We Three: Loud Her. Fast Her. Funny Her.

We Three: Loud Her. Fast Her. Funny Her. – Steppenwolf Theater – February 27, 2018

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We Three is a tall, talented, and talkative trio. When Meghan Murphy, Danni Smith, and Cassie Slater are on stage, singing and having fun, it’s hard not to have fun with them, so everyone in the audience just smiled, hooted, and laughed along.

The show started a half hour late due to what was described as a wardrobe malfunction, which turned out to be Meghan (aka Big Red – see my blog on Big Red and the Boys) having forgotten to bring her performance dress with her from home. Really? What else did she need to remember?

A couple sitting in front of us came to see the show because they wanted more of Meghan (she’s everywhere, but fortunately she manages to remember her lyrics, if not her clothes), whom they had just seen as Fräulein Kostin in Cabaret (in a show getting rave reviews) in Aurora (Aurora!) at the Paramount Theater (Aurora!), one of the great old theaters, built in 1931, and on the National Register of Historic Places (but Aurora!). I’ve been to Aurora, but for something really important – golf. It’s far and it’s Aurora!

There’s no drink service in the room (the 1700 Theater, an intimate 80-seat cabaret-type space), which seems odd. One has to go to the adjoining room, the cleverly-named Front Bar. I thought I might miss the start of the show (before hearing about the delay) because the bartender apparently wasn’t in class the day they taught how to open a bottle of wine. I almost impatiently jumped over the bar to help, but then remembered that I can’t jump.

Eight other people in attendance came, directly or indirectly, based upon on my prior blog about Meghan. So, after 27 frustrating years working for a very not-for-profit association, I finally feel like I’m providing a public service. My blog is reaching people numbering into the teens.

Big Red & the Boys – Theater Wit – December 11, 2017

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Meghan Murphy is Big Red. Her website says “If Lucille Ball, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Rita Hayworth and Etta James had a baby, her name would be Big Red. Now who doesn’t want to see THAT?!” I wanted to.

My friend Karen accompanied me to the Theater Wit to see Big Red and the Boys with the expectation that we would be the only two straight people in the audience. We weren’t. Maybe not even the two oldest. We’re usually either the oldest or the youngest in the crowd. It was, to say the least, an eclectic audience. I turned to Karen when I saw a family enter, one that included a preteen girl, and said “How can they bring a kid to this show?”

The show, Get Your Holiday On, was, as expected, rollicking, bawdy, good fun. Near the end of the show Meghan noticed the young girl in the audience, and, in a moment that seemed to be real, not part of the act, rhetorically said “There were children in the audience?”, before shrugging it off to the delight of the crowd, including the parents.

We both loved the show and may make it yet another holiday tradition (see comment on the Q Brothers), but what really impressed Karen was Meghan’s ability to navigate the show, with all its dance steps, while wearing three-and-a half-inch spiked heels. How is it that women can measure heels from a distance? It’s for insights like this that a partner in crime is invaluable on forays into unchartered territory.

So now we have tickets to see Meghan, along with Danni Smith and Cassie Slater in “We Three: Loud Her. Fast Her. Funny Her.” at Steppenwolf Theater of all places. The title is promising. Stay tuned.