Spencer Brown: “The Rose” Musical Update And More

Mister D: Well, I couldn’t miss this event, so I already got my tickets. If anybody else is interested, the production will be performed from July 24 thru August 11th. Tickets are general admission and can be bought HERE

To read the rest of Spencer’s blog: Click Here

Subject: “The Rose” Blog Update

Well this is the week is where the marketing campaign really kicks off. After the amazing photo shoot a few weeks ago, I went to California to do a few performances with the Kinsey Sicks. Afterwards, my boyfriend and I drove to Las Vegas where we went to see “The Showgirl Must Go On” for our birthdays. We saw it on Wednesday, June 24th just off to the right in the fourth row (right by the stairs where Bette comes down to play the ukelele!). Having seen it in March last year, it was great to see how the show has evolved and has become a much tighter production, a pro side when being a Vegas show. Somewhat of a downside for someone who longs for another epic show like “Kiss My Brass“. It’s safe to assume that my boyfriend and I were the only ones in the first ten rows under the age of thirty. My only complaint: last year when I saw it, Bette would go into “Glory of Love” during the Soph segment and then give a cute antecdote about Ernie passing away and old burlesque and about ‘finding your light -they can’t love ya if they can’t see ya.” That whole bit was gone. It went from Bette playing the first half of “The Glory of Love” on uke then the band joining her for the finish of it. So my main complaint isn’t with anything particular about Bette (it never would be!) -my main complaint is that they cut what I thought was a very good moment in the show!

After the show, my boyfriend and I purchased a few t-shirts only available inside the Colosseum and not in the boutique shop. I was sad to find that “The Rose” rocker t-shirt that they had last year has since been discontinued. Big bummer!!! So as we’re shopping, who pops right up in front of us but Kamilah Marshall and Shayna Steele! Brian and I probably looked completely stupified for a moment. Kamilah spoke first saying, “we just wanted to say how much fun it was watching you guys!” Apparently we were as entertaining to them as they were to us! So I then brought up that I had actually e-mailed both of them from their websites (courtesy of Bootleg Betty, ya know) that I was going to be at the Wednesday show fourth row and couldn’t wait and wished them break-a-legs. Once I said this, Shayna asked, “Are you Spencer?” and I thought this was just getting cooler by the second. Now one of them I messaged was through MySpace, and my MySpace is a publicity strategy for my drag character, Daisy, so I had to tell them I was also a drag queen. Shayna nudged Kamilah and said, “He’s the one who does drag!” And then they go into a story about when they were leaving the theatre, they saw a very tall man wearing women’s clothes (my guess is transgendered) leaving. They stopped him and asked if he was Spencer and in a low voice he said, “No, I’m Andrew.” Just the very idea of this had me laughing real good. So Kamilah said Jordan was outside of the shop waiting for them and we could meet her too if we wanted (uhm, duh! I dropped whatever I was going to buy and decided I’d go back later). We all got to talking -Shayna mentioned her new album will be out in September and available on iTunes and Kamilah mentioned that she’s looking at venues to tour with in the near future and asked me a little bit about Kansas City, which I think would be a great place for her to visit for a few nights of performing. Jordan asked if I went up to shake Bette’s hand at the end (Bette goes down the stage shaking everyone’s hand who goes up to stage). I told her I got closer but didn’t think it was right to push all the middle-aged women aside that I was surrounded by. I think maybe ten/fifteen minutes went by and Jordan had to go take care of her dog, so we got in a couple photos with them courtesy of my iPhone (I didn’t dare bring my camera to the Colosseum!).

I ended up buying the big program book (which they didn’t have yet when I went last year), a Delores DeLago handicap magnet, some postcards, two 4×6 Bette frames (for our pictures with the Harlettes of course!), and one of the giclee posters signed by Bette (I bought #83 of the 550 or so that are being sold…so there’s plenty still available!). Small note worth mentioning: the program book is beautiful, some of the photoshopped elements are done quite well, but the worst part is the filmography page. It only uses a few photos from all of her films and it has “That Old Feeling” listed as being released in 2000. It also completely omits the TV movie, “Gypsy” and most shocking is that it doesn’t include “The First Wives Club” on the list. Wtf!?

Yesterday, “The Rose” producer Chadwick Brooks, myself, and the photographer Dusti Cunningham met together to discuss the options for club flyers, sizes, how many, and which photos to use. Online ticket sales have already begun and I just did an interview for our local LGBT magazine, CAMP, which is running a cover story for their July issue coming out Wednesday or Thursday this week.

Our first read-through is Monday, July 6th. The entire cast will be joining to read the script together and we’ll also follow that by watching the film! So it’ll be quite a fun night and I’m very much looking forward to it!

Spence!

From CAMP KC:

The Rose opens July 24

Spencer Brown (a.k.a. Daisy Bucket) is elated about being able to star in what looks to be a great new musical involving some former Late Night Theatre talent. Here’s what Spencer sent me from his Facebook page:

“It’s quite common these days to see a musical based on a movie or a jukebox musical that recycles an entire catalogue of one artist’s music. The Rose: The 30th Anniversary Rock Musical, premiering at the end of July at La Esquina, is nothing of the sort. Based on the 1979 film that got Bette Midler her first Oscar nomination, the story of a Janis Joplin-like character whose success skyrockets and crashes is one that can still ring true with today’s society and celebrity gossip. Thirty years before Britney Spears would rise and fall and rise again and Amy Winehouse would be singing “no, no, no” to rehab, The Rose is an authentic rock musical unlike anything brought to the stage. Produced by Chadwick Brooks through the Urban Culture Project and directed by one of Kansas City’s most prestigious theatre personas, Ron Megee, this will be the hottest ticket of the summer that doesn’t involve ABBA or eating a meal while watching a former ’80s TV star do farce in a Neil Simon play. Right now, information can only be found through the Facebook Group “The Rose: The 30th Anniversary Rock Musical,” where the cast has been announced, including Spencer Brown as The Rose, David Wayne Reed as Rose’s manager Rudge, Kipp Simmons as Houston, and Cody Wyoming as the band leader.”

Kinsey Sicks debut in Kansas City

Spencer Brown’s other gig is the national Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, The Kinsey Sicks. That group will make its Kansas City debut Oct. 10 at the Country Club Congregational United Church of Christ in Brookside. This will be a must-see production, and tickets should sell out quickly when they go on sale in mid-July. For more information, see www.kinseysicks.com.