There are those people who are parts of pop culture who simply have to be loved. Betty White is one of those people. Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews are both those people. And, yes, Debbie Reynolds is one of those people.
And, today, Christopher and I saw her in concert with The Minnesota Orchestra.
Christopher wasn't sure what to expect, and I suggested that he look at the excursion as an anthropological study into where Carrie Fisher came from. That seemed like the best way to keep his expectations low, since I really don't know that he's ever seen a Debbie Reynolds movie, he didn't know that she played Grace's mom on "Will & Grace," and he has never watched a Disney Channel "Halloweentown" movie. Me, I went with expectations. I'm not sure whether that was a good or bad thing.
First of all, the Orchestra did their standard thing of starting with a 30-minute "first half" where they tried to play music that coordinated with the artist. We've been there when they've done this in the past. It's not a great thing. The conductor (MN Orch Associate Conductor Courtney Lewis) introduced the pieces as "from the Broadway tradition" - and then proceeded to play the overture from Candide (an opera, although it did play on Broadway), two pieces from Rodeo (ballet, not Broadway), and the original Bernstein On the Town (again, ballet... which became Broadway... and then a movie... but the orchestral pieces were from the ballet). Don't get me wrong. All of the pieces were fun, they just weren't Broadway and didn't really tie in to Debbie Reynolds. For the record, though, Lewis was really fun to watch conduct - very expressive, and the back of his jacket moved and flexed with him adding a whole new level of visual fun to the performance.
After intermission, Debbie Reynolds came out - with her own pianist/conductor, and small ensemble who all set up in front of the orchestra proper. The next hour and a half was a whole lot of patter - about Hollywood, about marriage (and divorce), about her wigs, about the slit in her dress (it went all the way up to there - and as she was leaving she commented that the next time she came, she show us her other leg).
She talked about her friendship with Judy Garland, and how - after meeting Ethel Merman - she decided that Musical Comedy seemed like the most fun way to go at MGM. She did impressions of Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart and even did a wig-change for a bit all about Barbra Streisand.
And, yes, she sang.
She did some of the things she's known for (like the theme song for "Tammy," a song from "The Singing Nun," and something from "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"), and - yes - she did a little from "Singing in the Rain." And... well... the singing wasn't perfect. But it was so earnest, and everything she did around the songs was so much fun, that it really didn't matter. I'm more than willing to attribute any bum notes to the weather. Or jetlag. Or the overly-loud orchestra behind her.
Instead, what I know I'll remember from the concert Debbie Reynolds onstage - smiling, and laughing, and playing with the audience. I'll hold the memories of laughing at her innuendo and having one of those great happy tear-y moments when she would sing a song that struck all the right chords in my emotional ear - which is really the ear that matters at concerts like this.
I plan to spend tonight adding Debbie Reynolds movies to my Netflix queue. And I've decided I'm definitely going to have to see the movie she has coming out this year. And I think that, if I invite Carrie Fisher to my fantasy dinner party, I'll be sure that she brings Debbie. I think that would be one hell of a night.
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