| My high school in suburban Chicago did it my junior year--one of our drama teachers loved to do small musicals and off-beat shows (I was in his production of Little Mary Sunshine the year before and he did The Boy Friend twice in six or seven years, as well as the non-musical Mrs. McThing, in which I played the chef). Our Lady Bracknell was played by an exchange student from Australia (that was luck!) and our Cecily was played by s rising sophomore named Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. We all went to all four performances, simply to hear her soaring soprano on "A Wicked Man"! (I was in the other mainstage show, Arsenic and Old Lace at the time--we did two mainstage shows a semester, those were the days of city funding for the arts in public schools--essaying the role of Teddy, the most fun ever.) But MEM's Cecily remains indelible and when the recording of the original Off-Bdwy production, with Louis Edmonds, best-known from soap operas, was released, I bought it immediately. |
