Morgan Anderson: Full-throated wonder!

Oh my goodness. I have been meaning to write about this girl for a while now. You may know Morgan Anderson as the title role in the concert version of Carrie: The Musical that I appeared in two years ago as Carrie's mother, Margaret. I remember the first time I heard her sing was in a revue of Stephen Schwartz songs. Morgan sang the most full-throated, exciting rendition of "Defying Gravity" that I have EVER heard. Check out Morgan singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "All the Wasted Time," with my good friend Zachary Altman, who also sounds terrific!







Oh, and if you haven't seen it, you should DEFINITELY check out Morgan and yours truly in Carrie!

Happy Birthday Betty Buckley!

Hello, my gorgeous, amazing fans! 64 years ago today, a VERY important thing happened: BETTY BUCKLEY WAS BORN! La Buckley was born in Big Spring, Texas and raised in Fort Worth and actually competed in many beauty pageants, and was even runner up for Miss Texas. In 1969 she was spotted by a talent scout and then shortly after made her big Broadway DEBUT in 1776 as Martha Jefferson and brought down the house every night. The rest, as the say, is history. Betty went on to do TV and movies (most famously as the gym teacher in Carrie) and continued wowing audiences on Broadway in shows like Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Sunset Boulevard, and Carrie. She is probably most known for her Tony Award Winning performance of Grizabella in Cats. 

I have a great love for Betty Buckley. Her steely, soul-shattering belt and commitment to the characters she plays has always blown me away. Also, if you haven't seen/heard her sing "Eve Was Weak" from Carrie the musical, you are SERIOUSLY missing out. Some other favorite Betty Buckley moments for me are her Tony Award performance of "Memory," "Writing on the Wall" from Drood, and many others. I wish that someone had had the sense to have her do Evita back when it first premiered, but we can dream! Happy Birthday you gorgeous creature!

Some rare treats!

Hello, gorgeous ones! Besides acting, singing, cosmetics, etc, I also love getting lost in the world of youtube. One of my favorite finds on youtube is this sound recording of Patti LuPone in her FINAL performance of Sunset Boulevard in London. Even though I've always thought I would have been fabulous in the role, Madame LuPone really nails it. Also, on the initial cast recording with Patti, the ending that was used for Broadway wasn't included. Here we have it, LIVE!!!

Another video, from the same user, also caught my eye recently.  A video of Betty Buckley and Linzi Hateley performing "Eve Was Weak," a song I've immortalized, from Betty's Carnegie Hall concert. I'd always read that they reprised their roles in selections from Carrie during this concert, but no recordings existed, and I was out of town at the time! FINALLY, I found this and got to see two fabulous performers reunite to recreate a fabulous, musical theater moment.