For the fun of it

Last week I had a cold and also had to contend with the weather, which wasn't as bad as everyone kept forecasting. The city is always very pretty when it snows. And it certainly made my travels to auditions interesting. Not as many people seem to attend auditions in bad weather. I find that fascinating.

Anyway, a lot of my auditions lately have been in the actual theatre spaces, which is such a treat and a good test since most general auditions are in rehearsal studios. I had a pop rock audition at The Public, a tragic-comedy audition at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, and today, I had an audition at The Lamb's Theatre, all lovely spaces.

The audition today was to play Marlene Dietrich in the new musical, Dietrich and Chevalier, about her love affair with Maurice Chevalier.

When I played Audrey in Little Shop, a photographer hired me to recreate Dietrich's famous pose for The Blue Angel, so I always felt an affinity for her.


I greatly enjoyed researching her life and her work, and am so thankful for sites like YouTube, because I could endlessly study her films, songs and interviews. I did the same thing when I was hired to play Judy Garland and Janis Joplin for the musical Hell's Belles.

My favorite Dietrich songs and scenes are "The Man's In the Navy" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" from Seven Sinners with John Wayne, the famous kiss in Morocco, Shanghai Express, Hot Voo Doo from Blonde Venus, and her masked heartbreak while singing Jonny in The Song of Songs.

It was fun to strut the stage as Dietrich in today's audition. The confidence, the incredible combination of masculine femininity, her boldness and her joie de vivre mixed with melancholy... it was great fun!

And after all, that's what it's all about, having fun and doing good work, learning all the way and enjoying the ride.