Oh, Lady! Lady!

Saturday, December 8th will live on in my memory for a long time. As part of my birthday gift, my wife and kids (God bless their souls) bought tickets to the musical "Oh, Lady! Lady!". It was very thoughtful and wonderful of them to do it. It was simply fascinating!

The musical was staged at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco. This is a small theater with a seating capacity of 225 (Plus space for 6-8 wheel chairs). The seating was very intimate and cosy (Read uncomfortable seats!).

But the show was simply an experience out of this world. The story line was pure Wodehouse Mayhem and the songs were spectacular -- I wish I had recorded the songs, but they would not allow it. The actors/singers excelled in their roles. The pure Wodeusean gags had us laughing all thru the show -- for eg." "Love is like a sweet dream" says Hale and Watty responds "Matrimony is the Alarm Clock" . Molly Farringdon, the socialite (Meghann May) is getting married to the shy and sweet gentleman Willoughby "Bill" Finch (Michael Cassidy), under the disapproving eye of her formidable mother (Darlene Popovic) -- Her reaction to Bill's "Mother" has to be seen to be believed!. Bill's friend and best man is the affable bohemian bachelor Hale
Underwood (Bill Fahrner). Bill's former (or should we say childhood sweetheart and still engaged to be married to Bill) is the stylish, Paris returned lingerie supplier to the bride, May Barber (Stephanie Rhoads). Who can forget the ex-graduate of Sing-Sing and Bill's valet Spike (Greg MacKellan). The pearl necklace that is Bill's gift to Mollie attracts Fainting Fanny Welch
(Lesley Hamilton) -- a precursor to the later Soapy and Molly of Wodehouse fame. Throw in the socialite hostess Miss Clarette Cupp (Cynthis Rogers Baggott) who kept things moving, Watty the elevator man (Ken Boswell), Russel Sprout a Bohemian artist (Tyler Kent), Parker the maid (Piper LaGrelius) , and the incompetent detective Cyril Twombley (Sean Sharp) and you have pure mayhem for 2 hours!

The scene shifts from Mrs.Farringdon' s house in the suburbs to Greenwich Village (Where the air has something to do with it) Bohemian revels.

The staging included the song "Bill" which was cut from the original show 2 days before it went live. Both Bolton and Wodehouse were unhappy with the deletion, and Kern included it in "Show Boat" 9 years later. But it was included in the proper place in yesterday's show.

I am told that the "Eureka" theater resembles the original "Princess Theater" in New York. I think I am love with the theater now and am looking forward to more Musicals in the future!

The Wit and Wisdom of P.G.Wodehouse
Compiled and Edited by Tony Ring

This is the latest "collection" of snips from the works of one of the the world's greatest Comic Writers, Sir Pelham Granville Wodehouse. I obtained the book from the UK and it cost me US $25.00. Is the book worth the price? The up-front truthful answer is a resounding NO!. The book is something that I would have paid US $5.00 for not the US $25.00. I feel cheated and this is a big let down. My primary objection is the cost of the book and the value of the contents.

Physical attributes are the size of a standard Reader's Digest, 120 pages, nicely bound in a dark blue cover with a white, attractive cover. The book has snips and bits and pieces from Wodehouse's works. The binding is pretty good. The book has snips and quotes from Plum's works. The average number of quotes per page is 2 (TWO, I am not kidding you!) for a total of approximately 250 snippets in the entire book. There is a lot of white space separated by art works that looks like a baby's squiggles.

Tony Ring is a Wodehouse scholar of note and is renowned in Plum circles. He has been instrumental in putting together the Concordance Collection that is used by Plum fans. He has also been instrumental in collecting and publishing the early works of Plum that is in great demand among collector circles. Along in Barry Day he has has published a similar collection called "P.G.Wodehouse in his own words".

Given Tony's knowledge of Plum, I would have expected this collection to be off the beaten track and provide some references to works that are not readily available. Instead I found only 8 (EIGHT, I counted) snippets from Plum's poems, plays and articles. The public is better off purchasing Richard Usborne's Wodehouse Nuggets, (Abebooks for $6.83) or Barry Day and Tony Ring'sP.G.Wodehouse in his own words, available from Abebooks for $13.00.

Can Anatole be beat?

The kids decided to be "chef" for a day. If a 14 year old and a 12 year old cooks what do you get?

This is what we got yesterday:

1. Soup de la Veggie (Courtesy of 12 year old son)
2. Sugared Apples with Fruit (Courtesy of 14 year old half-pint)

Both my wife and I had to say the food, while watery, tasted pretty good. He even "nuked" some Pita Bread to go with the soup.

Here is his secret recepie. Try it and you will swear you are at Aunt Dhalia's country Manor (P.G.Wodehouse) and on top of it, the food is healty too! (Please note, this is his reciepie as he made it. I am sure there are variations to this, since I could distinctly taste cinnamon in the end result)!

Soup:

1. Boil 6-8 cups of water.
2. In aIn a blender (or mixie as the Indians say) drop in
1. A clove of garlic
2. Pearl Onions (You can substitue a piece of regular onion
3. Beef-steak tomato (or 2 small Plum tomatoes)
4. baby carrots (You do not even need to skin the carrots!)
5. A stick of celery
6. Table Spoon of Butter (My son's motto is More Butter the Better, but you can do without this).
7. green chilies (or more to taste)
8. Small piece of cilantro
9. Ginger to taste
10. Salt
11. 1/2 an apple for sweetness (My cousin's house an apple tree and we have more than 100 apples from the tree. So we are hot on apples at this time of the year)
3. Add the boiling water until the blender is 75% full.
4. Close the blender and Grind for 4-5 minutes until smooth.
5. Server in a bowl with the "nuked" Pita Bread'.
   

Nuked: Defined as anything that has been heated in a microwave oven.


Sugared Apple:

1. Take a small apple and core the apple. You will be left with a "whole apple" with a hole in the middle where the seeds were.
2. In a cup, mix brown sugar, honey, raisins, and dried cranberries.
3. Stuff the core with this mixture.
4. Apply a little bit of ghee (Clarified butter) to the top and bottom of the cored area -- acts as an adhesive.
   
5. Cover the top and bottom with "Chappathi flour" (Breading mix).
6. Place the apple in a microwave safe bowl and "nuke" it for 2 minutes. The moisture in the apple is sufficient to cook the apple.
7. Place in an ice cream bowl and pour chocolate syrup on top.
   
8. Eat when it is warm!