the events described herein happened a year ago … vinnie did die but not quite as quickly as the doctors predicted … his life partner, ken, and his business partner, jeffrey, arranged a beautiful memorial service at the majestic, where vinnie had cast many actors in phantom
in 1994, b.d. wong, who had appeared in a benefit production of elegies for angels, punks and raging queens in los angeles, called to ask if janet hood and i would like to write a christmas song for him to record for a c.d. to benefit broadway cares/equity fights aids … b.d. had appeared in the original production of la cage aux folles with my friend bob brubach, who died in 1987 on christmas day … though bob was not a drag queen, he had a great appreciation for their talents and so this was written for him … happy holidays!
i’ll be spending the month in los angeles directing pageant … because it’s a low-budget production, i’ll be staying with different friends, something i did a lot of in my very itinerant life in the 70’s … then at the end of that decade i met and moved in with bruce and have been shockingly “settled” since … this was written in the early 80’s
side show opened on broadway six years ago this month … this is a poem i wrote for the company of the workshop a year earlier … but it pretty well captures the joy of both experiences …