A combination of business and personal responsiblities here (plus knee problems) have kept me away from New York for quite a few years now. I hope to change that soon.
Among the shows I regret not seeing back there is the recently-closed production of On the Twentieth Century with Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher. That's a great play and I'm sure Ms. Chenoweth was superb in the role originated — but not played for long — by Madeline Kahn.
Here's an entire number from the revival — "Veronique." Ms. Chenoweth played Lily Garland, a great star of the stage and screen (though lately, only screen). This song is a flashback to her discovery in a musical mounted by theatrical empresario Oscar Jaffee. She was plain ol' Mildred Plotka when Jaffee cast her as a French street singer whose refusal to sleep with Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck caused the entire Franco-Prussian War. Here is Chenoweth making the transformation from Plotka to Diva…
