AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL

Just wanted to tell you about a great show I saw last Tuesday at the Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island.

Actually I saw two great shows at Surflight.   On Sunday afternoon I saw the last performance of ALL HANDS ON DECK, a review of WW2-era music patterned after a USO radio broadcast, and on Tuesday afternoon I saw the first performance of AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL: “THANK YOU VERY MUCH”, a one-woman show about, well, Lucille Ball, presented as one of the Q+A evenings that Ms Ball did in the mid-70s.

The LUCY show starred Suzanne LaRusch and was written by Ms LaRusch and Lucie Arnaz and directed by Lucie Arnaz.  It also featured the recorded voices of various related parties as the question-askers. 

We were fortunate that Lucie Arnaz (whom I had seen twice on Broadway with Robert Klein in THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG) was in the area for a concert and was at the performance.  After the show she and Suzanne did their own Q+A with the audience.

I had also seen Lucille Ball on Broadway in WILDCAT as a child.

The show was great – you actually thought you were watching Lucy on stage.  She talked about her life as a model in NYC, told some “behind the scenes” tales about I LOVE LUCY, and admitted that Desi Arnaz was the love of her life.

AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL will be at Surflight through October 16 – so there is still time to get tickets.

TTFN