ETHEL MERMAN

by Ed Bruce edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

19 minutes from the showroom to the keyboard....it started 3 minutes late...can't get that "late " out of my mind...400 people can be on time and the show starts late.....they lose a point for each minute late !!!!!

All right....waited in great expectation for this show and now, after the fact, with good cause !

One woman (super woman) show, Rita McKenzie, Ethel Merman's Broadway, her career, her songs, her husbands, her bisexuality, her writers and her life. This at the homey Sun Coast theatre...nice set.. good lighting, production and nice script. With the premise being great music (writers Irving Berlin, Julie Styne and George Gershwin) and Great VOICE (Merman- McKenzie) you get an instant winner.

I thought this woman WAS Ethel Merman....what a VOICE, good stage presence and of course the music...4 horns, bass, drumer and piano-director....not too loud. I am 63 and lots of my contemporaries plus in the full house...we were able to hear and understand the music...all good.

I looked for more bio information on McKenzie...I failed...she missed a note or two and was a tad scratchy which did not detract from what she was doing....I was interested in her age...Merman died in 1984 in at 78 and it makes me curious how long she had the VOICE...boy McKenzie still has it and we were graced to hear it.

Do it again. 95 A