bookmaven

NEFERTITI was a musical that had its Chicago tryout in the Fall of 1977. Due too poor reception the planned Broadway production was canned. The cast included Andrea Marcovicci as Nefertiti and Robert LuPone (just off the success of originating Zach in "A Chorus Line") as her husband Akhenaten. Jane White, Marilyn Cooper and Michael Nouri of "Flashdance" fame were also in the cast. Despite its flop status the score by Christopher Gore and David Spangler caught the interest of Bruce and Doris Yeko who did a cast album on their Take Home Tunes label. The recording has not been re-released on CD however.

I saw a tryout of a show called Nefertiti in Fort Lauderdale. Everyone I went with, including myself, slept through the first act. Why we stayed for the second act, I don't know. I'm the only person who remembered we went to the show. It won't be a surprise to know it never made it to Broadway. Nefertiti has an interesting history. I think it had a pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago, with Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Nouri. It was called Children of the Sun and was written by David Spangler and Christopher Gore (Leslie Gore's brother). It either never made it to Broadway or closed pretty quickly. There was a bootleg of Children kicking around for a while. It has approximately three good songs in it. That tryout (which was at Parker Playhouse, and was really more of a staged concert) was a vain attempt to resurrect the show. Alas, it didn't work.

Mine's easy. One summer I had a month and half off between a summer stock job and my next year of grad school. I had two choices: I could either get a temp job, or spend the month and a half at home with my parents. Frankly, I'd rather fellate Satan than spend six weeks in the same domicile as my father. Anyway, a friend told me that someone he knew was looking for a receptionist for his dog grooming salon. The pay was okay, and the salon was located in the Ansley section of Atlanta, so these were people of at least SOME means. It was the WORST. Not the animals...the owners!! Fucking psycho housewives from Buckhead with heavily pedigreed dogs who made my life a living hell. "Mitzi has separation anxiety so she can't go into your cages. She can just stay here with you until the groomer's ready for her." The best, though, was the guy who brought his dog in and then popped into the gay bar that was right around the corner to have a drink while he was waiting. He met someone, ended up going home from the bar with them, and completely forgot his beloved Chelsea. I couldn't take the behavior of the pet owners, and ended up quitting after three weeks.

My father was a raging alcoholic with an 8th grade education and six children to provide for. And I use the term "raging" advisedly. His alcoholic behavior included beatings with his belt. Five of his six children were boys, and I am the lucky one who became a "Jr." I am also the only gay child and was a constant disappointment to him (I hated hunting and fishing, his passion...and was dreadful at sports). I compensated by becoming a great student, and was lucky enough to get a free ride from the day I arrived at college, until I walked out with a PhD 11 years later, which was a great relief because I didn't have to ask him for a dime. He "couldn't get a ticket" to attend my graduation, which was an immense relief. I did not grieve the day he died. Working hard with several therapists over the years, I have struggled to forgive him for my childhood. I cannot. On a more positive note, I got sober myself 30 years ago, and have made a comfortable, enjoyable life for myself.. surrounded by friends, teaching (which I mostly loved, until millennials began to arrive in classrooms), and sufficient resources to do the things I enjoy. I learned long ago that it's never to late to have a happy childhood, but it continues to be a process. None of us is getting out of this alive, so I believe the best we can do is enjoy and enrich the journey.

Not on Nextdoor, but I did find that one of my downstairs neighbors is doing gay male porn. I knew he was gay, but was very surprised since he and his partner just adopted a daughter.

The asshole that made 9th and 10th grade a living hell for me flunked out of community college in his first year. He later developed a major addiction problem (not sure if it was drugs or alcohol). He ended up homeless and finally froze to death while squatting in a storage area his mother had rented. I have lost all contact with anyone I went to school with, except my favorite teacher, who later revealed herself as a lesbian. I still visit her and her wife several times a year. Living well is truly the best revenge...oh, and karma is a boomerang.