Amanda McBroom's Blog

August brings Yale!  Once again life in a college  dormitory filled with  warbling, vocal warm ups,  singing, weeping, laughing,  sleepless nights, early mornings, BAD mattresses, and talent, talent, talent!

What a fabulous experience!

How I love the act of teaching.

And being surrounded by true masters of the craft…the brilliant and hilarious Sharon McKnight,  the Goddess herself,  Julie Wilson…the human tornado, Tovah Feldshuh. And three GREAT music directors…

Tex Arnold, Paul Trueblood, and Alex Rybeck… 30 Fabulous fingers and a total mental library of all the great popular songs.

This time I was partnered with the divine Sally Mayes, one of the most talented Broadway actress/singer/teachers in the business. We were a dynamic duo of hugs and wisdom. I supplied the hugs, she supplied the wisdom.

And across the hall was the astounding Tovah Feldshuh. Lucky ANY student how got to study with HER! And my room mate was  Miss Voice of Smoke and Silk herself, Laurel Masse. Who could ask for a better combo of pals??

That’s the three muses, Sally Mayes, Tovah Feldshuh, and Laurel Masse in a casual moment. You will never see THAT again!

So many wonderful encounters….musical exchanges. And , as always, those who started out with the most fear  wound up taking the most gigantic steps forward. The miracle of making music  materialized on a moment-by-moment basis. In this world, where   one never knows what is SUPPOSED to be important from second to second, I am  continually reminded that music and the sharing of music is the greatest healing force on the planet.

Lucky, lucky me!

Stories from the Road

October 1969

San Francisco. The Marines Memorial Theater.

The Summer of Love has passed into the Autumn of  Amusement!

San Francisco is ALIVE with flower power, tie dye, free love , vegetarianism, long hair,  wide bell bottoms . I have never seen anything like this. I have just come from TEXAS, where hippies still have to run for their lives.

Even Willie has short hair!

I have been in the National production  of “ Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well…”for just over two months now. I have my Equity Card. I am in deep, SERIOUS love with the leading man My first time to really be in love with anyone but myself.

I am having the time of my life.

So one Saturday, between the matinee and evening shows, a dear friend and  a fabulous actress working at the American  Conservatory Theatre, comes  over to join us for dinner between shows. She brings her famous pumpkin bread. I like pumpkin bread. I find out it is NOTORIOUS pumpkin bread,

Nutmeg is not the ONLY spice in this pumpkin bread. Need I say more????

Any way, I decide about half way through the second show, to have a slice, thinking it will  come to life as soon as the show goes down. (This is the 60’s right? When THC is a Vitamin.)

I neglect to take into account  the ADRENALIN of performance. How it speeds up everything, including digestion.

So I come out to do my REALLY BIG , REALLY  COMPLICATED, REALLY FAST 11 o’clock number “CAROUSEL”.

And my, the lights are lovely!

And wow, the music is terrific!

And gee, my shoes look so sparkly!  You get the drift,.

I make it through the song, only a half a measure behind the band, without swallowing my tongue  and utterly terrified.

And to this day, I have never gone on stage with anything stronger than  a lemon cough drop in my system. Fools and little children….

Brel Stories, Stories from the Road

Cincinnati…early Spring…1970…

I am on the road with Jacques Brel is Alive And Well and Living in Paris. It’s my first time to be ON THE ROAD! I am in the Heartland for the first time. (You can’t call Texas the heartland.) I am with the new found love of my life, George, who is the star of this show, and totally awesome! More testosterone in a pair of vocal chords than I have ever heard. (Other people go for pects or abs or eyes. For me, it’s the VOICE!)

I have the night off. He has the night on. This show is so hard on the chords that the cast of six has two “swing singers” , male and female, who sing both roles, to give the other actors an extra night to recuperate.

So George is at the show, and I am home alone and I pick up my old Martin guitar, which I have carried faithfully everyday since my aunt gave it to me in high school, back when I was a folk singer and knew I was going to be Judy Collins when I grew up.

I start strumming away at nothing and all of a sudden there is a “something “ there!

This has never happened to me before. I don’t write songs. I don’t write poems. I barely write letters. But there is something musical sitting there on an old yellow legal pad. When George gets back to our funny apartment near Playhouse on the Park, I say”I don’t know what this is.” And I play it for him. He looks at me in astonishment and says “You just wrote a song!…..And it’s good!” We were both amazed.

It is a broken hearted “there you walk out of my door again” song, sexy, dark. Very dramatic. Very…hmmmm…..French.I realize MUCH later that the reason I took up writing was because I was surrounded by Brel’s music. He TOTALLY influenced me in my writing, which started on that day in Cincinnati.

(The song was called LOSING YOU AGAIN and actually had it’s only recording by Shawn Elliott, the star of the original JACQUES BREL off-Broadway. It ain’t half bad.)

Stories from the Road