Wednesday, November 16, 2005
THE COTSWOLDS-PART 4
As I was getting ready to make the trip to London, one of the things I had to do was see my Proctologist..(Don't even go there....You reach a certain age and it's maintainance, maintainance, MAINTAINANCE, you know?....)
It was this lovely man who said to me...'Oh, you are going to London? How wonderful...but you know, you really should see The Cotswolds....'
I had no idea what he was talking about and said something like..
'Well, I'm not going to have a lot of time to travel around...'.
He took me by my shoulders and looked me right in the eyes and said, 'Naomi, if anyone should see The Cotswolds, it's you!'
Well that was quite an intriguing thing to say and I thought a great deal about it and talked about it, which is my way, and the more I pondered, the more I thought....'Yeah, I think I need to do this. I think we all need to do this.'
I would be in London on my Birthday, and I always do something special for my Birthday....like give myself a party...(no presents), just for the getting together... It is a way to gather friends and any family who are around and really just celebrate each other, together.
So, when Betty said, she would think of something special to do, I told her that I knew what I wanted to do. I told her that I wanted to go to The Cotswolds. Now by this time I had learned that this was an area; a region, so to speak, that had many small villages and towns, all of which were very old and very quaint, and most all the houses and other buildings had been built with a particular stone from the area, known as Cotswold stone. There were many many villages and towns and of course we wouldn't be able to see all of them, but if we left London very early, we would be able to cover quite a few villages and then be back in London, in time for dinner at The Ivy, which was a Theatrical restaurant, comparable to Sardi's in New York, so we understood.
Through the wondefully helpful Concierge, Bob, at the Hotel,
I had found out that there were cars for hire for the day and many company's in London specialized in Day Trips for just this sort of outing. I made the inquiries and found out the details and costs and Betty had generously said she wanted to take care of this
There would be six of us, altogether, Betty and her beau John Mosher who was also her Bass player for her show, Charley Berliner, Cousin Carol, Seemah Wilder, and myself. There were other Theatre West people in London at the time, but we were the core/close group who were always celebrating each others Birthday's.
All four other people wanted to share in this car-for-hire for the day, and insisted that this would be my Birthday present. Everyone knew that I had stated I really did not want any more 'things'...I was always saying, '.....if you must give me a gift, give me a consummable! Take me out to dinner or a movie or take me to the theatre...just don't giveme things!' Not only do I feel I have enough 'things', (I am an incurable collector of stuff...), but most times people pick out things that I really do not want! So this was a perfect plan for my Birthday and all the arrangements were made and I was told our driver was to be a gentleman named Ray.
ray
My birthday fell on a Sunday that year which was perfect because it was Betty & John's day/night off, and they would not have to get back to anything other than the dinner that we all were planning at The Ivy. Most of us are Nightowls. It is almost inevitable if you work in the theatre that you are more of a night person than a day person...Betty habitually stays up till 3 in the morning, and so do I. I never have to worry about calling her too late at night because she usually is up as is her son Garrett, who is also a nightowl. He's a musician/composer, and works a lot at night because it's quiet at that time...my habits are very similar as a painter and composer/writer; I like working at night much better than during the day. There are no interuptions; no one is coming to your door to deliver something; and no phone calls...you can get a really good run at whatever it is you are working on....(like right now, as I'm writing this, it's 2:35 a.m.)
So, that Sunday morning, I had not had enough sleep, but it was fine with me, and when we went to pick up Betty and John, they were late getting down to the car because they had overslept. But, still we got a pretty early start for us nightowls. Our driver was a lovely man who's car-for-hire was a kind SUV.
meEveryone insisted I sit in the front because it was my birthday.
And in the seat behind Ray and myself, sat Carol and Seemah and Charlie; then in the third seat, Betty & John, who tried to catch a little 'cat nap' on our way out of the London area.
Betty had been in London many many times during her career, having played the Palladium with her husband Larry Parks, (and also after Larry starred in the film, "The Jolson Story", they had traveled to England and were received with open arms by the British people , and they had traveled around quite a bit because when they came to play The Palladium they also played 'The Provences', as they are called. Seemah had lived in London with her husband and four children, in the mid 70's, for an entire year, and they had traveled around quite a bit and, in fact, had been to the Cotswold town of Broadway...one of the very charming towns in this beautiful special area, which we planned to see.
And, in fact, the wonderful Ray had asked us did we want to have a 'Pub lunch', or a 'proper lunch'? Since this was a very special day for all of us, we said, 'a proper lunch'. He called ahead to The Lygon Arms, in Broadway...(a famous very old wonderful Hotel with a l-o-n-g glorious history)....and made a Luncheon reservation for the six of us. 
(Seemah and her husband Bill, had stayed at The Lygon Arms back when they had spent that fabulous year on Golder's Green in Hampstead, where Seemah was staying on this very trip, with friends she had made all those many years ago.
We drove through these incredibly beautiful areas that had us all Ooooing and Ahhhing and stopping to take pictures of these very different homes
and incredibly beautiful gardens....
and all this, was seen, on the way to Broadway.
I had read that the town of Broadway had this Teddy Bear Musem and I love Teddy Bears and have quite a big collection of them. One of my very favorite Teddy's always travels with me on any trip I take. He has been to New York 8 times or more, and Florida probably at least 5 or 6 times, and San Fransico at least twice, and Sacramento, Palm Springs, San Diego, well....you get the picture here, right? And this was his first trip to England. (He got to go one more time after that, as did I!)
So I really really wanted to see this Teddy Bear Musem, but, I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Lunch at The Lygon Arms was sublime! Great food; Beautiful service; and the setting was incredibly memorable...
We definitely were NOT in Los Angeles any more, Toto....
We had such a lot of fun, laughing and giggling over silly stuff...we were all giddy with the pleasure of being here in this beautiful area of England.... 
after lunch they served Coffee and Dessert in another room where we sat on couches and continued our racous conviviality! We did hope that we didn't seem like 'The Ugly Americans', to the lovely English people with whom we shared this smaller more intimate room....Happy? Oh, my Lord, we were like little children playing in a sand box, and I know we probably seemed drunk to the other patrons, (no one had even had one drink...), but it was just everyone's natural good great feeling about being inthis rare corner, on this beautiful summer day.
More to come...
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 8:02:00 PM
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
A QUICKIE...
Here is a Cactus type plant, with an extraordinary flower.
Not the greatest photo in the world but the best I have at the moment.....
If you had to name this plant, what would you call it?
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 10:03:00 AM
Monday, November 14, 2005
THE COTSWOLDS/LONDON SAGA-Part - 3
When I left off in The Cotswolds Part 2, we were about to actually see Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Blvd."....at it's third performance...a preview performance, which was one of the Benefit performances that had been re-scheduled after the postponement happened because of the sets 'mechanical' problems....And that was how Charley and Cousin Carol and our friend Seemah and myself were all able to see this extrordinary happening, with the fantastic Patti Lupone.
When we bought our tickets at the box office that day, we were told that it was very very important to be in our seats fifteen minutes early because of this 'special' benefit performance which was a fund raiser for The Duchess Of Kent's favorite charity.
None of us had any familiarity with the protocal of Royalty, but, in fact, the reason we had to be in our seats was that The Duchess of Kent would be the last to arrive in the theatre, and after she reached her seat (we would already be standing up for her arrival in the theatre itself,) the orchestra would play God Save The Queen, and only after that when she sat down in her seat, could we then sit down in our seats.
It was very very moving to all of us; the very playing of God Save The Queen by the orchestra would have been moving in and of itself, but here was The Duchess Of Kent, coming into the same section of the audience where we were all sitting, though we were much further up towards the top of the 'peanut gallery' as my mother use to call it, still....it was pretty awesome and made this evening just that much more special and rare for the four of us....none of us ever having experienced anything even remotely like this in our lives, and the chances of this happening to any of us ever again were, less than slim and, in reality, the chances were closer actually to 'never again' in our combined lifetimes!
And all this took place before the much anticipated show actually began!
(We were definitely not in Los Angeles anymore, Toto...)
When the show did start, it was everything one would have hoped for. It's not an easy thing to erase the memory of an iconic film like "Sunset Blvd." But this group of artists managed not to erase the memory, but to give us each a new and augmented memory, not the least of which was the extaordinary musical score of Mr. Llyod Webber. In all honesty I am not a huge fan of most of his shows, except I must say that "Phantom Of The Opera" I personally think works on every level that you would want a Musical Theatre experience to work for you. Satisfying in so many ways...not the least of which is the emotional impact of the entire experience. The Actors, The Sets & Costumes, The Music & Lyrics and The Book...all, add up to a stunning theatrical happening that lifts you and moves you and touches the heart in a very deep way. "Sunset Blvd." did this too, in every way. Stunning and powerful in it's impact, I was a basket case by the end of the first act...dissolved in tears that I could not stop.
I thought Patti Lupone was incandescent!
A powerful performer with a voice that woudn't quit! Her acting was impeccable! She completely embodied the being of the character she was playing...the infamous Norma Desmond...and it wasn't so much that she made you forget Gloria Swanson, it was the miracle of her making this Norma Desmond her own; passionate; warm; heart breaking. I mean the woman broke my heart! (Such a satisfying thing to happen to you,,,yes, painful of course, but for someone to make you feel so very much is deeply cathartic, I think...and that's the unique thing about a live theatre experience.....and Patti Lupone was brilliant. )
Sitting with Charley B. was wonderful, too...maybe because we both work in the theatre and love love love the theatre, it makes the experience of seeing a great theatre piece like this, just that much richer...I never felt I had to hold anything back... you know? I knew he felt as much as I did and so there is this sympatico thing happening without having to say one word. A lovely experience to say the least.
The second act did not disappoint....
more of the same...including the fabulous set referred to earlier....and then, the final curtain came down and the audience went crazy! We all went crazy! Screaming 'Bravo' and whooping and clapping till my hands literally were sore! And then,the audience had to leave the theatre pretty quickly because The Duchess Of Kent would be the last person to leave the theatre...security issues even then and protocal too, I think. I'm not really sure about that....
I wanted to buy anything and everything they were selling at the Merchandise counter; a mug, a key chain, etc., which I did and because we were at the merchandise counter, we were able to get a picture of The Duchess Of Kent departing...a very bad picture..but, a picture, nevertheless....
This was such an exciting evening that the four of us had to go over to see Betty at Pizza On The Park and tell her all about it....we were all so excited by this very rare and wonderful theatre experience we wanted her to get to see Patti Lupone in "Sunset Blvd." before she had to go back to Los Angeles....
(The irony of all this is that Patti Lupone had a run-of-the-play contract which means she gets paid, no matter what....she was supposed to move with "Sunset Blvd'" to New York, after the London company, and she was to 'Open' the Broadway production.
Lord Webber, fired Miss Lupone and hired Glenn Close instead, to eventually open the New York Company after Miss Close played the Los Angeles company. I saw Miss Close in L.A.
Big mistake in my view.
They say living well is the best revenge. Patti Lupone was paid a huge amount of money because of her play or pay contract. I do not know Miss Lupone, (I met her once), but this 'firing' had to be a very very painful and traumatic thing...she had workshoped this show for Lord Webber!
Well, she survived this firing and has flourished as a theatre performer, I'm very happy to say. She is on Broadway right now as I write this, in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", which opened last week to superlative reviews. But there was 'no contest' in my view as to who was the better/best Norma Desmond of the two 'Norma's that I saw. No contest, at all.)
More to come in part 4.....later.....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:07:00 AM
Sunday, November 13, 2005
A SHORT POST....
Just had to tell you I saw three deer about three houses away from my house, last night, on my way back from Dr. Torture's (Back-Doctor Person...). They were as sweet as they could be....It really does my heart good that they are still up her on this hill, and as I've said before, with The Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland just a stone's throw away....well, that is a slight exageration, but you can walk there from my hill!
Everytime I see these beautiful animals I am reminded of how close all of nature still is right here in the heart of Hollywood, and I am reminded of the great great beauty that is right in front of my eyes, if I would just slow down, and stop and look.....
I'm working on part 3 of The Cotswolds/London Trip....be patient please..cause if I rush it, I make too many mistakes. I'm so happy that all this seems interesting to other people....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 2:20:00 PM
Saturday, November 12, 2005
"THE COTSWOLDS" -
Part 2
The show that Betty was doing is a One Person show that she created and has done all over the United States. (Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Florida, Dallas, New York, etc., etc…..) The three of us had probably seen this show more than 60 times; Charley Berliner had designed the original set for Betty waaaay back when she first did the show in L.A., at Theatre West. I had taken many many ‘professional’ photographs of her show during performances in L.A. and San Francisco, and had put together a huge group of her personal photo’s as a display in a number of theatre Lobby’s, including L.A., Palm Springs and San Francisco….So you could say, we were all familiar with it and loved it very much!
It was a very thrilling experience to now see her do this terrific show in London, England! I sat there in this funny little place and thought to myself…’How great is this? Here I am in London, ME…in London, seeing “Betty Garrett And Other Songs”'... (Betty ultimately named her autobiography the very same name as that show...it's available at Amazon & Ebay, I might add)…
'WOW!' That I actually was in London was almost like a miracle to me…and only Betty could have pulled this off….funny thing is, many of us from Theatre West felt this way. Charley and Cousin Carol and myself…none of us had ever been to London before.
And this was the first night of an almost magical two weeks, which included doing many of the things that most people do their first time in this great great city….The Tower Of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, (which was very close to the Hotel), Hyde Park, (which I could see from my Hotel Room), Carol & I went to Regent’s Park,
(where I took this photo of this exquisite bird, as well as The Black Swan photo, above…, Harrods, just down the street from the Hotel. I wanted to see Kew Gardens because they have a Cactus Greenhouse, which was absolutely thrilling, and I wanted to go to The Tate Museum. This is one of the great museums of the world.And we all wanted to see as many plays and musicals as we could, particularly things we would not see in the states, if possible. Some things were truly memorable and others were truly awful. There was a musical about Leonardo de Vinci, called “Leonardo”. It was truly terrible, but still worth seeing because there was no way it would be going anywhere, at all, let alone crossing the ocean.
One of the most exciting things that four of us got to see was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, “Sunset Blvd.”, based on the film “Sunset Blvd’” with Gloria Swanson & William Holden. I’d heard a lot about this production and was determined to see it. It was opening while all of us were there in London and I had heard that tickets were almost impossible to come by because those first weeks of performances while we were still going to be in London after the show had opened, were already sold out! But through the concierge at the hotel, I was able to arrange for tickets, before ever leaving on the trip. Patti Lupone was starring in it and Charley B. was very very interested to see it because he had read about this elaborate mechanical set that they had built, that moved in a completely new way….what they had done, had never been done before on any stage. (One entire set lifted up and the second set moved out from underneath and the action of the piece was happening in each set, simultaneously, like a ‘split screen’ effect, only this was not film...this was 'live theatre'...!)
To our great disappointment the opening of ‘Sunset’ had been postponed because of mechanical troubles with the set….it seems that somehow the two way radio’s in the taxicabs going by the theatre, were interfering with the signals inside the theatre and this fantastic set was moving completely at the wrong times which was not only dangerous to the actors, but ruined the show, as you might well imagine! They had postponed the opening for two weeks!
I was truly heartsick about this because that meant that there was no possible way I could get to see this show. I was deeply dejected that we would NOT get to see Miss Lupone do her stuff as Norma Desmond, the Silent Movie Star…..but Charley was not to be denied. One day before we met up with a few of the other Theatre West-ers, he had gone by The Adelphi Theatre to see if there were any previews and if there were, could he possibly get one ticket, anywhere in the theatre. Well, he had indeed been able to get one single ticket for the only performance that was available. He told us this as we got into a cab to go somewhere…I don’t remember where, and of course I insisted that we go by The Adelphia to see if maybe possibly there might be another single ticket.
God was with us. Because of the postponement, a special Fund Raising performance where tickets were at least twice as much as the price listed on the ticket had been turned back….the people unable to go because of the change of date. So the Box Office had a couple of seats here and there, and Charley and I found there was a pair, together that they did not want to break up and which were a little better than his original single, which was not refundable. Cousin Carol bought that ticket from Charlie, and we bought the pair, and another friend bought one of the last singles available, all for that performance.
Happy? Happy as a pig in shit! We all were very excited that yes indeed, we would get to see this heavily touted production…..
(To be continued-Part 3...I PROMISE I will get to The Cotswolds.... maybe....I just get caught up in the memories, you know?.....)
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 3:41:00 PM
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