Kate Baldwin or else!

SarahB threatened that I better see Kate Baldwin when she performed at the Kennedy Center or else! Then I found out she was performing on the Millenium Stage which meant it was free. Count me in! That was before Snowmageddon 2010 reared its ugly head.

It was day four of trudging back and forth through the snow between my house and my friend's to walk her dogs while she was out of town. It was 4:00 and the dogs needed their afternoon walk and the metro was not running up to par. I decided not to go. But then I thought about it. I needed to get off the Hill and venture out of the five block radius in which I had been contained. So I dashed over to Dustin's house to walk the pups and marched through the snow to the metro. The metro gods smiled upon me and I only waited five minutes for a train.

It was my normal 40-minute commute from doorstep to Kennedy Center and I even had enough time to run upstairs to catch the snowscape from the terrace. The Millenium Stage was going to be featuring a week-long series entitled "Broadway Today and Tomorrow." It was a very cabaret-ish setup with little round tables and chairs instead of the usual rows of folding chairs. I took a seat at an empty table at the front left. I was impressed with the turnout on such a miserable day. An older lady tried to sit at a table next to me where a woman sat alone. I think I heard the younger lady say "reserved" so I told the older lady to come sit next to me (even though there were several other empty chairs). She was very unkempt and I attributed it to the weather and hat hair. She was very chatty....but she kept falling asleep during the program. But I digress.

Our evening of "Broadway Today and Tomorrow" featured the works of Peter Mills with the lovely Kate Baldwin and Matt Cavenaugh singing. It was a mixture of solos and duets - some funny and others poignant and sincere. Cavanaugh had a pretty good voice, but it definitely had that Broadway sound to it. Which I guess is a good thing since he's singing Broadway tunes. Kate Baldwin just had a flat out great voice. It was like a ray of sunshine in a hopelessly dreary day. She was so upbeat and perky when the song called for it, yet so touching and heartfelt when needed. My favorite song she sang was from Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge. It was just stunning! And she managed to put a slight country twang to it without sounding hoakey. After several other songs Matt and Kate finished with a duet about a missed connection. On the surface it was pretty funny because he is talking about a bad connection on the phone. Yet it's a bit sad because she's discussing a bad connection in the relationship. I don't think it ends well..

When the show was over, I was about to leave. But I lingered long enough to see Kate and the others come out into the audience. I decided that I couldn't trudge all this way through snowbanks and slush puddles without telling Kate that Sarah sent me. So I said "Hello!" and thanked her for coming despite the weather. Kate was a super lovely person and very engaging. She asked how I met Sarah (the bloggosphere) and then said how she owed her career to Sarah's blog. I wished her safe travels back to New York and went on my way - a bit happier and a little less cabin feverished.

On the ride home, I sat next to this older gentleman who also atteneded the show and raved about Kate (he saw her in Finnian's Rainbow). He was a doctor who also sang in an opera chorus in Colorado. He had great stories to tell - one about how he gave a check-up to Marta Domingo and that Placido always recognized him as "The Doc" from there on out.

Despite the long commute home, it was great to get out of the house. I give major props to Kate, Matt and Peter for making the trek down to DC in the terrible weather. It certainly was a nice boost to take into the next snow storm we were about to get kicked with.

If you missed the Millenium Stage performance featuring Peter with Kate and Matt, then you can catch it here in its entirety. You better watch it. Or else I'll have SarahB hounding you!