Stormy Weather
Current mood: 
inspired
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
This week my god daughter Eleanna and I went from the ridiculous to the sublime. We laughed as we watched American Idol’s talent free Tatiana del Toro’s embarrassing on camera hysterics.
And last night, we wept through the wondrous Leslie Uggams in her show Stormy Weather at the Pasadena Playhouse.
What a gift I was able to give this little girl I treasure. She saw one of the most stunning performers of all time portraying another: Miss Uggams plays – no, she channels – Lena Horne and we are both still emotional and overcome this morning.
Eleanna, who at 12 is studying stage craft, was riveted from the second Miss Uggams took the stage and dominated it with a mere flutter of her fingers.
I am proud Eleanna understood that there is a difference between real triumph over adversity versus imaginary tears and tantrums. I am proud she was as absorbed by the harsh realities of Lena Horne’s struggles as she was by the dazzling songs.
She asked me lots of questions and together we will do a lot of research now.
I am so glad she is being exposed to real talent, real musical representation and that now she is keen to learn more about Lena Horne.
I had no idea frankly that Miss Horne married her white musical conductor Lennie Hayton at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in most states. They remained secretly married for three years.
She was at the forefront of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and…and…I could go on. This morning, Eleanna is interested in learning word for word the 28 songs in the show.
Thanks to a co worker of mine, we had second row seats last night. The Great American Songbook washed over us and the entire packed audience rose to its collective feet often. The Lady is a Tramp, Lush Life, Come Rain or Come Shine…so many wonderful, wonderful songs were performed with originality and verve.
It was Eleanna who pointed out that the supporting cast members play three or four different characters and appear in almost every number. She added that some Idol contestants can’t even remember the words to a two minute song!
When the entire cast sang The Little Light of Mine in the second act, I can honestly say I have never been driven to tears like this by a stage production before.
I didn’t know much about Lena Horne’s life to be honest. I knew she was amazing and wonderful but I had no idea she was the first black actress to land a long term Hollywood movie contract. One of the first bonafide black stars, she fought for equal rights, she paid her dues. Yet as a major singing star on the nightclub circuit she was forced to pee in a bucket outside the kitchen because she was “colored” and now allowed to use the rest rooms.
I wonder how Tatiana del Toro would handle that?
Lena Horne had ambition. Yet her focus was for her people as much as herself. Her friendships with Bobby Kennedy and Megdar Evers are depicted and these are touchstones in the play, when these two powerful men are assassinated at the same point she loses her son, her father and her husband.
Her husband…I have no idea as a true romantic how she dealt with MGM Studios’ objection to her marriage…so much so, that to punish her, Louis B. Mayer took away her coveted lead in Showboat and gave it to Ava Gardiner.
A personal moment of joy for both me and Eleanna was when we realized Lena Horne’s singing instructor Kay Thompson is the same woman who wrote the beloved children’s book, Eloise, one of the first books I gave Eleanna.
As we drove home, we pondered how bored and irritated Simon Cowell has been looking on American Idol lately. We both feel he would do himself a big favor by driving down to the Playhouse and observing the amazingly talented young cast in this show…specifically, we are in awe of Nikki Crawford as the young Lena Horne and the astonishing Wilkie Ferguson who plays both Medgar Evers and Aiken Bones. There is also his dance partner Phillip Attmore who plays Livin’ Jones among other roles. Their tap dance routine was one of the best I have ever seen and received a standing ovation.
These are the real American Idols and I am glad I was able to show a 12 year old girl that they really, truly do exist.
Aloha oe,
A.J.
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It seems to me that while we paler people were going along, living our sheltered lives, people of color were being brave and making sacrifices to attain equality all around us. If we noticed, it was probably to put them down, back in their place. I traveled with a colleague of mine, a young black woman, and we went to a hospital to check their medical records. We were expected. I let her walk up to the nurse’s station and I stood back to watch. She was ignored for a good 10 minutes and no one else was waiting. I don’t know how she put up with it. It was obviously racism.
You name it, show business, sports, what-have-you, and I promise you that race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, any perceived differences have kept people back. We need more stories like Lena’s to come out to make us all aware and bring out force us to communicate and be more sensitive to the rights of others. Something has to shake us free of our cowardice to confront these issues so that we can all be truly equal.
Posted by Sue on February 20th, 2009 at 5:34 pm