"...in the dark."

I remember watching the Tony Awards one night in '82. I was astonished -- "That's the 'Eight is Enough' woman!" thought I, suddenly 14 years old.

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Her name was (and is) Betty Buckley. In the late 1970s, she was a television actress as American as mom and apple pie who starred in a show to match.

But there she was in cat makeup and clad in skin-tight material I later found out was called Spandex -- with a fuzzy tail emerging from where tails normally emerge from.

I had no idea the Eight is Enough lady had a "bod" anything like what was evident that night on my little nine-inch black and white TV screen.

I also had no idea the Eight is Enough lady could sing like that -- wide open, no mic, real Broadway, pitch-perfect -- and that she could sing Mahler.

Huh?

To my untrained ear, Andrew Lloyd Webber owes ol' Gustav big time. (Too bad Gustav is not in a position to collect.)

What I mean by that is, Lloyd Webber wrote a lot of his Big Broadway songs (Cats, Phantom, Evita etc.) in keys no one else but Mahler would use. Strange, eerie minor keys rolling in and out of other strange, eerie minor keys -- and ending in what I understand is Lloyd Webber's favorite major key -- D flat major. Wiki says the flats outnumber the naturals in that one.

In other words, not your basic B flat songwriter. (Somewhere along the line, someone told me that B flat was the most popular key for songs. I think it was a college chum's roommate who played trumpet in the UNC band.)

I recall now the controversy over Ms. Buckley's costume for her role as Grizzelda* in "Cats" -- the body-hugging number* that told us a lot about Betty then was said to be a far cry from the frumpy costume for that character in the original UK production of the musical.

Now that we have YouTube, what the UK critics said then of the difference between the two productions is obvious. You can barely tell it's Elaine Page under all that wardrobe and makeup.

Why am I rolling on like this?

The folks who produce modern reality shows on either side of the pond have every reason to know how hard it is for amateurs to sing "Memory" from "Cats." Especially on live television.

You don't even have to be some hot-shot TV producer to know -- anyone would who listened to any one of the thousands of amateur and semi-pro (think piano bar) singers who made their stabs at "Memory" back when it was current. Those attempts collectively became a running joke (as I recall) on mid-80's Saturday Night Live and other comedy shows.

My point? I think someone somewhere should be ashamed of themselves.

I also wish Susan Boyle the best. She did quite well with the song. Any (perceived) mistakes were not her fault.

BTW, if you want to check out some Mahler, try Symphony No. 4 and "Song of the Earth" (Das Lied von der Erde). Frederica von Stade is a fave.

(Afternote: As usual, I find out later that my memory is a little cracked, after I've posted. The Tony show I'm recalling was in 1983. Grizabella is the name of the role, not whatever my memory coughed up, and Ms. Buckley's costume was not quite as I described in recollection. Her 'coat' section was loose-fitting, and only the leggings were skin-tight, though barely visible. I must have 'morphed' the visual part of my recollection of her performance with that of the opening dance number from "Cats" also featured on the show that night, where the other performers, male and female, were in nothing but Spandex and cat makeup. Thanks to YouTube entries and IBDB for the correct info.)

Originally posted to LiveJournal on June 3, 2009