

Tonight’s Home for the Holidays benefit concert is SOLD OUT! Thanks to one and all for making this year’s fundraiser a HUGE success.

--Bruce Miller

Great Spirit, Great Music, Great Cause

Posted by Bruce Miller

Singing to raise spirits and charitable funds is a time honored Christmas tradition.

I’ve just returned from our first Home for the Holidays cabaret. The 16 or so patrons who attended tonight really had a grand time, but I confess I’m disappointed because it appears that the crowds this week are going to be small. As of this writing, we only have 14 reservations for tomorrow evening (Tuesday, Dec 11 at 7:30).

I sure would like to see that change.

The show itself is wonderful. Brett Ambler, Corey Davis, Audra Honaker, Katrina Lewis, Jason Marks, Robyn O’Neill, Fernando Rivadeniera, Janine Serresseque, Erin Thomas, Durron Tyree and Tony Williams sing and play their hearts out for 90 minutes, entertaining with a combination of holiday favorites and Broadway standards. Jan Guarino is sick this week (say a prayer for her recovery by Thursday’s Swingtime Canteen), but tomorrow Cathy Motley-Fitch will be filling in for her. The singers are all volunteering their talents to raise money for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. And yet only a few folks are turning out for these first two performances.

Tomorrow (Tuesday’s) show will be a pay-what-you-can performance, and 100% of ticket revenues will go to the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, governed by RAPT (the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres) and managed by the Community Foundation. So if you can’t afford the $25 suggested donation, please come tomorrow (Tuesday) evening—and bring five or six of your friends. It’s a GREAT way to jump start the holiday spirit, and it’s an even better way to support the volunteer performers, who would much prefer to be singing to a full and enthusiastic house than a room half-filled with empty tables.

If don’t understand what the Theatre Artists Fund is all about, and therefore don’t feel inclined to support it, let me try to change your mind. In the past ten years of so, there have been five times when the theatre community came together on an emergency basis to help one of our members deal with a life threatening situation.

We raised $6 thousand or so to keep a roof over the head of one of our colleagues during the final months of his life when he was too sick to work but was nonetheless evicted from his apartment. We raised $8 thousand or so to prevent a lifelong theatre administrator from losing her home when her husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, had to stop working, but needed to be out of work for six months before his disability insurance kicked in. We raised several thousand to install a new furnace in the home of a beloved director who was returning from open heart surgery to an unheated home in the dead of winter.

In every instance I’ve counted myself blessed to be a part of a community that cared so much about taking care of its own. The Richmond Theatre Artists Fund lets us begin to meet these emergency needs before they happen. It lets us raise funds on a strategic rather than a crisis basis. The Fund doesn’t exist to help someone out when they’re between jobs and having trouble paying their cable bill. The Fund exists to meet the critical needs of our brothers and sisters when accident or illness stops them in their tracks. No matter how much insurance we have, none of us can protect ourselves from everything. God willing, the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund will be there to help with emergency expenditures when we need help the most.

Isn’t that worth a few bucks and 90 minutes of your time? Don’t you want to support your colleagues who are giving up seven nights in December to try to help others?

Upcoming shows are tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7:30, this Saturday at 11 pm, and next Monday and Tuesday at 7:30. All performances are in Barksdale’s Willow Lawn lobby. Please call the Barksdale box at 282-2620 to make your reservations.

I hope you’ll join us for this wonderful, joyous and very worthwhile performance.

--Bruce Miller

Holiday Happenings Kick Off This Week

Posted by John Steils

If you’re looking for a way to jump start your holiday celebration, you need look no further than Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV. Our upcoming roster of eight different productions and special events is bound to include something smile-inducing for you and yours. We’re YOUR theatre, so please join in the fun.

1. Home for the Holidays
This is Barksdale’s third annual benefit concert for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. Not only will you enjoy a great 2-hour evening of entertainment from some of Richmond’s finest theatre singers, you’ll also be supporting a great cause. This year’s line-up of super-stars includes Brett Ambler, Corey Davis, Jan Guarino, Audra Honaker, Katrinah Lewis, Jason Marks, Robyn O’Neill, Fernando Rivadeniera, Janine Serresseque, Durron Tyree, and Tony Williams at the piano. Erin Thomas is our emcee. Performances are on the starlit Barksdale Willow Lawn lobby stage, with attendance limited to 80 guests sitting cabaret-style at reserved tables. Click for more details.

2. Bifocals Theatre Project
If you’re 55 or older, or if you know a theatre lover who is 55 or older, you really should connect with Barksdale’s Bifocals Theatre Project, our fun and fast-moving initiative designed to serve Greater Richmond’s senior theatre artists and audiences. On Thurs Dec 6 and Fri Dec 7, our Bifocals troupe will present a half-hour version of the radio drama It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Bob Albertia, and featuring the acting talents of Bob himself plus Tom Bass, Woody Eney, Joel Grow, Donna Knicely, Chase Kniffen and Ali Thibodeau. The performance will take place on the lobby stage at Barksdale Willow Lawn. Seating for lunch (optional) begins at 12 noon, and the performance begins at 1 pm. Attendance is limited to 80 guests, and tickets must be reserved in advance. Following the Friday performance will be the annual Bifocals Christmas Party, which is open to all theatre lovers 55 and over, free of charge. Click for more details.

3. Indonesian Shadow Puppet Performance and Concert - FREE
Also this Fri Dec 7, in partnership with the Modlin Center for the Arts at Bruce and Phil’s alma mater (the University of Richmond), Barksdale will present free performances of a traditional Indonesian shadow-puppet performance featuring Dr. Andrew Clay McGraw (ethnomusicologist and music professor at the University), Gusti Putu Sudarta, Dalang (shadow master and musician), and John MacDonald (gamelan musician). Free performances will be at our historic Empire Theatre, conducted as a part of First Fridays. Call Catherine Dudley for more information, 643-2477. And while visiting the historic Empire on First Friday, be sure to enjoy the art photos of Jay Paul, now on display in our lobby gallery. Click for more details.

4. Stretchin’ at Barksdale – only $12 for a GREAT concert
Stretchin’ at Barksdale is our free-wheeling, grab-a-beer-and-chill-to-the-music concert series, presented on Sunday evenings in the “living room” lobby at Barksdale Willow Lawn. This Sun, Dec 9, 6 pm, national rising star Justin Townes Earle, son of country superstar Steve Earle, will be taking the stage with Richmond great Susan Greenbaum. B J Kocen is our impresario and emcee. It’s the best deal on the best music in town. If you enjoy live music in a laid back “at home” atmosphere, you’d be crazy to miss it. No reservations. Purchase tickets at the door. Click for more details.

5. Rostov’s Coffee & Conversations - FREE
Get outa here! You’ve NEVER been to a Coffee & Conversations event??!! Well, there’s no time to start like the present. Next Tues, Dec 11, 9:30 am, join us in the lobby of Barksdale Willow Lawn to hear all the backstage stories directly from the horses’ mouths. Our three leading men of Moonlight and Magnolias will answer all your questions and reveal all the backstage insights you’ve been dying to know. And if you can, come a little early. Rostov’s delicious coffee, hot tea and pastries are available for a suggested donation of $3. No tickets or reservations required. Click for more details.

6. A Christmas Story – Empire Theatre
A great, hilarious play, suitable for the entire family age 6 to 106. You can read review quotes elsewhere on the blog, or call the Theatre IV box office for more info. 344-8040.

7. Moonlight and Magnolias – Barksdale Willow Lawn
A laugh-fest comedy about the making of the screenplay of Gone with the Wind. You can read review quotes elsewhere on the blog, or call the Barksdale box office for more info. 282-2620.

8. Swingtime Canteen – Barksdale Hanover Tavern
A joyous, toe-tapping, boogie-woogie recreation of a USO show from Christmas 1944. You can read review quotes elsewhere on the blog, or call the Barksdale box office for more info. 282-2620.

See you at the theatre!

--John Steils

Retraction and Apology

Posted by Phil Whiteway

First, let me apologize to all parties involved. With nothing but good intentions, we at Barksdale have facilitated the publication of incorrect information. We regret that it happened. If we have confused or offended anyone, we’re sincerely sorry.

We have great affection and respect for Cynthia McMullen. This misstep is our fault, not hers. We apologize to her as well.

In her On the Aisle column in Sunday’s Times-Dispatch, she listed 23 talented and beloved performers in the cast of this year’s Home for the Holidays benefit cabaret, noting that the roster was “subject to change.” The problem is, twelve of the 23 outstanding singers listed will not be appearing in the holiday cabaret, and nine of them hadn’t even been contacted. Also, the names of two of the performers who will be taking part in the cabaret didn’t make it onto the list.

The annual Home for the Holidays cabaret raises money for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, sponsored by RAPT (the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres) and managed by The Community Foundation.

After spending yesterday trying to figure out what went wrong, we now understand our error. There were three computer lists of performers created during the planning of this year’s cabaret. The first list included many of our favorite theatre singers with established reputations and name recognition. The second list included up-and-coming performers who are still relatively new or unknown to the ticket-buying public. (We created this second list because we wanted to add some "new blood" to this year's cabaret.) The third list was narrowed down from the first two, and included the names of the performers whom we invited to participate in Home for the Holidays 07.

In an inner-office communication, a staff member mistakenly emailed the first list of established singers while intending to email the third narrowed down list. The mistake went forward from there without anyone realizing it. When Debra Wagoner declined the invitation to perform due to a scheduling conflict, her name was removed from the list, as requested, but it was removed from the wrong list.

So the list that wound up being distributed to media outlets was the list of some of our favorite theatre singers with established reputations, minus Debra Wagoner. A couple of other favorite theatre singers were also not on the list, for a variety of reasons.

We apologize. As soon as we realized our mistake, it was immediately corrected in the form of updated information being sent out and published in the paper. Individual notes of apology are being written. We regret that our clogged schedule creates situations ripe for error. We try hard to open shows and distribute accurate information all around.

The finalized list of performers, as of last night, is: Brett Ambler, Corey Davis, Jan Guarino, Audra Honaker, Katrinah Lewis, Jason Marks, Robyn O’Neill, Fernando Rivadeniera, Janine Serresseque, Durron Tyree, and Tony Williams at the piano. Erin Thomas is our emcee.

It’s a great group. We’re embarrassed and sorry that other names were distributed to the media without their knowledge or consent. I hope everyone involved, whether you are an artist or an audience member, will forgive us for this blunder. I ask for your understanding and appreciate your acceptance of this heartfelt apology.

--Phil Whiteway