I remember this production well. And not because it was the first - and only - time I was a featured dancer in a musical [I hadn't taken any formal dance lessons since 1st grade. But Fatima was a comic character - I could get away with not being the best-trained dancer in the company]. I got to play the finger cymbals... wow. Our choreographer was Roger Rabey.
My memory of this production remains strong because of
the second night of performance. Good timing and an improvised tilt of the head in my solo dance prompted an unexpected wave of laughter in the audience... for a few moments time stopped... I felt that all the people in the auditorium and I were one - melded into a single entity with the universe - a transcendental experience, I guess. Strange, rare, crazy, wonderful, brief. Difficult to describe, impossible to forget.
In the photo is the wonderful comedy actor Leslie Sarnoff... as a lusty wizard, I believe. I'm next to him, mid-stage. Other members of the harem, from left to right: Bethea Stewart, Julie Ruhland and Kristin Rudrud.
