Cygnet Recommends: Reading List
Theatre is all about storytelling. So in the spirit of storytelling, we’ve put together our staff’s list of favorite books to read; whether it’s historical fiction, self-improvement, or of course…scripts! Enjoy!
Sean Murray
Artistic Director
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic by Gordon S. Wood
“After seeing Hamilton, I realized that I really didn’t have a good sense of how this country formed itself after the Revolution. This is a thick and thorough history and totally absorbing and fascinating.”
Rob Lutfy
Associate Artistic Director
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
“It’s set in the marshes of the North Carolina coast and Reese Witherspoon recommended it. I found it an enjoyable murder mystery thriller. The author’s unsurpassed knowledge of the natural world is more than matched by her beautiful descriptive poetic prose. Her insightful observations on our society, on relationships, love, prejudice, racism and sexism are intermingled with a fast paced and gripping story which takes us on an emotional journey that is set in the 30’s through to the 70’s.”
AND
A Giacometti Portrait by James Lord
“This was the perfect book to read before sleep at night. Every chapter is a different sitting between one of my favorite painter’s and his subject. The artist painted, and the model recorded the sittings and took photographs of the work in its various stages. What emerged was an illumination of what it is to be an artist and what it was to be Giacometti. It’s a quick read, but an honest peek into what every artist struggles with when creating.”
Autumn Doermann
Marketing Director
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
“I’m a huge fan of Lisa See’s work and this book was no exception. A beautifully written historical fiction novel, it’s the wonderful, bittersweet story of Li-Yan,
Laurel Withers
Development Associate
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.
“An excellent book! I read a lot, and this is one I really enjoyed. It is historical fiction, and has great characters too. And one interesting thing about it is that a brief part of the story takes place during the Great Plague in London. It actually makes you appreciate the situation we’re in now—that was REALLY an epidemic! Makes this pale in comparison, but it does make you think.”
Rigo Vasquez
Office Manager
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
“This is an awesome book. I love it because it talks in detail about what we call ‘intuition’ and how people can hone that skill to make good snap decisions with limited details.”
John Olchak
Marketing Insights and Data Analyst
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
“A great character story of two Russian brothers, one accused of murder and one on an educational exchange in the United States trying to prove his brother is innocent. I met the author at a benefit luncheon and she told me she spent some time in Russia in the late 80s/early 90s so she wrote it from direct experience in the country.”
Jill Jones
Patron Services
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
“It’s a wonderfully funny and powerful book that I read at least once a year to help keep things in perspective. I highly recommend for the textbook over-thinkers or anyone who might be looking for a light pressure self help book. :)”
Not into books? We’ve got some alternate suggestions here!
Bill Schmidt
Executive Director
“I read Flipboard which is a magazine style app on my phone that pulls stories from NYT, Washington Post, The Atlantic, etc. I read the MarketWatch website and financial magazine Barron’s. I have subscribed to the LA Times to keep posted on what’s happening in CA regarding Covid19. I also have coffee with Cuomo every morning and watch Newsom’s live press conference at noon.”
Craig Campbell
Production Manager
Scripts
“Mainly I have been reading plays. Some are more current, others are older ones, that I’ve never had an opportunity to read. Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, The Paris Letter by Jon Robin Baitz, Stop Kiss by Diana Son, and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen.”
Nil Noyan
Outreach and Events Manager
“I’m obsessed with TED Talks Daily Podcast on Spotify. News Break app keeps me informed with local as well as international news. During this quarantine Instagram Live interviews, mini concerts, chats, etc. are very entertaining to watch/listen!”
Cygneture Interview Series (NEW!)
An intimate and introspective chat featuring the actors, playwrights and designers you love! Here’s who you can expect to see soon!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all the interviews as they are released!
COMING UP IN APRIL/MAY:
Actor – Cashae M. Overton
(The Last Wife)
Jessica John and Fran Gerke
(Backyard Renaissance)
Playwright – Danielle Mohlmann
(Dust)
Director – Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Actors – Ro Boddie (Stupid F*cking Bird, Every Brilliant Thing)
and Tara Giordano
Playwright and actor – Herbert Siguenza
Cygnet Production Manager – Craig Campbell
Sound Designer – Melanie Chen Cole
Director – Jesca Prudencio
Broadway Actor – Matt Harrington
(Matilda)
Actors – Manny Fernandes (The Great Leap)
and Melissa Fernandes (A Christmas Carol)
Actor – Avi Roque
(HIR, Tiny Beautiful Things)
Actor – Bryan Banville (Spamalot)
and Choreographer – Katie Banville (Rock of Ages)
Barry Edelstein
(The Old Globe)
AND MORE TO COME…
COVID-19 Updates
Update as of 9/15/20:
It has been six months since we closed down our performance of La Cage Aux Folles in March. Six months of monitoring, planning (and re-planning) and waiting until we can see each other again.
An announcement for any in-person return to shows will only happen once we are able to safely make it happen BUT we are excited to announce that we have a full calendar of digital experiences to roll out to you for the remainder of this year and into 2021. And we’re building them to be flexible to the ever-changing future as it unfolds.
When we do announce our season return, it will include all new titles that are everything you expect from Cygnet shows – thought-provoking, entertaining, quality productions. Thank you for remaining patient!
If you’re a Season 18 Subscriber:
Because we know our return to shows will look a little different than anticipated, we’re converting your Season 18 subscription into a credit that can be used one of two ways:
- Hang onto it. Re-apply it to the new season subscription when we can finally gather together in person.
- Use it now! Can’t wait that long to connect with Cygnet? Use your credit toward any of our digital program in the meantime! Once we return in person, you can apply any remainder to your new subscription and we’ll adjust your amount-due.
So for now, you can enjoy our streaming performances for Pride and Prejudice and Fully Committed, join us for our newly launched Script Reading Club with Rob Lutfy, or stay tuned for our additional programming to be announcedMake sure you’re signed up for our regular e-blasts so you don’t miss anything.
And as always, please reach out to the box office with any questions or concerns. We can be reached at 619-337-1525 or boxoffice@cygnettheatre.com. The box office hours are currently Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm.
For Single ticket holders from Season 17, we have the following options:
- Keep the tickets which will be used for new tickets for La Cage aux Folles once we have performances confirmed.
- Consider using the value of the tickets as a tax deductible donation to the theatre. As a non-profit organization, Cygnet Theatre is a vibrant part of San Diego’s arts and culture community. However due to the nature of theatre as a gathering place, we are particularly vulnerable to the potential impact of this epidemic on the local economy.
- Turn the tickets into a credit that will stay on your account until we return to in-person theatre.
- While our normal ticket policy does not allow for refunds, we understand these circumstances require flexibility for everyone. If none of these options work for you, please let the box office know.
As a nonprofit, Cygnet Theatre relies on the financial support of our most dedicated patrons. Without the revenue from ticket sales, we need you now more than ever. A tax-deductible donation will help ensure we can continue to produce award-winning theatre in the future. Click here to donate.
Thank you for your help in keeping our community safe. We will get through this together!
Warm regards, The Cygnet Team
Director’s Notes: The Great Leap
Directing a Lauren Yee play is an honor. Every word matters and every thread woven into the fabric of her plays has a meaning. Lauren often talks about how every playwright has one basic story they are trying to perfect with every play they write. Her plays are about family secrets and how only when those secrets are revealed can we experience catharsis.
The Great Leap to me is a call to action, with young people teaching us that today is your day to step up and make a difference. It’s about home, and what that word means for a country of immigrants. It’s about living with the impact of our parent’s decisions and how our perceptions of them can change completely over time. I also love what Lauren is saying about the power of state and the capacity of governments to do deep, lasting damage to their citizens. You don’t get to demonize a foreign power before you deal with the sins of your own country’s past.
As for basketball, I grew up in North Carolina, where the tobacco road rivalries meant it was a part of my life whether I liked it or not. The state is home to Michael Jordan and 13 NCAA titles. My dad and I played basketball from the time I got off school until it was time to eat dinner. He used basketball to teach me about integrity and belief…lessons much like the ones in this play.
Sports bring people from all backgrounds together. It is one of the few subjects that you can bring up to a stranger at any bar in the world and find common ground. The event of theatre and sport are very similar. Both require physicality, fast thinking, hours of preparation, and responsiveness from the players. Both bring people together for a shared live experience. Both are influenced by the reactions and energy of their audiences. They have their heroes and villains, and on any given night you can witness something magical.
The characters in this play are brave. They have an enormous amount of heart and sacrifice for the things they love. And through this entire process they have taught me it is always your turn to take a shot.
Now, the ball is in your court.
From the playwright: Lauren Yee
Get insight into the playwright’s inspiration for The Great Leap!
“The Great Leap” written by Lauren Yee is her turn on the basketball court. According to director Rob Lutfy, “Yee’s plays often have at their core a family secret that needs to be revealed for catharsis to occur”. In the play, the character of Manford is loosely based on Yee’s own father who was considered the best basketball player in San Francisco’s Chinatown despite his shorter stature. Yee connects her Dad’s personal story to a pivotal moment in Chinese history where the costs for taking a charge or driving to the hoop are more than a foul shot.
By Lauren Yee:
“Growing up, my father played basketball. every day, all night, on the asphalt courts and rec center floors of San Francisco Chinatown. It was the only thing he was good at.
He was never good enough that he was going to play for the NBA or even at the college level, but for a 6’1″ chinatown kid from the projects, he was good. Really good.
I know this because even today, people still stop him on the street and try to explain to me what a legend he was. They tell me his nickname (spider), his position (center), and his signature move (the reverse jump shot). Then they will tell me about China.
My dad’s first trip to china was in the ’80s playing a series of exhibition games against china’s top teams. At their first game, my dad and his American teammates faced off against a Beijing team of three hundred-pound seven footers that demolished my dad’s team. It was the first of many slaughters.
Today he no longer plays, but his head is still in the game. He will walk up to tall young men at checkout counters, parking lots, and sporting events, and ask them if they’ve ever considered playing basketball. And no matter the answer, he proceeds to give them a master class in technique right then and there.
Cygnet Theatre Announces Season 18!
From classics to contemporary, remounts to world premieres, Cygnet Theatre’s 18th season is filled with emotional, physical and theatrical dexterity. Join us for a season that promises to be truly Cygnet! New subscription sales will be available in March of 2020. For more information regarding subscriptions packages please contact the box office at 619-337-1525 or visit www.cygnettheatre.com.
Powerful Hit Musical
CABARET
Music by John Kander and Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Joe Masteroff
Directed by Sean Murray
Music Direction by Patrick Marion
Choreography by Katie Banville
Jul. 8 – Aug. 16, 2020
Cygnet is pleased to remount one of its beloved hit musicals! Cabaret depicts the interlocking stories of a cabaret singer, an American writer and the denizens of Berlin, all caught up in the swirling maelstrom of a changing society. In the seamy, sleazy Kit Kat Klub, on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, almost anything – including love – is possible. This dark, daring, and provocative musical was winner of 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Composer and Lyricist. Based on “The Berlin Stories” by Christopher Isherwood. Winner of the 2011 SD Theatre Critics Circle Award for “Outstanding Direction of a Musical” and “Outstanding Lead Performance.” Cygnet is thrilled to reunite Director Sean Murray and Karson St. John as she returns to her role as Emcee.
Inge Rep: Rarely Seen American Classics
BUS STOP
By William Inge
Directed by Sean Murray
Sep. 29 – Nov. 7, 2020
In the middle of a howling snowstorm, a bus out of Kansas City pulls up at a small roadside diner. All roads are blocked, and the weary travelers on board have to take refuge in the diner until morning. Disillusioned saloon singer Cherie must deal with Bo Decker, the boisterous but naïve cowboy who insists on marrying her, as the other passengers make connections and confront the disappointments in their own lives. A simple play about ordinary people and the effect they have on each other’s lives.
Inge Rep: Rarely Seen American Classics
PICNIC
By William Inge
Directed by Rob Lutfy
Sep. 30 – Nov. 8, 2020
On a sweltering Labor Day morning, the women of a quiet, working-class neighborhood are preparing for the annual picnic when charming young drifter Hal Carter hops off of a freight train and into their lives. Hearts are broken and lives are changed, as Hal’s dangerous energy challenges the restrictive mid twentieth-century American values of this sleepy community. Spiked with the social mores and pressures that were shaping the country at the time and sparking the beginning of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, Picnic explores themes of sexuality, repression, rites of passage, and disappointment.
Favorite Holiday Musical
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Adaptation & Lyrics by Sean Murray
Original Score by Billy Thompson
Directed by Sean Murray
Music Direction by Patrick Marion
Dec. 2 – Dec. 27, 2020
Cygnet’s holiday smash hit is back for its seventh season! Enjoy the holiday classic adapted from Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of hope and redemption. This imaginative production features original music, creative stagecraft and puppetry, and live sound effects. Step into a Victorian Christmas card for a unique storytelling experience that is sure to delight the entire family!
Historical Dramedy
World Premiere
THE PROSTITUTE PLAY
By Kate Hamill
Directed by Rob Lutfy
Jan. 20 – Feb. 14, 2021
For decades, English society has been ruled by the world of high-class prostitutes and their noble patrons. As the Victorian era begins, the moralizing middle class gains power and societal attitudes shift – and the prostitutes’ opulent way of life is becoming obsolete. One of the most popular courtesans, Harriet, wants to get out of the ‘business’… and she has a plan. She’s long been promised a lifelong pension from the Duke of Wellington, and now she’s ready to cash out. However, the Duke withdraws his offer. Undaunted, she threatens to write a memoir that will expose his history. He refuses to give in to blackmail, and starts putting pressure on her to give up – threatening her reputation, her business, and ultimately, her life. Featuring playwright Kate Hamill as Harriet, playing opposite her husband Jason O’Connell.
Tender Musical Story
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
Book by Terrence McNally, Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Directed by Sean Murray
Music Direction by Terry O’Donnell
Mar. 10 – Apr. 11, 2021
Dublin, 1964. Meet Alfie Byrne, a bus conductor with a poet’s heart. In the morning he dispenses tickets and Oscar Wilde’s poetry to his passengers. After work, St. Imelda’s amateur theatricals are his passion. But his heart holds secrets that he can’t share with anyone but his imagined confidante, Oscar Wilde. When he attempts to put on an amateur production of Wilde’s Salome, he confronts the forces of bigotry and shame over a love “that dare not speak its name.” Truths tumble out, and judgments fly. But when the accounts of friendship are reckoned, Alfie’s true goodness, and his quiet philosophy—“you just have to love who you love”—wins out. Featuring Sean Murray as Alfie.
To Be Announced
TBA
Directed by Rob Lutfy
May 12 – Jun. 6, 2021
Something exciting will be announced soon!
Director’s Notes: The Last Five Years
I fell in love with theatre by reading Shakespeare in high school English class. I loved the structure and how the language worked on your emotions. It was pure form in action. It wasn’t until years later that I fell in love with musicals for the exact same reasons. I walked past a practice room and heard a woman playing the cello and singing the first song in this show (Still Hurting). That was my entry point into musical theatre. There was nothing flashy. It was pure raw emotion, poetic and form-bending. I’ve grown to love and appreciate the genre but it was this musical that started that shift.
Composer Jason Robert Brown is sophisticated, literate, and passionate in his craft and storytelling. Here is a story that plays with metaphor and form in ways that get my synapses firing. It is more a poem than a play. Brown takes the heart threads of love and runs them in opposite directions, so that while the man is falling in love, the woman is mourning the end of their relationship. The music makes my heart sing and break all at once. Perhaps it’s because these two artists are trying to make their love for each other and their love of their craft co-exist, perhaps it’s the nonlinar structure, perhaps it’s just the chill in the score. I love this story. It’s small and it’s huge all at once.
I always come back to this musical because I ache for Jamie and Cathy. I ache for their futures and I am reminded of the mistakes we make when we we give over to love. How lucky we are to find each other at all, to invest and to care for, and to grow through the pain. When I sing the songs in my car or fall deep into this story, my heart wants to beat out of its chest. I feel alive.
The lasting works in the theatrical canon are infused with love stories — and this is one of them. Let there never be enough reminders that love is always worth the risk.
For Duckie
The Last Five Years plays Oct. 23 – Nov. 17. Don’t miss this emotionally powerful and intimate musical.
Playwright’s Notes: Kate Hennig on The Virgin Trial
“What’s a virgin?” my eight year old sister asked my father one Christmas in our very brown 1970s family room deep in the suburbs of southwest Calgary. As a sixteen year old I think my eyes bugged right out of my head while waiting with bated breath to hear how he would dig himself out of that one.
“A girl who is not yet married, ” he replied, without a batting of the eye.
Darn. Good answer, I thought, somewhat disappointed at his ease. Of course my father, being a Lutheran minister, was practiced in his response to this question, bombarded as he was at this time of year by curious Christmas-pageant performers.
Elizabeth the First would also be pleased with his answer. The fact that it makes no mention of sexual intercourse would support the cult of innocence that was constructed around her: she was Gloriana: the Virgin Queen.
But though my father’s answer was enough to satisfy my younger sister, it was certainly not the whole truth. It was a convenient truth. I would venture to say that the professed virginity of the second queen regnant of England is also a convenient truth. It has extensive dramatic possibilities: and we know how this princess loved dramatic possibilities. Might we even consider her a creative artist?
What if Elizabeth created a campaign of virginity to distract the masses from her dubious integrity? What if this girl-who-is-not-yet-married was in full control of her destiny even in her teenage years? Out of necessity, she imagined her own pristine narrative in the face of a life-threatening scandal; a wily teenager, well-trained in the arts of deception, she then put a spin on the facts to whitewash her part in a variety of extremely suspicious circumstances; this young Elizabeth was capable at a very young age of making choices that would determine her highly potent future.
But she was only a girl. Can a girl really be capable of such foresight?
Ha! We don’t give girls enough credit.
In 1549, Elizabeth was doing exactly what girls and young women are doing today: adapting: re-inventing her own image, pursuing her self as art, utilising her unique principles and prescient solutions to achieve her goals.
Call it girl power. Call it virgin power. Both then, and now, it’s the beating heart of my play.
The Virgin Trial by Kate Hennig plays Sept. 11 – Oct. 6. Buy tickets before the reign is over.
Angels in America: Notes from the Director and Dramaturg
From the Director: When Angels in America opened in NYC in 1993, it broke the wall of silence on AIDS. Brilliant, theatrical and urgent, the play depicted the AIDS epidemic with startling honesty. It also takes on such a wide range of additional ideas that it feels like the one diminishes it by trying to name them all: conservatism, Mormonism, Judaism, Bolshevism, love, abandonment, justice, responsibility towards each other and ourselves, global warming, heaven and a God who chose to abandon it all and leave us to our own! Simultaneously both an epic, sprawling play and an intimate, personal play.
The angels in Angels in America ask us to stop moving. Stop progressing. Stop. Stop. Stop. They tell us that our curiosity, our restlessness, is barreling us forward into an unknown future that is full of destruction. But the play fights this idea and ultimately defies these angels; humans cannot do what they ask. We are essentially creatures of motion. The world only spins forward.
In 1986 my partner, Jim Wirz, contracted AIDS in the peak of the plague years. We were both in our twenties with a whole lot of life ahead of us. But in less than a year, he lost his battle for life at the age of 27. His panel on the AIDS quilt was one of the first in that monument to loss and life. That I too was not one of this disease’s victims is an inexplicable miracle and randomness at work. This play has unearthed so many “lost” memories and experiences and has made this project both devastating, emotional, joyous and personal for me. I dedicate this play to Jim for his very Prior-like courage, strength, humor, wit and defiance in the face of a killer angel intent on taking him from us. 32 years gone, 32 years remembered. 
From the Dramaturg:
MORMONS, ROY COHN and AIDS
by Tim West
The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, is a tragi-comic tapestry rich with references from our remote and recent past. Kushner’s brainy play deploys an astounding array of cultural touchstones, from AIDS, ACT-Up and AZT to democratic socialism and Zionism, to 1950s Red Scare figures and 1980s Reagan cabinet officials.
The play is also inherently political, about “Mormons, Roy Cohn and AIDS,” as Kushner originally pitched it. As in other periods, politicians and moralists found a wedge issue in the emerging gay culture. This was confronted with fierce resistance. In the dozen years between the Stonewall Riot and the first news clippings of a ‘gay cancer,’ a vibrant community had been nurtured, come out of the closet, marched, paraded… and changed our world for the better.
Laisse-faire social policy and restriction of personal freedoms produced the gross hypocrisy that was Roy Cohn. Cohn was a political ‘fixer’ whose behind-the-scenes manipulations haunt American history, extending from his unethical but effective interference in the 1951 Rosenberg Atom Spy case and the 1953 Army-McCarthy hearings. Cohn’s influence is felt today, as he formed meaningful mentorships and interconnections with Fox founder Rupert Murdoch, self-described dirty-trickster Roger Stone, and real estate developer Donald Trump.
Opposed to this malevolent force are Louis, whose political radicalism initially lacks courage to confront contradictions in himself; Belize, whose cynical but spot-on observations contrast with earnest care-giving; and Prior, whose humor and inventiveness brings meaning to our smallest existence. Joe struggles with untenable moral strictures, makes progress, yet ends with a new equally vulnerable identity; Harper searches for truth among lies but ultimately settles for the cold comfort of knowing she must create her own truth; Hannah holds onto traditional faith, yet grows past her background with an impressive authenticity. The Angel, the most indefinable and explicable character, has a simultaneous aversion and attraction to flawed humanity, leading us to accept that this voice from on-high has no better answers than we do.
The play offers few answers with any finality. It urges us to nonetheless work together to further the conversation.
Angels in America – performed in rotating rep – runs through April 20th.
Getting to Know Marie and Rosetta
Termed ” The Godmother of Rock and Roll,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the most overlooked stars of early American rock music. The list of musicians who cite her as an influence is staggering. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Eric Clapton. But what of the woman who they admired? And who is Marie Knight?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born in Arkansas in 1915. A guitar prodigy, by the age of 6 she was performing gospel music as part of a traveling evangelical troupe. She would also spend time in Chicago and New York, fusing her southern, gospel roots with big-city sound to create her own unique style. By all accounts, she was a force nature on stage as she stomped, growled and sang to the heavens in a voice full of grit, all the while playing a guitar that easily rivaled or surpassed her more noted male contemporaries. Rarely deviating from gospel material, Sister Rosetta Tharpe infused her performances with a drive and a passion that led her to be the first gospel artist to cross over onto the R&B charts (Strange Things Happening Every Day – 1945) and drew thousands to sell-out arena performances.
In 1946, after seeing gospel singer Marie Knight appear onstage with Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta brought her to Decca Records. They began recording and performing as a duo. Described as “a beautiful woman with a beautiful contralto voice, who had a spellbinding effect on audiences,” Marie brought a hipper, current gospel vibe to Sister Rosetta’s older style. She left to pursue her solo career again in 1951 after losing both her children in a house fire. Sister Rosetta and Marie would remain friends, regularly reuniting on stage. Marie recorded throughout the 1950s, foraying into secular music and R&B. Although she effectively retired in the mid-1960s to work a regular job and preach, she did release 4 more gospel albums before her death in 2009. A review from the San Francisco Chronicle described her delivery as “soulful enough to surely cause some nonbelievers to want to get right with God.”
Sister Rosetta’s career would wane over the 50s and 60s as a new generation of rock and rollers would refine the style she helped to pioneer. Sister Rosetta found herself too sacred for the rockers and too secular for the gospel crowd that had catapulted her to fame. Despite the fact that her name has largely been forgotten, her influence remains undeniable, and with her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2018, she is finally getting the credit she so richly deserves. Sister Rosetta Tharpe passed away in 1973. Marie Knight helped to arrange the funeral. Her epitaph reads “She would sing until you cried and then she would sing until you danced for joy. She helped to keep the church alive and the saints rejoicing.”
Check out this clip of Sister Rosetta performing “Didn’t It Rain?” in Manchester in 1964 – https://youtu.be/MnAQATKRBN0
Marie and Rosetta runs through February 16. Don’t miss this story of letting loose, finding your voice, and freeing your soul is a soaring music-theatre experience chock full of roof-raising performances.