My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Kander and Ebb Files -- Kiss of the Spider Woman

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN was a part of my life for months before I came to live in New York. I saw the performance on the Tony Awards that year and became enamoured of the show, deliciously so. A few months later, I arrived in New York and joined my husband, who had come here before me to set us up in our new digs. Well; those digs weren’t ready for us and I had to sleep on the floor of a friend’s place, after putting all our things in storage. I had one outfit (shorts, a shirt and THE sweater) and my camera. I was horribly depressed and lonely (Pat was working a LOT to pay for our life). One day, saddened by my sadness, Pat gave me a hundred dollars and said ‘go see a Broadway show today’.

I saw Kiss of the Spider Woman.

I wasn’t sad again for a long time.

I saw Chita Rivera. I don’t remember who was playing the men – all I know is I saw Chita; and I saw Spider Woman; and I was happy.

The entire OBC of this extraordinary play is in my Ipod and I play it all the time. It makes me happy.

Awhile later, in a flurry of publicity ecstasy, Vanessa Williams replaced Chita as The Spider Woman and revitalized the show. My friends wanted to see it and we went and even though Vanessa Williams is not Chita Rivera, she IS Vanessa Williams. She brought an entirely individual spin to the play and the character and audiences were loving it. So the producers decided to re record the show. I’m not sure if this is the first time that kind of thing happened (I think it was) but since I am an ardent admirer of Miss Williams, I bought that cd. I prefer Brent Carver to Howard McGillan and even though Brian Stokes Mitchell has THE THE THE male voice of his generation on Broadway, I also preferred the more rough-hewn vocals of Anthony Crivello. Nevertheless, it is Vanessa Williams, who is not belty like Chita but who sings like some kind of rich desert like crème bule or chocolate fondue or apricot Bavarian crème, so I have all of her tracks from the re recording in my Ipod too.

Here’s what I hate: there is a number in the show (called COME) that the Spider Woman does while a prisoner is being killed. It isn’t on either of these cds. Why? Why, I’d like to know. Why, why, why? Well. At least it is on my video bootleg and I can, from time to time, pop that in and watch Chita do that number – the number where I said, sitting in the Broadhurst Theater, “THAT’s the moment when she won the Tony.”

On a personal note… I have a glass statue of the Spider Woman in my living room. I inherited it from a friend. Chita Rivera had one made for each of the cast members for Christmas (I have been told). It is one of my proudest possessions.