Popster Picks Oct. 20: Local, Live and What’s On

Popster Picks Oct. 20: Local, Live and What’s On

By Lynn Venhaus

Local Spotlight: The Wall

Truck Centers is sponsoring the American Veterans Traveling Tribute Vietnam Memorial Wall in Troy, Ill.

It will be open to the public from Thursday, Oct. 20, at 5 p.m. (opening ceremony 5:45 p.m.) until Sunday, Oct. 23, at 1 p.m., on the grounds of the TCI Training Center.  It will be accessible 24 hours a day with online name locator resources, and a locator booth will be available daily between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The traveling wall is an 80% scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. It is 8′ tall, spans 360 ft. in length, and is the largest traveling tribute in the nation.

My friends in the Flagman’s Mission are placing American flags on the ground before the exhibit opens and will take them down Sunday. For more information or to volunteer, visit their Facebook page.

Joan Lipkin, 1989

On Stage: Reunion of first LGBTQ+ Theatre Performed in Missouri

One Night Only! Tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Missouri History Museum. It’s free.

Before there was Ellen or Will & Grace, there was “Some of My Best Friends Are,” the 1989 landmark production by Joan Lipkin and Tom Clear that was the first LGBTQ+ theatre done in Missouri.

It was also before marriage equality, the Missouri Sexual Misconduct Law was repealed or LGBTQ+ people could serve openly in the military. And in the midst of all this, the AIDS epidemic was raging.

Yet in the basement theatre of a United Church of Christ congregation, the St. Marcus on Russell, they put on a musical theatre revue that sold out every performance, attracted very diverse audiences and was voted Best Play of the Year by the Riverfront Times. By turns scathingly funny and poignant, it changed the cultural landscape in St Louis.

They will perform some of the original numbers and scenes. Members of the original cast expected to be on hand include Kate Durbin, Bill Ebbesmeyer, Terry Meddows, Steve Milloy, Mary Schnitzler, and Christy Simmons. Larry Pressgrove is music director, and Joan will emcee.

Happy Hour starts at 5:30 p.m. and the stage comes alive at 6:30 p.m., with songs, skits, and some reminiscing by both cast and audience.

Here’s a piece with Joan in St Louis Magazine:

https://www.stlmag.com/culture/theater/joan-lipkin-some-of-my-best-friends-are-missouri-history-museum/

Amy Schumer

TV: Inside Amy Schumer

Tonight is the Season 5 premiere of the comedian’s award-winning show (9 p.m. Comedy Central and Paramount +). There haven’t been new episodes since 2016. Tonight, Ellie Kemper, Olivia Munn and Jesse Williams are among the guest stars in this blend of sketch comedy,vignettes, stand-up and man-on-the-street interviews. Here’s the trailer:

https://youtu.be/9czJbkBKnoU

Playlist: Day-O!

In 1955, Harry Belafonte recorded “Day-O” (Banana Boat Song). This Jamaican folk song became his signature song, and is an example of popular calypso music at the time. It hwas been covered many times, and is featured in a very funny sequence in Tim Burton’s movie “Beetlejuice.”


On This Day in St. Louis

Eighteen years ago today, Jimmy Edmonds hit that 12th inning home run to put the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series for the first time since 1987!

What a shot! What a game!

Of course, we were then swept by the Boston Red Sox. Getting that postseason monkey off their back. But after ’04 we had some very good years, including World Series championships in 2006 and 2011.

#cardinalnation

Word: HUAC

On this date in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee began nine days of hearings into alleged Communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry.

“In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Pastor Martin Niemoller, Dachau, 1944

‘Some of My Best Friends Are’ Musical Reunion Set for Oct. 20

‘Some of My Best Friends Are’ Musical Reunion Set for Oct. 20

In what is sure to be a highlight of the St Louis cultural season, That Uppity Theatre Company in collaboration with the Missouri History Museum will present a free musical reunion of Joan Lipkin and Tom Clear’s “Some of My Best Friends Are…”[SOMBFA] on Thursday Oct 20, 2022, from 6:30-8:00 pm. The event is part of the Missouri History Museum’s Thursday Nights at the Museum series and the organization’s Gateway to Pride Initiative which seeks to collect and preserve St. Louis’s LGBTQ+ history. The initiative includes a digital exhibit which launched in 2021, and a major special exhibit on LGBTQ+ history opening in June 2024.

Enjoy a happy-hour, resource tables and activities beginning at 5:30 pm. There will be many organizations with community tabling, including Metro Trans Umbrella Group, PFLAG, Black Pride, Pride St. Louis, SQSH, and TransParent, and there will be performances by CHARIS and the Black Tulip Chorale. Light appetizers and drinks will be available for purchase until 7:00 pm, and the Missouri History Museum’s exhibits are open until 8:00 pm.

 ““Some of My Best Friends Are…”is a notable part of St. Louis LGBTQ+ history, is included in our Gateway to Pride digital exhibit and will certainly be incorporated into our major special exhibit on LGBTQ+ history opening in 2024,” said Sharon Smith, Curator of Civic and Personal Identity for the Missouri Historical Society, which operates the Missouri History Museum. “The Missouri History Museum is delighted to host this special program reuniting much of the original cast and crew of this theatrical work which was the first of its kind in Missouri.”

Hailed groundbreaking in 1989 as the first piece of LGBTQ+ theatre ever done in Missouri, SOMBFA sold out every performance at the St Marcus Theatre in St Louis and was voted Best Play of the Year by the Riverfront Times Readers Poll. 

A collaboration between composer and lyricist Tom Clear and playwright, director and producer Joan Lipkin, and subtitled: A Musical Revue for People of All Preferences, SOMFBA chronicled the saga of Frank and Sheila, a heterosexual couple trying to make their way through a bigoted gay world. It also featured other sketches and lauded musical numbers. 

“A lot of us were young rural Missourians – from towns like Willard, Poplar Bluff, Cooter, and Potosi – living in Cape Girardeau in the fall of 1989 when we heard about a hip new gay musical revue called “Some of My Best Friends Are…”,” said Rodney Wilson, retired Mehlville High School history teacher, longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ students and teachers, and founder of LGBTQ+ History Month USA. “I wasn’t out to many in October 1989 and our two hour caravan to Joan Lipkin’s splendid (and now historic) “Some of My Best Friends Are…”was my first experience with live queer culture. I’ll never forget how comfortable and safe I felt to be in a theater of mostly LGBTQ folks watching a stage of stories – funny, provocative, and poignant – about people like me.”

The reunion will bring together most of the original cast including Kate Durbin, Bill Ebbesmeyer, Terry Meddows, Steve Milloy, Mary Schnitzler, Christy Simmons and Jonas Moses. Many have described their time with the show as foundational for their professional careers and personal lives. 

Music director Larry Pressgrove is coming in from New York to direct the reunion which Joan Lipkin will emcee.

““Some of My Best Friends Are…” figures significantly in my career,” said Pressgrove. “Prior to SOMBFA, I had been working as music director and arranger at St. Louis’ Metro Theatre Company. This was my first test to see if the process I had developed would work on a bigger project.”

“In addition, I had only been out of the closet a few years,” said Pressgrove. “This would be my first time working on openly gay material that directly spoke about my life. I borrowed some of Joan’s confidence and dove into the project. It was life changing for me. It really increased my pride in myself as a gay man and showed me that Gay people needed to have our stories told. SOMBFA remains one of the favorite projects of my career because it was so connected to me personally and meant so much to the people who saw it.”

Since his work with SOMBFA, Pressgrove has served as a music director, conductor and orchestrator on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and national tours. He has composed, arranged, and worked as a vocal coach and educator in numerous award-winning productions and programs.

The original production of “Some of My Best Friends Are…”  was also the site of political and community organizing and is credited with helping to overturn Missouri’s Sexual Misconduct Law. 

The museum event will offer audience members the chance to ask questions and share their own memories.

“For many of us, “Friends” remains one of our pivotal cultural and personal experiences, despite going on to do a lot of other interesting and productive work,” said Lipkin. “We are grateful to the museum and thrilled to come together in this free offering as a gift to the community and a reminder of what is possible in challenging times.”

This event is made possible in part by funding from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, AARP and the Missouri History Museum.