Given my love of fairy tales, you probably won't be surprised to hear this is my second-favorite Sondheim show after Follies. There are some absolutely brilliant performances on this album, particularly from Peters and Gleason, while Danielle Ferland is a hilarious and feisty Little Red. While I've heard good things about the 2002 and 2022 revivals as well and I do like the 2014 film, the original cast still has performances that are worth hearing (and a few lyrics and songs that were eventually revised as well).
Worked on Maplepunzel while the record was on. One day, as she's cleaning the hovel and Hilary and Betty are napping, Maple picks up Hilary's lavish hand mirror...and is shocked to discover a handsome young man in the glass instead of her own face. Hilary wakes up and tells Maple not to touch the mirror. The man on the other side of the image is her former fiance, Prince Jeffery of Wennaria. Prince Victor's missing brother was forced to marry Pavla, who then bound him to the mirror when she found out he wasn't the heir to the kingdom. He has the ability to show the past in the mirror world. Scott insists on him showing how Hope Springs fell and what happened to Hilary and Betty.
Switched to the Tale Spinners version of Cinderella while getting ready for work. This British album imported by United Artists Records is more of a pantomime version of the story. She has a friend named Buttons, and her stepmother is unusually screechy. It mostly follows the Perrault story, other than some additional servant characters.
Headed out to work after the record ended. Work was busy when I came in, not as bad when I left. The Eagles game started at 4:25. They were playing the Kansas City Chiefs in what amounted to a Super Bowl rematch. I did have to put away cold items and fell behind on the carts early-on, but other than that, there really weren't any problems. I was in and out, enjoying the warm, slightly cloudy, breezy day despite sweating like crazy.
(Oh, and apparently, though the Chiefs-Eagles rematch was a far harder-fought battle than the Super Bowl, the Eagles still came out on top 20-17.)
Spent the rest of the night when I got in with dinner and tonight's Match Game marathon. Sweet comedienne Sarah Kennedy had just come off the last season of Laugh-In when she made her first appearance on Match Game in 1975. Her legal training and charming good nature helped make her one of the better players in the fourth "ingenue" seat. She may have sounded like a five-year-old and looked like she was approximately 12, but she was a tough little thing. She actually picked up Gene on her first day after he grabbed her and tried to run off with her.
Sarah appeared from '75 through 1977, always in the fourth season seat. She was on the week with a nervous Hans "Captain Hook" Conried and turned up on what would be the last week for dancer and host Bobby Van. She saw Johnny Olson help ask a question about his announcing the very first game show ever featuring Cleopatra and Gene grab her for a kiss, only for Brett run down and give him a good smack with her card! There was also the feisty female contestant who admitted she was from the real Encino and the funny little old man who had a crush on Brett.
Have a laugh-in with this wacky sweetheart who proves you don't have to be a big lady to be smart or charming!
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