{"id":94153,"date":"2025-08-24T12:04:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=94153"},"modified":"2025-08-25T01:20:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:20:37","slug":"maye-returns-to-ptown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/08\/24\/maye-returns-to-ptown\/","title":{"rendered":"Maye Returns to Ptown"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve rounded out most summers in the past, I ventured down to Provincetown to see the ageless Marilyn Maye <\/strong>in concert \u2013 this time, beyond the confines of a smaller venue and commanding Town Hall<\/em>.  To call her ageless is actually ridiculous \u2013 she\u2019s 97 years old and proud of it.  This marks her 14th<\/sup> year performing in Ptown (a few years before that, Auntie Marilyn was part of a group I vacationed with).  That she resembles some of the drag queens in town only tickles her: \u201cThey used to tell me that people in Ptown only went to see drag queens.  I told them to bill me as a drag queen!\u201d  When many performers get up there in years, reviewer say things like, \u201cShe sounds good for her age.\u201d  Make no mistake \u2013 Marilyn Maye sounds good for ANY age.  She is suddenly in this refreshed stage of her career, and her Provincetown concert was better than I\u2019ve heard her in over a decade.  She loves performing, and performing has certainly returned the favor and given her a vibrancy that belies her many decades.  This show celebrated her record-holding 76 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson<\/em><\/strong>, and I swear I never heard her sing more than half that material.  It was really a special night, and the capacity audience showered her with love \u2013 including vigorous rhythmic foot stomping straight out of a Leni Riefenstahl <\/strong>flick!  I found it all quite emotional and told her I was moved to tears.  \u201cI was that bad?\u201d she quipped.  Hardly!  Some highlights were the theme songs to Cabaret<\/em><\/strong> and The Way We Were<\/em><\/strong>, a medley of \u201cBy Myself\u201d and \u201cBeing Alive\u201d, and the entire first-act finale to Hello, Dolly!<\/em><\/strong>…to say nothing of a kick-ass rendition of \u201cI Will Survive\u201d (most of which can be found on BillyMasters.com<\/strong><\/a>).  Bravo to producer Mark Cortale <\/strong>for bringing her to town each and every year.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another of my favorite annual events is GayDays Anaheim<\/em><\/strong>.  While some continue to debate whether I was a founding father, what is not in doubt is that I\u2019ve always supported this fantastic gathering at Disneyland <\/em>in Anaheim \u2013 and I\u2019m not even one of those Disney <\/em>Queens (although I certainly enjoy them).  The upcoming event takes place September 12-14 and includes quite a few of my favorite queens \u2013 Ginger Minj<\/strong>, Kay Sedia<\/strong>, and even Cheyenne Jackson<\/strong>.  You can check out the full lineup of events and buy tickets in advance at GayDaysAnaheim.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve rounded out most summers in the past, I ventured down to Provincetown to see the ageless Marilyn Maye in concert \u2013 this time, beyond the confines of a smaller venue and commanding Town Hall.  To call her ageless is actually ridiculous \u2013 she\u2019s 97 years old and proud of it.  This marks her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94153"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94165,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94153\/revisions\/94165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}