Sha Na Na

"His talents were of the very first order, although his mind showed a preference always for the ideal and the aesthetic, and there was about him that repugnance to the actual business of life which is the common result of this balance of the faculties"--Uncle Tom's Cabin

Funny how one piece of music can remind me of another.  At my Sunday afternoon singing group we've been singing "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." (Did you know that Vera Lynn is still with us? She's now a centenarian!) In our version there's a coda that starts with some low notes that remind me of...

...of the outro to the TV show Sha Na Na, where Bowzer would say "Grease for peace!" and sing some low notes to start them into "Good Night, Sweetheart." (And a cop would come onstage and run them all in!) I think my favorite Sha Na Na member was Santini.

Sha Na Na did the hand jive school dance number in Grease, the best number in a largely second-rate musical. (Can you really change partners in the middle of a dance contest?) The movie was so lamely directed by Randall Kleiser that the band barely got shown!  And of course, the cast was clearly too old for high school--it makes you appreciate those John Hughes movies where actors like Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall seemed really adolescent.

Some people from the singing group showed up at our first La Traviata performance tonight. (I met them afterward.) I got the inspiration to improve on my royal blue shirt with a black bowtie of mine and the same white wig I wore in last fall's Marriage of Figaro  production!