The Right Trousers

[desperance]

Gail and I had a fab time tonight at "The Girl I Left Behind Me", mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker and pianist David Knotts paying tribute to the long history of trouser-roles in musical theatre. Flashes of Rosenkavalier and Cherubino, but mostly the classic music-hall numbers interspersed with narrative about the stars. The show was a leetle over-produced for my taste, every word and gesture punctilious and posed - and he is way too formally trained to understand blues piano (Gail said it sounded like a translation, which was exact) - but it was a delightful evening. And! I did not know that Annie Hindle married her dresser, Annie Ryan. In 1886, people! (She signed the register as "Charles", and ruined her career thereby, but they stayed together.) Was this common practice at the time, or is it a contender for America's first gay marriage? [Let's not dwell on how unfar we've come since then, 'k?]