Rep Talk: Who's the Star?
Who was the star of the show? That's hard to say because everyone who took part in our Vintage Weekend Music Hall deserves a gold star.
Organisers Patrick McKenna and Cathy Gribble are natural entertainers — musical, funny and kind. They soon had the audience singing and clapping along with them.
Irene Loder not only wrote an episode of the 1950s soapy, Portia Faces Life, she also starred in it. She also did a stirling job of organising the wedding fashion parade with wedding dresses from earlier times.
One lady commented when she saw the girls dressed in bridal finery, all looking gorgeous, we could be doing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Adding colour and interest to our parade of dresses was the red sari, a traditional Indian wedding sari. Pushpa Prasad kindly brought it in along with an orange bridesmaid sari and dressed the girls for us.
They looked so pretty with the sequins in the saris sparkling under the lights. They were greeted with spontaneous applause, a testament to the time Pushpa spent getting each costume perfect, so she is a star too along with all our models.
Buddy Holly, aka Richard Leith, entertained with songs of yesteryear, his father, Peter playing guitar with him. Stefan Brown accompanied them on electric guitar and Patrick snatched up his guitar and joined in. Of course we must never forget our talented and amiable pianist Karl Frost who accompanied them all. They're all stars and I don't mean they play American football.
Of course all the backstage and support staff make any production possible. There's the lighting and sound technicians, the ladies who attend to supper, help dress the models, look after the box office. Really the list is long and really they're stars too.
Needless to add, we had a super audience. Everyone was willing to join in, to laugh and sing and clap. We were so lucky to have a star audience to play to so a big thank you to absolutely everyone. I hope you all come back for more fun and entertainment.
Whanganui Midweek 27/1/21