Let’s chat

Taking your questions, and keeping a long overdue promise…

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

The other day, my dog Simone tapped me on the shoulder. It’s one of her signature moves. She whispered in my ear. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” She pulled out her phone. (We didn’t give her one until she was a teenager and now she’s always making TikTok dances - especially ones involving shoulder taps - but that’s a different story.) Anyway, she pulled up my first substack post from back in August and scrolled to the bottom, where I had written:

I imagine you have some questions for me, so I’ll plan to do a live Q&A in the coming days. Keep an eye out for details on that.

If you’ve been keeping an eye out, your eyes must be very tired by now. Sorry about that. Nearly seven months later, I’m finally doing my first subscriber chat! The live Q&A will be tomorrow, Tuesday March 10th, from 2-3 PM ET / 11-noon PT.

I’m still figuring out the mechanics of this platform, so apologies if this is the second notification you’ve received. As I understand it, you can post your questions any time here to get the ball rolling, then we can have our discussion in real time tomorrow:

I believe you have to be a subscriber to join the chat, but good news - it’s free to subscribe! My intention has always been to use Substack as a place to build community and keep people in the loop on what I’m doing and thinking about now that I’m no longer on the air five days a week, so I don’t want any barriers to entry.

There is so much that we could talk about - from what’s happening in the news to NPR to Pink Martini to gardening. I’m looking forward to hearing about what’s on your mind! And thanks to Simone for reminding me to keep this long overdue promise. (Bruce, meanwhile, was loudly snoring. No help at all.)

I try to respond to comments on every post, so if you reply here I’ll see it and possibly quote it in the chat tomorrow - but I hope you’ll join us over there for the Q&A too. Talk to you soon!

---

Extra! Extra! Extra!

Pal Joey is one of those old musicals where people are much more likely to know the songs than the show itself. “I Could Write a Book,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” and other classics from the American songbook were in the original 1940 Broadway production. Later revivals added even more familiar tunes, like “The Lady is a Tramp.”

Gene Kelly created the title role on Broadway, and the 1957 movie starred Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Now Arena Stage here in Washington has a wholly reimagined version of the show, called Chez Joey. It stars Myles Frost, who won the Tony for MJ: The Musical. I saw it last week and there was not a weak link on stage, but to my mind the real star was co-director and choreographer Savion Glover, who brought the entire production to life.

Arena Stage has recently had a run of shows with Broadway aspirations. Over the last year they staged an adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time with gorgeous music by Heather Christian, and there was a vibrant reimagining of the 1955 musical Damn Yankees! I enjoyed both of those for different reasons, but after Chez Joey I texted friends in other cities to tell them to come to DC and see it immediately. I also told them it’s ok if they don’t catch it here in Washington, because this show is clearly on a fast track to becoming a Broadway hit.

Thanks as always for reading! Feel free to share this with anyone who you think might be interested, and I’ll look forward to talking with you tomorrow.