A Night at the Theater:

I love my local little theater. They put on some of the best productions and have a group of really talented and superiorly trained actors. I’m not kidding, I never kid about talent. Saturday night’s production was another installment of the continuing drama, Della’s Diner.

Della is a woman with a mysterious past that runs a little mountaintop diner who acts like a mother figure towards her patrons that all have mysterious pasts as well. As each patron unravels his or her story and past lives the perfect opportunity arises for a well placed Country Western song appears. Songs included D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Rocky Top, Walking After Midnight, 16 Tons and so on.

The one performer who had that little something extra was a girl who played Della’s adopted daughter, Ramona. She was pure white trash wearing coochie cutter shorts, thigh high boots and a baby on her hip. She would get mad and fly off the handle screaming at the top of her lungs while singing her songs and then in a rage would fling her baby into the audience. Eventually a cast member would ask about the baby and the lights would come on and everyone had to hunt for the missing baby. It was usually atop a table surrounded by wine glasses and then Ramona would curse out the audience for being so careless to let a baby drink alcohol. Mostly the baby was thrown into the deep vat fryer of grease.























During intermission I stepped outside to have a smoke and ran into several people that I haven’t seen in a while. We chatted and caught up on events. Like did ya’ll know Rodney was a grandfather? Me neither, I never knew that old queen dipped his wick in a real woman let alone reproduced. You go old girl! Nancy was there also smoking up and she told me to come around on Tuesdays for the best deal when she works at her junk establishment. That Nancy can rustle up some great junk she really knows how to beat the bushes.

FASHION REPORT: I rarely have the occasion to gussy up but when I step out into the world of the The-A-Ter I like to look my best. I usually wear a clean lined silhouette but tonight I felt like old man chic was appropriate. For the fashionistas:

A pair of pleated charcoal gray wool super 120 slacks with a cuff. Matching charcoal cashmere gentleman’s hosiery. A fantastic pair of black Allen Edmonds shoes with a prominent seam at the toe. Fitted dress shirt in the most divine shade of gunmetal with exaggerated collar over which I wore a vintage Lord Jeff alpaca v-neck sweater in a scrumptious deep red. No tie. A classic black wool sport coat in a pronounced bouclé weave with a gunmetal pocket square topped off the look.

Accessories:

Black calfskin cigarette case and a burgundy Dunhill lighter. An exquisite modern silver ring with nine faceted garnets…it’s my birthstone. Mexican silver money clip topped with abalone and turquoise. Sock garters!

The show finally ended after several brain surgeries and many more songs. They resolved a lot of the cliffhanger plots from the last production as well as setting up more for the next show. While mingling with guests outside the theater we all came to the conclusion that we would much rather take in a show with all its audience participation and activity than waste money on a movie ticket. The show was half the price of a movie ticket! Live productions are the way to go…I’m so glad that someone finally invented it.