{"id":94440,"date":"2025-11-23T17:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=94440"},"modified":"2025-11-23T17:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:54:06","slug":"all-about-scarlett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/11\/23\/all-about-scarlett\/","title":{"rendered":"All About Scarlett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYOU roll with it!  You don\u2019t need hair.  You\u2019re a pastor \u2013
\nyou don\u2019t need any hair.  I\u2019m an actress \u2013
\nI need all the hair!\u201d
\n\u2013 <\/em>Cheyenne <\/strong>Jackson<\/strong>\u2019s response when his older brother told him to
\n\u201croll with it\u201d when he started losing his hair at 19.  I can\u2019t quite put my
\nfinger on it, but I\u2019ve never been so turned on by any member of the
\nJackson family since Rebbie <\/strong>and the centipede!  I must also highly
\nrecommend his backstage Instagram <\/em>feed \u201cMirror, She Wrote\u201d.  Fantastique<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, I was invited to an all-star reading of the film script of All About Eve<\/em><\/strong>.  The most glittering of the cast was Scarlett Johansson <\/strong>as Eve \u2013 and she was superb (I\u2019d stop short of saying she was a mass of fire and music).  J. Cameron-Smith <\/strong>was Margo, and she did a clever thing \u2013 she made the role her own.  Not an easy task when every drag queen, gay man, and several straight women can give you pitch-perfect line readings in Miss Davis<\/strong>\u2019s inimitable style.  Alec Baldwin<\/strong>\u2019s Addison DeWitt was a revelation.  While I thought he was channeling Kevin Spacey <\/strong>in House of Cards<\/em><\/strong>, my companion felt he was the embodiment of Big Daddy.  Nicole Ari Parker <\/strong>was a spunky Karen, while the always reliable John Benjamin Hickey <\/strong>played her husband, Lloyd.  I was unfamiliar with Luke Kirby<\/strong>, our Bill.  This perhaps made his performance all the more impressive.  Effortless, timeless, natural.  And then Alec Baldwin summed it up when he said, \u201cHow lucky are we to have Charles Busch <\/strong>channeling Thelma Ritter<\/strong>.\u201d  As usual, Charles was divine.  And while Charles included a heaping portion of Ritter, he brought more than a bit of his own magic, and perhaps a dash of Joan Blondell<\/strong>!  The reading was directed by Scott Wittman<\/strong>, and his frequent collaborator Marc Shaiman <\/strong>tinkled the ivories.  Talk about an embarrassment of riches.<\/p>\n

This event was a benefit for The Center <\/em><\/strong>at West-Park Presbyterian Church <\/em>\u2013 a historic building that has not only been a place of worship, but has also housed many artistic endeavors.  It\u2019s inspired quite a few neighborhood celebrities to join forces to try and save the magnificent building, which has been a fixture since 1889.  People like Matt Dillon <\/strong>(who was at the reading), Mark Ruffalo <\/strong>and many others are working to obtain landmark status.  In fact, they are meeting with the Landmark Preservation Committee <\/em>at a public hearing on December 9th<\/sup>, and they can use more people to support the cause \u2013 even by Zoom<\/em>.  You can get more details at CenterAtWestPark.org<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

While he didn\u2019t mention it to me, Charles Busch <\/strong>is also part of another benefit reading \u2013 this time, of his own play, The Lady in Question<\/em><\/strong>.  This December 6th<\/sup> event is a fundraiser for the medical expenses of Ken Sanders<\/strong>, who is directing the reading.  Alongside Busch is his muse and frequent collaborator Julie Halston<\/strong>, and their pal Doug Plaut <\/strong>(who I enjoyed seeing at Eve<\/em>).  You\u2019d be a fool to miss this event, which can be found on Eventbrite.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYOU roll with it!  You don\u2019t need hair.  You\u2019re a pastor \u2013 you don\u2019t need any hair.  I\u2019m an actress \u2013 I need all the hair!\u201d \u2013 Cheyenne Jackson\u2019s response when his older brother told him to \u201croll with it\u201d when he started losing his hair at 19.  I can\u2019t quite put my finger on<\/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\/94440"}],"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=94440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94449,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94440\/revisions\/94449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}