And, speaking of Carol Channing, lemme tell you what I did last evening. The Magic Castle up in Hollywood, of which I am a longtime member, is launching a series of events called "Cabaret at the Castle," with musical performers appearing. The inaugural show, performed on Monday and Tuesday, featured the legendary Carol Channing. She's 88, she's just getting back to work following a hip operation…and she's still captivating.
The intimate audience was packed with stars, including Lily Tomlin, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills. Joanne Worley was there, too. Joanne Worley was Carol Channing's understudy for Hello, Dolly and the story is that when they met, Ms. Channing told Ms. Worley, "You're very lovely and you're very talented and you're never going on." (And she never did. Over the years, Carol Channing did over 5000 performances of that show and never missed a one of them.)
Last evening, a loving audience heard her sing her big songs, tell anecdotes from her life and even do some uncanny impressions. And not only did she sing to us, we sang to her. During her rendition of the title song from Hello, Dolly, Carol sang the part that Dolly sings to the waiters. Then, when she got to the part that the waiters sing to Dolly, she said, "I can't sing that because I'm Dolly…so you all sing it to me." And we did — quite well, I might add.
These two performances were a benefit. She and her husband Harry Kullijian (who joined her on stage) have a charity that's looking to promote the arts in California's school system. You can read all about it at their website which, I'll warn you, plays "Hello, Dolly" the minute you go there. I don't know where else she'll be doing her one woman show, which is entitled "The First Eighty Years are the Hardest," but if she does it near you, go. No, she doesn't sing as well as she once did but she's still wonderfully entertaining and very, very funny.