I am currently down at the sumptuous Filth2Go Beach House in Fort Lauderdale.  In addition to frolicking in sand and sun, I’m also spending some time with friends.  Maybe a better term would be peers.  Except Joe Posa’s impersonation of Joan Rivers is peerless.  His Tributes show played the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale, and he was more than ably assisted by the song stylings of Seth Sikes.  The show is anchored by Posa’s loving portrayal of Rivers, which features some of Auntie Joan’s tried and true material alongside Joe’s original jokes – many of which were up to the legend’s exacting standards.  Sikes, a devotee of legendary ladies, sweetly sings some solos, and then is joined for duets by Posa as Barbra and Liza, in a masterful bit of audio wizardry.  I’m a harsh critic, so it is no petty praise for me to say I enjoyed myself.  Posa has constructed a show that is as fantastic as his famous females, and kept the audience thoroughly entertained.  Brava.

Scott Thompson, who many of you will remember from Kids in the Hall, has embarked on a new tour, courtesy of the City Winery venues.  This show, King, focuses on one character – gay lounge lizard, Buddy Cole.  The evening promises to include “hilarious and sometimes incendiary monologues never before seen on television and a series of brand new monologues written for the recent revival that were deemed too hot for Amazon.”  Well, that’s what the press release says.

The West End recently hosted a revival of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.  This stripped-down production starred the much-lauded Norma Desmond of Nicole Scherzinger.  Everything about this show – from the production to the casting – seems odd to me.  And yet, everyone says it’s brilliant.  I’ll be able to find out for myself since Scherzy will be making her Broadway debut when the show transfers to New York.  Details to follow.

By the by, the lovely Jonathan Bennett is poised to make his Broadway debut on January 23^rd when he replaces Michael Urie in Spamalot.  Urie is leaving to do a brief run of Once Upon a Mattress with Sutton Foster and will then begin filming a television project.  Bennett is committed to staying with the production until April 23^rd.

A film version of the musical Mean Girls just hit cinemas.  That film is based on the 2017 stage musical, which was obviously based on the original 2004 film – both of which were penned by Tina Fey, who starred in both.  I only mention this because that’s where we first saw Jonathan Bennett – in the original film, not the musical (on stage or on film).