First off, my review of the senior musical revue "New Wrinkles" sparked some differing opinions on the production from readers. Jill writes:
Hi....I just read your "take" on the "New Wrinkles" show in "7", and I couldn't agree with you more! I thought the show dragged in the first half, and the second half was not much better. And.... I understand that the AC was broken and I got so hot, I thought I was going to pass out!!! If they knew that, they should have passed out paper fans or something. The water fountains were also down ... Based on the above comments, we probably won't go next year!
A caller this morning had a different take on the show:
And at the final curtain, my feeling was, Darn, is it over already?
A caller named Frank thought some parts of the show were stronger than others:
I think the show was long, just like you said. But I think you could cut down the first act. There were some scenes in the first act that were almost amateurish. The second act was absolutely fabulous in anything that Steve Pepper does.
In other "New Wrinkles"-related stuff: I'd like to take this opportunity to drag out one of my favorite stories from 2007. It was an interview I did with Mary Jane Cavanaugh-Fisch, pictured above in a photo that accompanied the story. It's all in her own words, which I think helps make it a powerful piece. At one point she relates:
[Seven or eight years ago,] on the final dress rehearsal, that afternoon, while sitting at my computer, I felt a small pressure, like somebody holding their thumb against my sternum. It wouldn't go away. Having read much about women and heart attacks, I thought, this is strange ...
I called 911 and landed in the hospital and found out that I had 100% -- this is hard to talk about -- one of the arteries was 100% clogged. They put a stent in me. That weekend I had to miss the shows. The cardiologist had told me that I could get out of bed and I could start walking around. What he didn't know was that I had already been out of bed and walking around, and so then I invited him to go with me.
We walked around the whole loop at Saint Agnes, which sort of startled him, and I told him I had to get back to the show. I could not be lying there in the hospital. He did allow me to get back into the show, but all I was allowed to do was the trio number and my solo. He wouldn't let me do anything else. What he didn't know until afterward is that the trio number had a lot of choreography in it, which I did move a lot. It worked out fine, but it was a massive heart attack.
The only thing better that reading Mary Jane's words is listening to them. In this podcast that we recorded last year with her, you get a real feel for "New Wrinkles" and how much it means to its cast and crew.
Mary Jane, at 83, is still dancing and singing with great verve in this year's show. Kudos to her and her talented colleagues.
