LAGPAC Endorsed Candidate Wins
Sixth District incumbent William Bowers won the special May 3rd run-off
election for the Sixth District Seat on the Orleans Parish School Board. Bowers
received 2,157 votes (57%) to Woody Koppel's 1,601 votes (43%) in a race which saw a turnout of only 10.5%.
Bowers, former chair of the New Orleans Human Rights Commission, was endorsed by LAGPAC in both the primary and run-off. Bowers had been appointed to fill the seat after the resignation of Rev. Harold Mayberry and will now serve for the remainder of Mayberry's term until the year 2000.
"William Bowers brings a fair and open mind to the School Board. He is sensitive to the needs of gay and lesbian citizens. We look forward to working with him on education issues which are important to all New Orleanians," said LAGPAC Co-chair Christopher Daigle. "In a race with such a small turnout, we believe our votes helped put Bowers over the top." Bowers had placed second, with 31 %, to Koppel in the primary, but overcame the deficit to win the run-off with strong community support.
"Miss Glamouresse" To Be Crowned May 23 at CAC
The Southern premiere of the
long-running Off-Broadway
musical comedy hit, Pageant, high-heels it into the Freeport MacMoRon Theater at the Contemporary Arts Center on May 23, however, you can see one of its two previews, May 21 or 22 when the Krewe of Petronius sponsors the two previews to this hysterically mad satire of beauty pageants.
And it's all there - the beauty, the glamour, big productions numbers, closetsful of evening gowns, bottomless pools of talent, inspirational moments as only spokes models can spout them, all-unrehearsed responses to "beauty hotline" crisis calls and girls, girls, girls who are really boys, boys, boys!
In fact, that's what makes Bill Russell, Frank Kelly and Robert Longbottom's Pageant play so well, said the New York critics-what "gives the burlesque a weird glow and cues some wonderfully precise writing and acting," waxed Time. John Simon, New York Magazine's acerbic critic called the show "funny without being too fey....consistently droll and often a hoot, where everyone involved does handsomely, which is arguably better than prettily." Said The New York Times: "Pageant's solution is as simple in theory as it is delicious in execution: you have the contestants played by men in drag and you make certain they do nothing they wouldn't do in the Miss America contest."
Of course they might not do exactly what the six pretty-in-their-own-way contestants for the coveted title of Miss Glamouresse do-pitch Glamouresse Smooth-as-Marble Facial Spackle, say, or, in the case of Miss Texas, Kitty-Bob Ames, plow through a dramatic recitation titled "I Am The Land" which opens portentously with "I am a handful of dirt." And they might not be carbon copies of Karma Quinn, the New-Aged Miss West Coast who lurches through an interpretive dance called "The Seven Ages of Me," or have people from the audience serve as judges, or an emcee quite like lounge lizard extraordinaire Frankie Cavalier. But they're close enough.
Pageant is being produced by All Kinds Of Theater, which has a veritable pageant of hit parodies to its credit (Where The Girls Were, Psycho Beach Party, The Mystery Of Irma Vepp, Forever Plaid, Women Behind Bars, the musicals Ruthless! and last summer's Class of 70something-a Big Easy Award winner).
Pageant planners include beauty specialists Michael Howard, musical director; Roy Haylock, costume designer; Martin Sachs, light designer; Jeffrey Talbot, sound designer, and Ben Bagby and Beverly Trask (along with Carl Walker), choreographers. Ron Williams is designing the lovely Glamouresse products, and James Cox (noted consultant to Miss Mississippi and a couple of Miss Americas) will serve as pageant coach.
The cast is: Miss Bible Belt (Ruth Ann Ruth), Douglas Park;; Miss Deep South (Laurinda Summerford), Brooks Braselman; Miss Great Plains (Bonnie Louise Cutlett), Russell Hodgkinson; Miss Industrial Northeast (Consuela Manuela Rafaella Lopez), Paul Soileau; Miss Texas (Kitty Bob Ames), Steven Sherman; Miss West Coast (Karma Quinn), Ken Weatherup; and, the Master of Ceremonies (Frankie Cavalier), Wess Hughes.
Shows are at 8 pm, Thurs. & Fri., and Sat. At 6 & 9, with a Sunday matinees at 3 pm.
Call 504.528.3800 for tickets. For tickets to the Krewe of Petronius-sponsored previews, call 504.525.4498.
