LEGENDS! at Studio Theatre in DC

I haven't posted anything on this blog in a long time. However, I will say that since the show has opened and is running here at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., the cast and crew is having a lot of fun. The audiences too!

Here are some of the reviews and articles we have attracted. You can see some fun color photos in these links too.

The Washington Post did a feature article about the history of the play, and this production.

The Washington Examiner reviewed the "wonderful...fun" show as full of "wit and style."

Theatremania.com said the show is "a laugh-filled trip to the moon."

Talkinbroadway.com called the show "a genuine guilty pleasure."

Metro Weekly says the "glamorous" production is akin to "an enjoyably trashy beach read."

This blogger calls the show "fabulous...hilarious...irreverent."

DC Theatre Scene says the show is "an over-the-top comic sensation...outrageously funny."

Here is a Metro Weekly article about the revival of James Kirkwood's play and James Lecesne's participation.

And this is a Washington Blade article about the play and yours truly.

The Washington City Paper says: "With John Epperson’s larger-than-life Lypsinka as part of the equation, there’s a certain unhinged something going on at Studio. It’s probably a good thing that Epperson—who as the pencil-browed, pencil-thin Lypsinka has made a career out of paying caustically inspired homage to exactly the sort of divas Legends! sends up, and who’s apparently been intrigued by the play for years—has had a whack at the script: At roughly 90 minutes, peppered with up-to-the-minute cracks about tabloid personalities and pop-culture events...interesting in a let’s-think-about-what-makes-an-entertainment sort of way."

Don't miss this show! I have no idea if it will ever be done again! And Studio has given it a beautiful production.

Sad news

Robert Hilferty, who I knew for about 25 years, and was the boyfriend of Fabio Toblini, the designer of the costumes for "Legends!" has died. I met Robert through the artist Prudence Whittlesey. When I met Prudence in 1984 she was working as a Zoli model in Tokyo. We met at a macrobiotic restaurant. We hit it off right away, and when Prudence returned to NYC we picked up our friendship and she was eager for me to meet Robert. Here's a link about Robert's death. The Internet is abuzz about Robert's death. His circle of friends and acquaintances was wide-reaching. Many, if not most, of the people are folks I don't know.

The accident that caused Robert's concussion happened the day of the "Legends!" event. He actually missed the show, but was there at the very end of the play, so I thought he had seen it, and didn't find out until the next day that he had missed it.

I'm very sad and confused about this death.

May 4, 2009

Since I have figured out how to post the "Legends!" promo video as an embed, here it is.

April 27, 2009

I realized I hadn't put the publicity photos from "Legends!" on this blog. The photos are by Timothy White.










And in this Patrick McMullan shot, taken during the performance, "Leatrice Monsee" makes her grand entrance. It's fake fur, everybody!



I also happened upon this page the other day. Someone figured out that I had a birthday.

April 22, 2009

The "Legends!" event pops up in the May issue of Instinct magazine, thanks to my friend Sean Krebs.

April 12, 2009

I know I posted the Ken Fallin caricature of myself, but I never posted Charles, so they haven't been seen together here. They were displayed onstage at Town Hall at the "Legends!" event as the audience was filing in. Here are me and Charles as Leatrice and Sylvia.





Unrelated to "Legends!" but not unrelated to my writing career, in today's New York Times there was a feature about Nancy Opel who is currently Off Broadway in "The Toxic Avenger" musical and there is accompanying the article a slide show of Nancy in various productions including this photo of her and Maxwell Caulfield in "My Deah."

April 4, 2009

Thanks to Google alert, I happened upon this sour "report" about the "Legends!" event. It's from The Advocate, of all things. I know I should take the high road and not even take time to acknowledge this article. So I think I'll pull the nice quotes from the article and put them here:

"I wouldn't have missed this for the world!"

"Busch was a radiant vision!"

"Stunning! Impressive!"

"A stroke of metatheatrical genius!"

"...Epperson's admirable adaptation efforts..."

I must point out here that in this article, the writer assumes that I went easy on Kirkwood's play because he died of AIDS. His death, and whatever its actual cause, had no influence on me, except for the fact if he were still alive I probably wouldn't have gotten the okay to put my "admirable adaptation" onstage.

Also, the scene where Charles took my line and I called him on it was NOT staged. Although it may be someday!

A blogger has mentioned that he finds "Legends!" to be internally homophobic (see post below). I think this article - from The Advocate! - is internally homophobic, and, believe me, I know from internalized homophobia. I also find it age-ist.

I took "Child, please," from my friend Jenifer Lewis, but it would have fit well on Whoopi too. I'm sorry it didn't occur to me to - after Whoopi cancelled - to change the Barbara Walters line to what I really wanted it to be.

In the original published version of "Legends!" the two women pull each other's wigs off. That old joke has been done to death, so we did some butt-slapping and got in a reference to the Shirley MacLaine/Anne Bancroft movie "The Turning Point," that was a big influence on me to move to NYC in 1978.

The writer of The Advocate article says he's not familiar with a recording played during the show. Too bad someone isn't familiar with Cole Porter's great song "Just One Of Those Things!" I never heard of Flavor Of Love!

What some people call stealing focus, others call showmanship planned in advance.

The writer says that "Legends!" should be dead. So does the tacky Provincetown drag queen mentioned below in another post. Apparently these minds think alike. Relax, girls, and just have a good time. Really, I think The Advocate wants to drum up controversy by being negative. I call this kind of thing an offshoot of what I refer to as Bushism (as in the effects of the W. administration and its ensuing negativity that we are stuck with, for now). But cynicism about the media (and the media's own cynicsm) goes back at least to 1967 when Neely O'Hara said in the movie "Valley of the Dolls": "Even the bad publicity helps when you get to be as big as I am. And, boy, am I getting the bad publicity."

Here's a link from Patrick McMullan's site with photos I hadn't seen before. I'm pleased to see Peter Rogers and Elizabeth Peabody were there. Elizabeth is Sam and Judy's daughter and Peter created the Blackglama ad campaign that inspired the "Legends!" event poster. I used to know them, but haven't seen them in a long time.