{"id":94322,"date":"2025-10-12T21:02:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=94322"},"modified":"2025-10-12T21:02:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:02:30","slug":"sam-smith-sells-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/10\/12\/sam-smith-sells-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Smith Sells Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know what I\u2019m against?  Performers who do more than two shows at the same venue and calling it a residency.  A residency is when you move to a city, get an apartment, and live there by day and work by night.  Kinda like what Sam Smith <\/strong>had planned once the refurbished Castro Theatre <\/em>opens in February 2026.  He announced two weeks of four shows each for his To Be Free<\/em><\/strong> stint in SF.  I\u2019d call that residency-adjacent.  Those sold out pretty quickly, so he added another four.  Poof \u2013 sold out.  As of this writing, he\u2019s up to 16 shows over four weeks.  That is definitely a residency.  He\u2019s doing a similar schedule at Warsaw<\/em> in Brooklyn over October, November and December.  To get the most up-to-date schedule, check out SamSmithWorld.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re talking New York, you know that Halloween is right around the corner.  And this will mark the 10th<\/sup> time the delightful Jay Armstrong Johnson <\/strong>has presented his wildly popular I Put A Spell On You<\/em><\/strong> benefit to raise money for the Ali Forney Center<\/em>.  Seeing Jay as Winifred Sanderson \u2013 well, you can\u2019t put a price on that.  This year\u2019s show will take place on October 20th<\/sup> at Webster Hall <\/em>in NYC.  You can get tickets and information at SpellOnYouNYC.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a> or JayArmstrongJohnson.org<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Last year marked the 25th<\/sup> year Charles Busch<\/strong> and his merry band performed his play, Times Square Angel<\/em><\/strong>.  Since this is typically when tickets go on sale (and sell out in minutes), he made the following announcement.  \u201cLast year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of performing the play as a one night staged reading.  To Carl Andress <\/strong>and I, that seemed like an achievement to be proud of and time to call it a wrap.  At the risk of sounding like Anton Walbrook at the end of the movie, The Red Shoes<\/em><\/strong>, we won\u2019t be performing Times Square Angel <\/em>anymore.  Nothing goes on forever and time and the vagaries of age and the prosaic details and exhaustion of doing theater on a shoestring have gone into this decision.  What a joyous ride it\u2019s been…To those who have joined us all these years, thank you so much for your loyalty and enthusiasm.  What a joy it\u2019s been to share this play and experience with you.  And to our cast and band, designers and crew, my love, gratitude and admiration.  A special thank you to Theater for the New City <\/em>and the indominable Crystal Fields <\/strong>who for six decades has given so many theater artists a home.  Thank you all for twenty-five years of Times Square Angel<\/em>.  I exclaim this from my heart, truly, and sincerely, bless you, darlings!\u201d  In the words of Belinda Carlisle, never say never…<\/p>\n

By the by, the print edition of Busch\u2019s play The Tale of the Allergist\u2019s Wife and Other Plays<\/em><\/strong> turned up at the recent Julien\u2019s Auction <\/em><\/strong>of Joan Rivers<\/strong>\u2019 belongings.  The volume was autographed by Charles to Auntie Joan in 2007, and he wrote the following: \u201cTo Joan \u2013 Your early enthusiasm over these plays meant more than I can say.  Thank you.\u201d  It was bundled with a few other entertainment books and sold for $320.  I\u2019m sure Missy <\/strong>thanks you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know what I\u2019m against?  Performers who do more than two shows at the same venue and calling it a residency.  A residency is when you move to a city, get an apartment, and live there by day and work by night.  Kinda like what Sam Smith had planned once the refurbished Castro Theatre opens<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=94322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94323,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94322\/revisions\/94323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}