Divamensch

Richard and I saw *Down To Eartha* on Feb 25, 2022 at the Gene Frankel Theatre. It's a one-woman show about Eartha Kitt, written by and starring Dierdra McDowell. This show was clearly engineered with me in mind, I'm a huge fan of Miss Kitt from way back and was lucky enough to have seen her perform four or five times. I even had a mind-blowing interaction with her backstage at one of her performances.

 

Here's a description of the show from their website: "In 1968 while at the height of her career as a world renowned entertainer, Eartha Kitt was also working as one of the main lobbyists for a group of young activists called the Rebels With A Cause. During this time, Miss Kitt was then invited to the White House by Lady Bird Johnson to partake in a women's luncheon to discuss the issue of the rising crime rates in America. At the luncheon however, when Eartha stood up and expressed her views, stating that the increase in crime was mostly due to Americas involvement in the Vietnam War, Lady Bird Johnson was personally insulted by the comment and shortly after, by order of President Lyndon Johnson, Eartha Kitt was blacklisted from work in the United States for the following 10 years!"

 

The show opened with a film of McDowell performing Kitt's first famous number, "Monotonous." Here she is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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