- Ambush Mag · PDF filesheet and let rise double in size. Bake bread until golden brown about...

SouthernDecadence.COM • GayMardiGras.COM • GayEasterParade.COM • Apr. 10-23, 2007 • SouthernDecadence.COM • GayMardiGras.COM • GayEasterParade.COM • Apr. 10-23, 2007 • SouthernDecadence.COM • GayMardiGras.COM • GayEasterParade.COM • Apr. 10-23, 2007 • SouthernDecadence.COM • GayMardiGras.COM • GayEasterParade.COM • Apr. 10-23, 2007 • SouthernDecadence.COM • GayMardiGras.COM • GayEasterParade.COM • Apr. 10-23, 2007 • AmbushMag.COM • MAIN~21 of 56MAIN~21 of 56MAIN~21 of 56MAIN~21 of 56MAIN~21 of 56

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tomato paste, and diced tomatoes. Bringto a boil, reduce heat and simmer aboutfifteen minutes for the flavors to blend. Addthe shrimp and simmer until they arecooked and turn opaque, about three min-utes. Stir in basil and seasoning to tastewith salt and pepper. Yields: 6 servings

COUNTRY CASSOULET1 pound dry navy, great Northern or

cannelloni beans1 ½ pound lamb stew meat, cut into 1

inch cubes1 large onion, cut into chunks6 garlic cloves, minced1 tablespoon olive oil4 cups chicken broth2 cups dry white wine

3 bay leaves4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces6 ounces celery root, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces2 stalks celery ribs, cut into 1 inch pieces1 ½ teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed½ teaspoon kosher salt¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Rinse and sort beans. In a four quart Dutch oven pot combinebeans and eight cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer forfive minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for one hour.Drain; rinse in colander. In the same pot, brown meat cubes, half ata time, with the onion and garlic in hot oil. Drain off fat. Add drainedbeans, broth, wine and bay leaves to meat. Bring to a boil; reduceheat and simmer covered for one hour, stirring occasionally. Discardbay leaves. Stir in remaining ingredients. Return to boil; reduce heatsimmer thirty minutes longer until beans are nearly tender. Uncoverand boil gently until beans are tender and liquid has thickened,another thirty minutes. Yield: 6 servings

FRENCH HERB BREAD1 tablespoon active dry yeast2 tablespoons white sugar1 teaspoon salt3 ½ cups all-purpose flour1 cup milk1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar¼ cup water¼ cup margarine½ cup minced onion1 clove garlic, minced½ teaspoon salt1 tablespoon parsley, minced2 tablespoons margarineIn a large bowl combine the yeast, sugar, 1 teaspoon of

the salt and ½ cup flour. In a sauce pan combine the milk,water and ¼ cup margarine and heat to 110 degrees. Addmilk mixture and vinegar to the flour mixture and blend on lowspeed of mixer until moistened. Beat at medium speed forthree minutes. Stir in 1 ½ cups additional flour to form a stickydough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and kneadadding ½ to 1 cup more of flour until dough is smooth andpliable. Place dough in greased bowl and let rise in a warmplace until doubled in volume. Punch down dough and rollinto a rectangle shape about 16 x 8 inches. In a saucepanheat the onion, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoonsmargarine until margarine is melted. Spread over the breadrectangle and starting from the sixteen inch side roll thedough up tightly like a jelly roll. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Place the bread seam side down onto a greased cookiesheet and let rise double in size. Bake bread until goldenbrown about thirty minutes. Brush hot bread with meltedbutter and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Yield 12 servings.

SILK CHOCOLATE PIE2 cups butter1 ½ cups white sugar4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened baking chocolate2 teaspoons vanilla4 eggs1 (9 inch) pie shell, bakedIn the top of a double boiler, heat chocolate, stirring

occasionally, until melted and smooth. Remove from heatand allow to cool to lukewarm. In a large bowl, creamtogether butter and sugar until pale yellow and very fluffy.Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. With an electric mixeron medium speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, taking fiveminutes for each egg. Pour filling into baked pie shell.Refrigerate four hours before serving. Garnish with whippedcream.

Until next time, try a little French in the kitchen, it’ll reallyliven up that last meal of the day.

You may contact me via this publication.

cookin' with auntie dee...from M-18

on the boardsALL MY SONS. 3rd Floor Drama Hall, Isaac Delgado

Hall, Delgado Community College/City Park Campus, Or-leans Avenue, 483.7258 — Delgado’s Theatre Club per-forms Arthur Miller’s dramatic play about family, compromiseand responsibility. Kris La Morte directs Andy Galbiati, TaraSmith, Brian Rosenthal and others. Tickets $10, $5 students/Delgado staff/faculty. 8pm Wednesday-Saturday, 3pm Sun-day. Through April 15.

BIG EASY THEATER AWARDS. Harrah’s Theatre,483.3129 — Annual gala saluting the best in New Orleans’theater. Hosted by Sean Patterson & Gary Rucker and featur-ing live performances from nominated shows. Tickets $125include open bar, dinner buffet and After Party in The Masquer-ade Lounge. 7pm Monday, April 16.

COCKTAIL. Reilly Theatre, LSU, Baton Rouge,225.578.3527 — Swine Palace and the LSU Performing ArtsSeries in association with Obie Award-winning Ping Chongand Company present the true story of Thai pharmaceuticalscientist Krisana Kraisintu who in 1995 began manufactur-ing a generic version of the anti-HIV drug AZT. In spite of thelegal challenges, she was able to save the lives of thousands

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trodding the boards

by Brian Sands E-mail: [email protected]

From Broadway with Love!at Le Chat Noir

“Just” can mean “merely” or “only”or “precisely” or “exactly” but as Iexited Le Chat Noir recently think-

ing that From Broadway with Love! was“just wonderful,” I was using “just” as anintensive meaning the show was morewonderful than just, er, merely wonderfulin a way that leaves you smiling ear to ear,a way words can hardly express.

Hosted by nine time Tony Award-win-ner Tommy Tune, From Broadway withLove! paired theater/cabaret stars LizCallaway and Jason Graae in a series ofduets and solo turns. Friends of 20+ years,they shared an easy camaraderie andappeared to really enjoy each other’s com-pany whether in the relationship-definingBackstage Broadway Buddy medley ortrying to top each other in Annie Get YourGun’s Anything You Can Do which in-cluded a reference to a rat, $90,000 and acertain congressman.

Callaway brought a crystal clear voiceand a winning personality to Cy Coleman/Barbara Fried’s You There in the BackRow, Stephen Schwartz’ Meadowlark andMemory which she sang for a number ofyears on Broadway as Grizabella in Cats—not a bad gig for a working mother whocould hang out with her young daughter inher dressing room when not on stage.Callaway also gave a bluesy spin to I Gotthe Sun in the Morning.

Graae, endearingly described as “apiece of work” by Tune, played the classclown in But Alive from the Tony-winningApplause and his impersonations of vari-ous singers, including Mandy Patinkinand Harry Connick, Jr., doing that show’stitle number were priceless. And only afirst class performer like Graae could doEvita’s I’d Be Good For You as a third rateperformer would and pull it off so well. Thislast number featured a fun, cheeky cameoby New Orleans’ own Bryan Batt who re-turned later in the program with a passion-ate Do You Know What It Means To MissNew Orleans?

Retelling his tale of how he becamethe voice of the Lucky Charm leprechaunand doing other shtik, Graae seemedfunnier than at his last NOLA appearanceat the Blue Room. Whether because ofsuperior material this time or that theintimacy of Le Chat suited him better thanthe vastness of the late, lamentedFairmount venue or a combination of both,I’m not sure, but he had me in stitches.

As for Mr. Tune, pre-show publicityhad led me to believe that he would sharethe performance duties equally with hiscompadres so I was a bit disappointed todiscover upon arrival that he would merelybe hosting the evening with appearancesat its beginning and end. Yet Tune’s natu-ral charm and commitment to the rebuild-ing of New Orleans more than made up forhis brief time on stage. And when, at theend, he tore into Nowadays from Chicagowith a pro’s panache, dancing around LeChat’s tiny stage in red-glittered tap showsand moving his rubbery limbs as stylishly

as Astaire, it was the absolute highlight ofan evening consisting of nothing but peaks.

Although From Broadway with Love!,a benefit for the CACNO Performing ArtistsFund, ran a full 90 minutes, it felt more like10 as time often seems to stand still whenone delights in something immeasur-ably. There’s talk that Callaway and Graaemay be back with shows of their own. If so,go, just go.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!A Concert Celebrationat Jefferson PerformingArts Center

If you’re not a fan of The Beatles,please skip to the next review. If youare and saw YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

during its world premiere at JPAS, I hopeI do it justice. And if you are but you didn’t,you missed a goodie.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! A Concert Cel-ebration is just that. No book, no plot, justsong after glorious song from the greatestband of the 20th century. With such simplebut bursting-with-life lyrics as “I Want toHold Your Hand” or “Love, Love Me Do”,matched by timeless melodies, TheBeatles created a body of work that justi-fiably stands beside German lieder,French chansons, or any other of the mostexpressive song styles ever produced.

For YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!, the PreFab4 ran through 35+ of the Beatles’ worksand just kept getting better as they wentalong. The evening was shaped, in part,by audience members who filled out re-quest cards before the show and gavereasons why they wanted to hear a par-ticular song. These were read by a bandmember before that song was played.Reasons ranged from “I heard it on my firstdate/during my first kiss/as I conceived mychild.” to a young girl’s “Because I’m on adate with my Daddy.”

The performance got off to a some-what tentative start with undistinguishedrenditions of Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band andHello, Goodbye; the audience’s tepid re-sponse was understandable. But then,from Love Me Do all the way to Hey Judeand an encore of I Saw Her StandingThere things tightened up, the band tore

into each song with gusto and the stand-ing ovation at the end was one of the fewI’ve seen in a long time that was thor-oughly warranted.

The PreFab 4 (the name comes froma tongue in cheek back story in the pro-gram that’s more distracting than humor-ous) don’t slavishly try to recreate TheBeatles’ sound (who could?), giving aslightly new, perfectly acceptable spin tosome songs (for example, Yellow Sub-marine) but basically offering no radicalreinterpretations, just the classic arrange-ments and incredible harmonies. Look-ing like any suburban oldies cover band inAct One, they return for Act Two in modish1960s style suits. If they don’t strive foranything more than an easy humor, that isentirely sufficient.

I much preferred lead singer BillyMcGuigan in his Paul McCartney moderather than his Buddy Holly seen in lastyear’s Buddy. Without his strong voiceand infectious personality, YEAH, YEAH,YEAH! could easily have been EH, EH,EH! Though he has a tendency to try tosteal the spotlight when it’s not on him, hewas graciously willing to share the stagewith 10 year old Christian, winner of aschool talent contest and no doubt futurestar, for the first act’s Twist and Shoutfinale.

Matt Hinkley provided some blazingguitar solos and did a fine job when takinglead vocal on a few songs. Cute andbarefoot, Anthony Rand not only drummedwith sizzling alacrity but played and perchedon a colorful string bass. MatthewMcGuigan on bass displayed the leastdefined personality—maybe he’s “thequiet one”—but certainly held up his endof the musical equation.

Vast credit must be given to MusicalDirector Rick Avard for achieving such anhigh overall level of musicianship. JayIngraham contributed potently to thesound layering on percussion and a vari-ety of saxophones.

Of the 37 songs, I was unfamiliar withonly one You Can’t Do That; I wouldn’t’veminded if they had played a few more of therarer ones. Or Paperback Writer, EleanorRigby, Nowhere Man, Lady Madonna, OldBrown Shoe, Chains, etc., etc. I guess if Iwant to hear those I’ll just have to seeYEAH, YEAH, YEAH! again and fill outlots of request cards before the show.

Imaginayaat Beau Rivage Theatre

In Beau Rivage’s newest extravaganza, Imaginaya, Russian circus acts alternate with dance num-

bers featuring 24 sexy Russian dancers.If this was a roulette wheel and the formerwere “red” and the latter were “black”, Iwould bet solely on the “red.”

Though the circus acts are as up-to-date as one could ask for what with bungeejumping and black lights, they’re servedup straight with none of Cirque du Soleil’sNew Age-y trappings. The magnificent tra-peze artists inspire a “WOW” response,the bungee-ing aerialists convey a won-derful sense of freedom and the acrobatichigh-flying girl in/on the hula hoop-likering is simply spectacular.

Best of all were the two muscle bearswho balanced a four inch wide pliant plankon their shoulders so pretty SvetlanaGvodetskaya could bounce on it and pro-pel herself into the air where she didOlympic-quality pikes & somersaults andthen land back on the plank. On both feet.Amazing.

The Russian clowning tradition waswell-represented by Ruslan Legostaev &Vitaly Makovskkiy who warmed up theaudience with captivating humor and ex-ceptional skills such as balancing an opennewspaper on their noses. ElenaMarhakhina & Irek Ibatulin, displaying aslyer sense of humor (“refined slapstick”,perhaps), also used a good-natured au-dience member to stunning effect.

In a class by itself was VladimirZhuravsky’s outstanding slinky dance actthat must require a terribly high level ofexpertise that its colorfully comic naturemasks.

As for the dance segments, thoughtheir choreographer is, according to thepress release, “the most respected andsought-after one in Russia,” they lookedlike a cross between Pilobolus and aJanet Jackson video. Or the White Ballwhen voguing was still in fashion. Or,accompanied by outfits leftover from pro-ductions of Cabaret and Chicago, like aterpsichorean interpretation of a fascistparade. At least the cheesy Vegas-styleflamenco number featured the sculptedbare chests of the six danseurs. I wonderif Maksim or Pavel or Andrey might like tostay and help repopulate New Orleans?

Dining at Todd English’s Olives res-taurant, which opened at the Beau Rivagein December, was a similarly split experi-ence. The food, including crab & andouilleflatbread, sweet potato gnocchi with duckragu & gorgonzola cream, and a huge spitroasted double cut pork chop with pearmustarda glaze, bacon & Dijon mustardpolenta, was all delicious. Service, how-ever, was a little spotty with water glassesgoing unfilled for too long, tasty bread thatran out, and a haphazard serving style thatmade one appreciate all the more themeticulous and coordinated way dishesare set down at, say, NOLA.

Still, all in all, odds are better thaneven that you’ll have a very nice time atBeau Rivage these days.

Trumpets & Raspberries atTulane University

Way back when in London, Isaw a production of DarioFo’s Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay

starring a young, pre-Spiderman AlfredMolina. I recall snoozing, perhaps be-cause of jet lag, through Act One of thisfarce about housewives looting a super-market to combat higher prices and then,

[continued on Main-26]Matt Hinkley, Matthew McGuigan, Anthony Rand and Billy McGuiganin YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

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