Liars and Saints

 I was raised on Celine Dion; her work inspires a special mixture of reverence and disdain. I think her most questionable move was to release a song called "I'm Alive" shortly after the devastation of 9/11. If this was meant as a tribute to victims of 9/11, it was difficult not to hear an *implied* title: "I'm Alive---and You Are Not." I did not see Marla Mindelle in "Titanique"--I saw Dee Roscioli in the off-Broadway version. This was a special night for me; some kind of Kansas City Chiefs game was occurring, and I did not have to watch. I sat among many other gay people--also, oddly, the Broadway performer Eva Noblezada--and I enjoyed seeing a heavyset man in the role of Frances Fisher (mother of "Rose" on the Titanic). This man flirted with me and tried to sit on my lap. Marla Mindelle has all of my love. I watch her clips regularly. Among her many gifts is her incisive reading of Celine Dion's "crowd talk." Because Dion ...

  I was somehow dragged into a Bills v. Chiefs discussion. A friend was describing his irritation w/r/t to the Chiefs, and my husband asked, "Would you root against Audra McDonald simply because she already has so many Tony Awards?" This was meant to be a rhetorical question -- but, in fact, it's possible that I *would* root against Audra precisely for that reason. And it's possible that Audra would root against herself. In one interview, she mentioned her first major Tony Award loss. She recalled feeling relieved and thinking, "Great. Now I can just go out and do my work." I feel it would be terrific if Jennifer Simard defeated Audra this year. (There is no universe in which this will happen.) Jennifer Simard is a genius, and she is now giving a performance in which (nightly) she has to let cum dribble from her mouth. This is easily the most startling and inventive moment on any NYC stage -- from Battery Park to Washington Heights -- happening day after day...