The Arena's Old Vat is one off the few settings left where you hear natural unamplified voices], and tonight I saw another review there, Makin' Whoopee. It's a two singer and one pianist show presenting the variations of love [which was often used in the show as a four letter word for sex] from birth to [almost] death; it used a mixture of Broadway and tinpan alley songs and verses by Dorothy Parker. The premise was that you were in a bedroom at the Hotel Algonquin; the entire stage setting consisted of a double bed - not too subtle. 

The selections were good; the performers were excellent; the audience was responsive. The male singer was very good; the female performer struck me as being a comic actress who also sang - and sang well; unfortunately, she was physically very unattractive, something like Rosanne Barr, including some of Barr's mannerisms. 

During the intermission I asked someone who i thought was an usher, if there was an elevator for the physically handicapped. it turned out she didn't know because she was a customer. Later she came over to ask me what I had found out. She then began commenting on the show and its theme, telling me that love and relationships change and the romance goes out when you reach middle age, that you may be married to one person but physically desire another, that everything gets difficult. This was a woman I had never seen before and who i just asked if there was a handicapped entrance!! She went on to ask me my opinion of romantic relationships. I was flabbergasted and said something like: it's a very complicated topic. 

Musical Programme 

ACT ONE Makin' Whoopee Whoopee!; Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn Let*s Do It, Let*s Fall in Love Cole Porter You must have been a beautiful baby My Dream Is Your Dream; Harry Warren I Want To Know Big; David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr. 16 going on 17 The Sound of Music; Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II A Little bit in love .... Wonderful Town; Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green You*re just in love Call me Madam; Irving Berlin Make-Believe Show Boat; Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II How*d you like to spoon with me The Earl & the Girl; Kern and Hammerstein Proud lady Baker*s Wife; Stephen Schwartz Everybody*s girl Steel Pier; John Kander and Fred Ebb Ive got you under my skin Cole Porter Someone to watch over me Oh, My!; George and Ira Gershwin Can*t Help loving That man of Mine Showboat; Jerone Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II Unusual Way Nine, Maury Yeston Embraceable you Girl Crazy; George and Ira Gershwin 

Intermission 

ACT TWO Anything you can do I can better Annie get your gun; Irving Berlin Warm all Over The Most Happy Fella; Frank Loesser My boy Bill Carousel; Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II Our children Ragtime; Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens How do you want me Oh Brother; Michael Valenti and Donald Driver You*re the top ~~Anything Goes; Cole Porter Where or When Babes in Arms; Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart How to handle a woman Camelot; Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner Little Things Company; Stephen Sondheim My funny Valentine Babes in Arms; Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart They were you The Fantastiks; Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones Night & Day The Gay Divorcee;Cole Porter Try to remember Fantasticks; Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones Two sleepy people Ain*t Misbehaving; Frank Loesser