A Unique Presentation by Mesquite Arts Theatre Members
When we invited Marty and Regina Rouvaldt to attend this presentation with us, they were asked if they wanted to go to a Mesquite Arts Theatre “play” with us—and until an hour or so before they came to pick us up, we believed our terminology was correct. However, upon deeper examination of our season passes, we discovered the event was to actually be a “musical- type” performance with some dialogue between musical numbers.
And, when we had arrived and picked out the best seats, we also discovered that the cast for THE BASH was not going to be actual area singers and musicians but past and present Mesquite Theatre ACTORS/ ACTRESSES! The CAST and Crew are unpaid and do this for the LOVE of performing.
But, it all turned out to be funny, musically reminiscent, historical, and very entertaining! A very good thing about the evening is that the four of us and the rest of the audience—and also the cast and crew— seemed to be enjoying the singing, humor, and brief skits, and the piano player really knew what he was doing.
As the program brochure states, to many it will seem as if Christmas and Frank Sinatra do not have much in common with each other. However, as a little research by the younger set and/or reflective thinking by the older set (I was the oldest of our foursome.) could reveal, Frank Sinatra sang in person and also recorded a large number of Christmas Songs during his illustrious career. And, he actually “cowrote” one of the songs to which we were treated! If you have heard of the RAT PACK, or if you research it now, you will know or find that Sinatra was the “leading member” of this group and was famous for his part—or maybe “infamous” as the brochure subtly suggested— along with Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford. And, we did notice that there were references to and jokes about this group at several points in the production!
I will close this article with the “Sing-Along for the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ (Rat Pack Style)” that was printed in the program so that we could all sing along—which we did but not nearly as clearly and musically as we all probably thought we were! The “12 DAYS”—A Jack Daniels-on-the-Rocks; Two Cadillacs; Three French flings; Four groovy wives; Five coo-coo chicks; Six hours of hey-hey; Seven nights in Vegas; Eight drinking buddies; Nine go-go dancers; Ten toupees; Eleven hands of poker; A twelve o’clock wake-up call.
The performance was not what we had first expected, but it was good entertainment and great fun! And I think all four of us felt a little younger as we drove away.
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