Okay, a True Confessions Moment:
There was a time in my life when I longed for a life on the stage. I had been singing ever since an enterprising elementary school teacher figured out that this chubby little third-grader could sing harmony and stuck me in the middle of the choir, where I stayed for nearly 50 years. I came to dance much later, taking all sorts of dance courses in college and loving my hours in a ratty, drafty second-floor ballet studio, doing plies to “The Long and Winding Road” and other pop songs played by a wild-haired pianist. (Sigh…)
Although my size and vocal range generally limited me to community theatre character roles like Cousin Nettie in “Carousel,” Aunt Eller in “Oklahoma” and Katisha in “The Mikado,” I did manage once to starve myself down to a size nine, thus making me eligible for a role in the chorus of “Guys and Dolls.”
It was heaven. Fish-net stockings, false eyelashes, tap pants and “Merry Widow” bustiers! Hot-pink satin, fake fur and pearls for an honest-to-gosh striptease in the “Take Back Your Mink” production number! (I LIVED for the moment each night when we’d literally make the audience gasp!)
And character shoes, of course, those sturdy, short-heeled, Mary Jane-like black leather shoes that lend themselves to all sorts of stage roles. Take them to the shoe repair shop and they easily become tap shoes. I wore out two pair during my short-lived career as a chorine.
I wish I still had a pair. And someplace sassy to wear them. Anybody seen my false eyelashes?
September 18, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Oh, msmeta! How I long to live in a musical. Of course, my lack of talent has already been discussed but there was that time I performed as a party guest in the Nutcracker. The costumes, the EYELASHES, and yes those great character shoes. We must be soul sisters.
September 18, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I’ve never had a desire to get onstage. I’d die of fright as my heart would pound out of my chest at the mere thought. I think you should buy those shoes, put on the false eyelashes and perform for Mr. MsMeta. Then you could blog about it. LOL
September 18, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Ms Meta, you star! When I was in the fifth grade they put us in rows for singing with the really, really bad ones in the first desks. The teacher said “In the front, you must make pictures with your mouth!” Then she made elaborate pantomine contortions to indicate that whatever else we dod we mustn’t make a sound.
Guys and Dolls, the senior show at my high school, was impossibly beyond me. But I took enormous pleasure watching my younger son, educated in an English school founded in the thirteenth century, who wore a gown every day to class, playing Nathan Detroit an ocean away and a couple of decades later. Of course Nathan doesn’t really have to sing. But he has to almost sing.
I was so busy being amazed that my son could do that and dance too I admit I forgot to check out his shoes. I should have had you there.
September 19, 2008 at 8:09 am
Once on a stage, SMB, you’re always looking for the footlights. We’re all divas at heart. Midlife, Mr. Meta WAS in the audience for the striptease, and he was one of the gaspers! (He still married me.) Duchess, they do make character shoes for men. (And Nathan Detroit is the BEST role in the show!)
msmeta
September 23, 2008 at 9:59 am
Hey, your shoes are back in fashion!