It's every actor's nightmare. You're in front an audience and you go up (as the lingo has it) on your lines -- you can't remember anything. Even plenty of non-performers have had those nightmares -- you're in front of an audience and then all of a sudden -- well, fill in the blank.
This video of the talented, consummate pro Leslie Uggams is hilarious because she forgets every single word when performing "June is Bustin' Out All Over" except the title itself. As the band plays on, she's forced to scanning gibberish into Richard Rodgers' bouncy melody.
But! Pro that she is, she gets through it, hitting every big note with her expansive voice, and we bet plenty of the people in the audience never realized a thing was amiss. As a theater friend of ours said with genuine feeling after watching the video, "the woman's a genius."
written on Tuesday Jan 15, 2008
bustin' out all over.
