I know, I promised to write about seeing both Eartha Kitt and the Dalai Lama in the same weekend. After a few days, I suppose memories of the weekend have started to file themselves away in the deep recesses of my mind. It’s hard to remember why I thought I needed two articles, other than it just seemed that the experiences were so completely different from each other. I also was hoping that some amazing insight linking the two would manifest, but I think I can only force a connection — there doesn’t seem to be anything that has yet jumped out at me.
Part of it may be that returning home and telling people about the weekend kinda dampened my excitement. No one cares how amazing Earth Kitt was, or how moving it was to hear and be in the presence of the Dalai Lama and the other religious figures at the Emory summit. Pfft.
Anyway, here are my thoughts and memories of Earth Kitt: Something I heard over and over that night during intermission and after the concert was, “There’s no way she’s 80 years old!” She had a great figure, and showed off her legs with a red velvet dress “slit up to there.” Her voice was amazingly powerful. She sang and performed marvelously, interacting with the audience the entire time.
Honey bought four tickets, but didn’t realize they were front row, stage right. Our friends Mel and Emily joined us, and both ladies were thrilled. I was actually disappointed, because orchestras usually sound better a little further back, and the stage was just at eye level when sitting, so I was looking up somewhat for the whole show. That complaint lasted only moments, though.
Eartha started off with Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here”, which set a tone of perseverance and strength. She fully maintained her sulty sex kitten persona, especially when she had a young man on stage and fed him champagne in another number. Finally, she asked his age, to which he replied, “twenty eight.” “What a ridiculous age to be!” she countered.
The entire evening continued after the intermission with the ASO performing a big band medley of music from Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Lawrence Welk, and others. Now, you probably think, “Lawrence Welk? Ew!” Maybe I’m biased from liking big band music and standards from that era, but the music was wonderful. Eartha returned to the stage, this time in a green dress that was otherwise identical to the earlier one. She continued her powerful performance singing “C’est si bon” and interacting with the audience. At one point, she spoke French to an African-American man in the front row, who looked confused, so she switched to Spanish. Noting he still looked perplexed, she finally asked, “Ebonics?” which elicited a roar of laughter from the audience.
Finally, called back for an encore, she performed “Santa Baby”. The entire audience was fully enraptured by her at this point, including myself. The advantage of having front-row seats then became apparent. Starting at the opposite end of the stage, Eartha began shaking hands with the audience. Yes, the men were entranced and the women crying. Seriously. Each woman shook her hand, and each man kissed it. When she finally got to me, on the very end of the row, I just looked up, said, “Thank you so much,” and likewise kissed her tiny hand.
When honey got the tickets to see Eartha Kitt, it was because he is on a mission to see legendary performers while they’re still with us, spurred by having never seen Ray Charles before he died. Earlier in the year we saw B.B. King, who was wonderful. But Eartha Kitt was absolutely amazing. Of course, I profusely thanked him for this wonderful opportunity to see one of the greats. You’re the best, Honey!
(I guess I did have a lot to write about after all!)
