I
fell in love with Donna McKechnie one snowy  winter night in 1968 when I
saw her in "Promises, Promises" but it was in "a Chorus Line" with her
commanding the stage in the solo "Music and the Mirror" (see the video
below) for 8+ minutes singing, dancing and acting as Cassie that I fell
IN LOVE with her. On Thursday, while reading posts on
talkinbroadway/allthatchat, I came across a comment that McKechnie was
going to be in Malapan, Florida. It appears that new owners were taking
over the Florida Stage Theatre, calling it The Plaza, and were reopening
it with Donna's one woman show "My Musical Comedy Life".

"Donna McKechnie (born November 16, 1940)is an American musical theater dancer , singer , actress , and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett , with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, "Cassie" from the musical A Chorus Line , for which she earned the Tony Award for BestActress in a Musical in 1976. She is also known for playing Amanda Harris/Olivia Corey on the Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows from 1969 to 1970. " From wikipedia.

It
took me more than 24 hours but I was finally able to track down where
to order the tickets--the theatre web site isn't up yet, the stories on
the theatre had 3 wrong telephone numbers but I wasn't about to give up!
Now I have tickets for February 18, 7:30 PM--second row, aisle
seats--included in the price is a master class on musical comedy theatre
Ms. McKechnie will be leading in the afternoon and there will be a long
enough break to have a bite at the Old Key Lime House which is the
oldest restaurant in South Florida.

This
wasn't part of the plan for my 19th Leap Year birthday but this
certainly is the icing on the cake if not the cake itself!! I'm a lucky
guy! Now all I have to do is to remember to act as a dignified 76 year
old man and not a 19 year old love sick puppy!

Following
is an old video tape of Donna McKechie doing "The Music and the
Mirror"--this was after a severe battle with arthritis when she was told
she would never dance again and at the age of 48, 13 years after she
first did it---I really did, and still do, identify with this song as
done by her.