Was Tony Award-nominated show-stopping dame Sharon McNight born to play legendary burlesque vaudevillian Sophie Tucker? Why yes, we believe she was. If you're the least bit undecided about it, you can go see McNight in "Red Hot Mama - The Sophie Tucker Songbook," opening on Jan. 6 and running through Jan. 29 at the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.
The show is described as the story of Sophie Tucker, "the first lady of show business, the 'Last of the Red Hot Mamas,' whose remarkable career spanned 60 years. It contains the music and history of burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and Las Vegas, in a critically acclaimed one-woman musical biography of the entertainment legend, written by and starring Tony Award nominee Sharon McNight."
La Tucker started out in the Ziegfeld Follies and "worked blue" (told raunchy jokes) all through the era of radio and television. McNight will deliver over two dozen songs made famous by Tucker, including those by composers Cole Porter , Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin , Henderson, DeSylva & Brown, and her 1928 million-dollar record-seller, Jack Yellen 's "My Yiddishe Mama." Out There could sing a few verses of that last one, and the chorus would always be, "Oy vey!"
Bette Midler is, of course, another talented lady who has made hay with Sophie Tucker jokes in her act. Here's a favorite from her 1977 album "Live at Last": "I was in the woods last night with my boyfriend Ernie, and he said to me, 'Soph' - he always called me Soph - he said to me, 'Soph, these woods sure are dark. I sure wish I had a flashlight.' I said to him, 'So do I, Ernie. You have been munching grass for the last 10 minutes.'"
"Red Hot Mama - The Sophie Tucker Songbook" will play the Cinnabar Theater, 3333 Petaluma Blvd. N, Petaluma, CA. Tickets ($35, general; $25, youth): online at cinnabartheater.org/red-hot-mama or (707) 763-8920
Magazine Wrack
There's a fun feature in the December issue of Vanity Fair - that's the one with Adele on the cover above the teaser, "Adele: Raw. Real. Funny. Where's Her Nobel?" but don't let that put you off. It's a piece about a cast reunion from the classic British TV miniseries "Brideshead Revisited," 35 years after its heyday. You remember "Brideshead," the 11-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel that follows the lives of English aristocratic youth. Jeremy Irons played Charles Ryder, and Anthony Andrews played his friend and love interest, Lord Sebastian Flyte.
There at the great ancestral pile Castle Howard, where the series was filmed, assembled Irons, Andrews, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg , producer Derek Granger, and other cast members, looking for the most part none the worse for the wear. Lindsay-Hogg tells a great behind-the-scenes story: Irons dyed his fair hair brown for his role as Ryder, and Andrews was told to dye his dark hair blond. When Andrews showed up wearing a cap, he explained, "We have a problem. I sat in the garden at home on Sunday. It was such a nice day. It wasn't a good idea."
Lindsay-Higg explains, "With some chagrin, he took off his cap. His hair had turned an interesting shade of green."
Orchestral Maneuvers
Congratulations go out to Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, whose live concert recording of works by Bay Area composer Mason Bates was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award in the category of Best Orchestral Performance. Mason Bates: Works for Orchestra was released in March 2016 and features the first recordings of the SFS-commissioned The B-Sides and Liquid Interface, in addition to Alternative Energy. We're pulling for you to win the award, SFS and young master Bates.