Ok, so I get to the theatre about 10 to 7 on thursday, get my will call ticket, then walk around a bit. When I get back to the theatre I notice they are letting people in the door, so I go in get my program, then stand and wait for the house doors to open. While waiting I see David Himmelfarb walk in the door! Call me crazy, but that got me all excited, and it made me wonder if anyone else recognized him, lol. The sign on the doors say that they will be open at 7:30pm, but they didn't open till about ten to 8. I rush in get the same seat I had last year for the first Bruce McCulloch show, second row center.
So, the show starts about 8:30. Dave gets up on the stage, and says that he has this Declaration thingy to read from the Mayor of SF. Its about Janurary 12th being Sketchfest day in the city of San Francisco. It was so strange just to see him doing the anouncements and stuff, he made it funny like only he could, but just felt like he should have done more. He mentioned how proud he was of Dead Diva aka The Tribute, then he announced the next act, Boomtime. They were ok, kinda strange but funny in parts, its hard to discibe, so I won't. After they were done, there was a 15 minute intermission.
Dave comes back on stage brings out the band, and then leaves. The next thing you see is the "Dead Diva" standing in the middle of the stage while "Fame" by David Bowie is played by the band. Then you hear all these voiceovers, from radio talking about her and her life and her death. Some of the voices where Dave doing different accents. The next scene are all four of the remaining "Sparkle" members, talking on their cell phones to the manager, who is asking each of them if they would do a tribute to the Diva, and telling them this time they are gonna be the star, but not telling the others. So basically each one of them thinks they are gonna be the next front girl. They go into this song about how this time they are gonna make it, and after the song they finally realize that the others are there, and they bump into each other and give their fake greatings. "You got so FAAAA.......BULOUS!" "OOOH Food!"
All of the girls are visited by the Dead Diva throughout the show, after each girl tells you how great life has been so far, the Diva shows the audience, and each girl how it really is. The first girl(Tracy De Nisi), after she gets done telling the rest of the girls that she has been a Burlesque dancer for the last 15 years, gets her visit from the Diva. She is dressed in white, and she turns around and her cape type thing turns into a screen where they show a clip of what her life is really like. The clip shows her holding these feathery fans in front of her, covering her bra and underware, doing a dance. At one point a man shouts...."Show us your titties!" And then you see her again with a horrified look on her face. Then you see a man behind the bar(Dave), at one point he comes up to her and says, "Give me the fans, give me the fans, give me the...." She reluctantly gives him the fans. Then he says, "You have to get naked." Then you see her crying while removing her clothes(not showing anything though),more like sobbing. The clip ends then you see her on the stage. She does a song, which I can't remember at the moment.
The second girl(Pinky Turzo) is the next to come into contact with the Diva after she tells the girls that she is still happily married to Mark, and has been for the last 15 years, and that she is still entertaining, with regular shows. Video clip: The first thing you see is her husband, and he asks, "What is it you say to someone before they do a show?" She says, "Break a leg." Then he says, "No, thats not it.....good luck." Then he says, "Here is your wig." And we see that it is a clown wig, and then you see her with clown makup on. The next scene is her dancing and singing to "Get this party started", by Pink, in a backyard to kids at a party. At one point the kids start throwing things at her. Then she looks off into the distance, and sees her husband kissing some other woman. Then the clip ends and she sings a song about her husband, and again I can't remeber the name of the song. I really wish they had all of the songs and scenes on the program.
The third girl(Laura Milligan), comes into contact with the Diva after she gets done telling the other ladies about doing billboards for a cosmetics line. Video clip: She is standing up talking about the new line of Mary Kay products. Then you hear her say, "I don't normally do shows for drag queens....." Then you see the drag queens, which I reconized some of them, Paul Greenberg(vacant lot), and Jay Johnstone(Mr. show). Man this one is hard to discribe, I think I was laughing way too hard too remember any of the jokes. Paul was the funniest, well next to Laura, I think she was histaricle! Anyway, the clip ends and you see her onstage doing a few lines of coke before she does her number.....the only title, I think I can remember....Its wonderful to be a lady.
The fourth and my favourite one(Crissy Guerrero), is visited by the Diva after she tells the other girls that she had an audition with "The OC", and that it went great. Video clip: You see Crissy erasing someones name from the top of the list and putting her name in. She sits down with cigarrette in hand next to a teenage girl who is with her mom, the mom asks her too put out the cigarrette, and she says, "Im trying out for the teenage girl who smokes....its called the method, look it up." Then you hear, "Crissy Gooorero?" Then she gets up tells the girl next to her, "Its ok Jean Bennett, you will be 18 in a few years..." She goes into the audition room hands the lady her headshot(which is obviously a picture of her when she was a teenager). The lady asks her if she is Crissy's mother, then she says, "No, I am Crissy....Im auditioning for the cigarette smoking teenager." The woman looks at her funny then proceeds with the audition. In the middle of the read through, the lady says, "This is just sad, you are too old for this part." Then she says,"Just feed me my lines hunny..." Then the lady says that its over and shoves her out of the room. Crissy leaves the door is shut behind her, and you hear everyone in the room laughing at her. Then you see her sobbing while the clip ends. Then she sings her song, which was beautiful.
The last song is all of them singing about how all of this shit has happened in their life and they are still here. It was a great way to end the show.
There is so much I wish I could remember about this show. All the girls were amazing, they all have such beautiful voices, and they are all hilarious. I would love too see each of them in other things. I went in as just a Crissy and Dave fan, and now Im a fan of each of them. I really wish now that I was able to go to the El Vez shows, and I wish I could have seen "White Trash Wins Lotto".
After the show I went across the street to MacAurther Park resteraunt where the after party was to be held. I got there told the guy my name he told me to go all the way back, so I go into this room where they have a few tables set up. They have food, and wine. I sit down at the table, and watch as the room fills, Im all by myself, so I feel really awkward. I deciede to get up and get some food, but Im so nervous that I only eat a small amount. After I eat one of the waitresses comes up to me and asks me if I would like a drink so I order a rum and coke. Im glad I had it cause I really needed something to help calm my nerves. It was sad cause it went right to my head, I guess the combo of not eating much and not sleeping much didn't help. So, at one point I saw the girls who I recognize from the Bruce show last year, so I asked them if they were at that show last year. They said of course yes, then I think I blurted out that I came from Indiana. They asked me if I had ever seen and KITH shows, then I told them all about my adventures. They had never seen them live, another reason for KITH to get back on the road. :) Anyway, so I hung with them for a while. At one point I noticed that Crissy was away from Dave, so I waited them walked up to her and introduced myself. This is basically how it went, im sure its not in the right order! lol!
Me: "Hi Crissy! My Name is Liz and Im a friend of Maries...she does your fan site.."
Crissy: "Oh Hi! Yes I know Marie!" :)
Me: "I came all the way from Indiana to see the show"
Crissy: "Indiana, wow!"
Me: "Marie told me to tell you that she is sorry she couldn't come..."
Crissy: "Well tell her Hi, and that Im sorry she couldn't be here.."
Me: "I will."
Crissy: "Well it was nice to meet you." *Shakes hand*
Me: "Nice to meet you too!"
I also remember her telling me that some people googled the show and her site popped up. I can't really remember when that happened.
I do remember that I had to go back up to her to ask for her to sign my program, cause I forgot. She signed it..."Any friend of Maries...xxooCrissy" Then I thanked her again, then I went back to the girls. It really helped having these girls to talk to cause if it weren't for them I probably would have left early. It was just way crowded, and I felt way awkward.
I decieded to go up to Dave with the girls, cause well I wasn't even planning on talking to him. He makes me way nervous. So we walk over too him while he is talking to this lady, we wait till hes done talking. Then the one girl has him sign her, "The Wrong Guy" dvd cover. He tells them that he is very proud of this movie and wishes that it was released. I really wish I had all of my thoughts together, cause I would have told him how much I love that movie. Anyway, I had nothing but my program for him to sign. Oh, when he was signing for the girls, she had this sharpie that was like one of those retractable pens, and he had fun with that. He said, "I have to get one of these for the next time I go out on the road!" *hint hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge* So, when I had him my program and my pen, he takes the pen looks at it and fakes trying to push the button. Then he looks at me and says, "Its not working." lol! Then the girl hands him back the pen, and he says, "You have to get one of these!" lol! I just look at him and shrug. I think I blurted out that I came from Indiana. Then he says, "Not today I hope." I said, "No, yesterday." Then he asks if Im going to go to any of the Mr. Show, shows. I told him, "Im leaving saturday." At one point I tapped him on the shoulder, I mean I actually touched his shoulder! I would never have done that if I didn't drink that rum and coke. I mean, I totally freaked last time I tried to talk to him. Anyway, I told him that I was a friend of Maries.... Then I explained who I was talking about then he said, "Oh, ok". I really wish she was there, cause I felt so weird talking about her without her being there. Then he said something about "Dead Diva" touring. I said hopefully Marie will get a chance to see it. Then he said, "Oh, yeah, she would like that....obviously." At one point we left him to mingle.
We waited around for a bit,and the girls took pictures. At one point I asked one of them if she would take a pic of me and Dave, so we go back over to Dave and get a pic with him. I had one of those crappy disposable cameras,that you have to hold down the flash, so I have no clue if they came out. I don't remember if the flash went off or not, I will soon find out I guess. Then I asked the same girl if she would take the pic of me and Crissy. We asked Crissy, she said sure, and she snapped the picture, and asked if we were all gonna be at the show tomarrow, and I said, just me. Oh, that was one thing that I told Crissy earlier that I was gonna be at the show the next night. She said, "Oh it will be way better tomarrow night!" Then I said, "Oh, the show was great!" She said again, "It will be better tomarrow." lol! And when I was talking to Dave he said the same thing, lol!
So, at the end of the night one of the girls got my email address. Ok, I feel really bad, cause I think the girls names are Zoe, Breanne, or Reanne(it was really loud), and I can't remember the other girls name. I really should have asked again. But, if I ever go up there for anything KITH related, I will be sure to look them up. They were really great to let me hang with them!
Liz's pictures from the after party:
Crissy and Liz-
Liz and Dave-
Have you seen the play? Care to share a review or pictures? Please email me.
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