speaking of JACQUES BREL, the two other songs that get to me in that admittedly melancholy revue is "The Desperate Ones" (which in a production i saw in Iowa City, accompanied by slides of the Quilt Project and the Vietnam Memorial) and "My Death" (again, in that production, sung by a man instead of a woman, with the entire company turning at the last harmonic chord---him flipping up his coat lapel---to reveal AIDS awareness ribbons). The production also had "Fannette" sung by a woman, instead of the traditional man, as an abandoned lover recalling a girlhold lesbian crush...as well as "Timid Frieda" with imagery of runaway teen prostitutes. Lest you think it was all downers, "Madeliene" was done with a ventriloquist dummy and straw boaters (vaudeville/burlesque/music hall style), while "The Bulls" was updated to be about TV sports, and "Middle Class" was performed by a trio of GYPSY-like strippers. "Amsterdam" and "Old Folks" were amazingly sung and beautifully staged as well. "If We Only Have Love", as mentioned before, was a simple but elegant finale.
For some of our younger readers, i'd recommend seeing or listening to JACQUES BREL. Very potent stuff for singing actors!
Will: They don't give out awards for helping people be gay... unless you count the Tonys.
"I guarantee that we'll have tough
times. I guarantee that at some point
one or both of us will want to get out.
But I also guarantee that if I don't
ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for
the rest of my life..."
