Liars and Saints

  In "Cabaret," Fraulein Schneider tells three stories--and their central theme is the "virtue" of passivity. When I was a child, My summers were spent by the sea. So what? And I had a maid doing all of the housework-- Not me. So what? Now I scrub all the floors-- And I wash down the walls-- And I empty the chamber pot. If it ended that way-- Then it ended that way. And I shrug and I say: So what? Life has fucked with Schneider. Expectations were set in childhood--and hopes were then dashed. The sea gives way to other liquids--the suds in the bucket, the piss in the chamber pot. When I had a man, my figure was dumpy and fat. So what? Through all of our years, He was so disappointed in that. So what? Now I have what he missed And my figure is trim-- But he lies in a churchyard plot. If it wasn't to be That he ever would see The uncorseted me-- So what? Here, again, a dream is (fatally) deferred. Like the sea, the "vision of thinness" is just out of reac...

A triple threat is a special phenomenon. To be a triple threat, you have to be really, really good at singing, and dancing, and acting. You can't be passable in one area and good in the others. It's more like: There has to be the sense that you could do *any one* of the three full-time, and the world would still be dazzled by your gift. My husband asked (jokingly) if Madonna and Taylor Swift count as triple threats--and I said, whoa, no, not by a long shot--and I knew that a post was necessary. The ultimate triple threat is Sutton Foster. There's no question, if she were simply a mute featured dancer in various Broadway shows, she would still be a *celebrated* mute featured dancer. And the singing and acting are admirable. As much as I resent "Younger" for taking Foster away from the Broadway stage, I'm grateful that the show allows me to contemplate Foster's grace and actorly intelligence on a regular basis. Chita Rivera, obviously, is a triple thre...