Sexy, sultry and still very much sassy was an ever glowing presence of the queen of lusciously lascivious kitten purrs, Eartha Kitt, as she captured and maintained the audiences’ imagination with her role of Madame Vallet in Dianna Hansen Young’s Mimi le Duck.
Previewing now at the New Stages Theater until Nov.5th, this grand theatrical experience should be a great success when the curtain rises for opening night on Nov. 6th.
A splendid fairytale musical with a heartfelt storyline, takes a mid forties women, fed up with painting duck portraits for QVC, while donning her rather dry witted, accountant husband’s brown socks, grinding out the boring life in Ketchum, Idaho, on a wild, I don’t give a damn trip to Paris in order to find the self that was lost years ago. 
Coerced through the constant egging on by the ghost of Earnest Hemmingway, Miriam (Annie Golden), fabulous singer (BTW), garners the gumption to take off for her destiny leaving, hubby “boring brown socks” and their sons behind.
Making her way initially is expectedly rough, as this sheltered from the world housewife, suddenly facing pick pocket rouges, a cross-dressing, oyster shucking, detective wannabe and a confused fledgling artist deals with expanding her own comfort zone, while getting sage advice from the ever worldly Madame Valett on what it takes to recognize, snare and hold on to true love.
Ms. Hansen-Young writes beautifully, with full, rich, well developed characters that made each, interesting and compelling in their own right. Ms. Hansen-Young work was more than ably supported by Brian Feinstein’s music. I can still hear the catchy tune, “My Mother Always Said” at this writing.
Generally, I don’t give enough consideration to costuming, lighting, props and scene design, being the tough, write on the fly, the fewer words are always enough type a guy that I am, but all elements were noticeably present here, and in a big lavish way.
Yeah, you guessed it, this is a must see.
Lee “The Cool Guy” !
Here is what you need to know:
The Theater
New World Stages
340 W. 50th Street
NYC NY
The Previews
October 11 – November 5, 2006
Opening
November 6, 2006
The Shows
Mon, Wed – Sat at 8pm; Sat at 2pm; Sun at 3pm, 7pm
The Price
$45 – $70
The Number
212-239-6200
The Cast
Candy Buckley (Great Presence), Robert DuSold, (A very funny Ms. Marple wannabe) Allen Fitzpatrick, Annie Golden, (A lovely Voice) Ken Jennings, (A real scene stealer) Marcus Neville, Eartha Kitt (Any words would be insufficient), Tom Aldredge (Awesome Actor)
The Writer
Diana Hansen-Young
The Music Guy
Brian Feinstein
The Director
Thomas Caruso
The Set Guy
John Arnone
The Lights
David Lander
The Costumer
Ann Hould-Ward
The Orchestration Guy
Chris Fenwick
