Theatre Intelligence
Shades of ‘Saturday Night Live’ in Great Barrington on Saturday Night
Contrary to conventional wisdom, you cannot find everything on YouTube. For instance, you can’t find any skits from the early, golden years of Saturday Night Live when “Weekend Update” was co-anchored by Jane Curtin from 1976 - 1980 (while Tina Fey, who co-anchored Weekend Update from 2000 - 2006, was still in elementary school.) You can find some SNL videos on hulu.com, and you can see clearly that if the great, late Gilda Radner was the 1970s Lucille Ball then Jane Curtin was her Vivian Vance. Curtin, of course, has had an enviable and long career, winning two Emmys for Kate & Allie (as well as two Emmy nominations during her SNL days).
Now, Curtin, who lives in northwestern Connecticut, has teamed up with a seemingly unlikely partner, Isaiah Sheffer who hosts NPR’s Selected Shorts, to do satirical political skits and songs in an evening entitled At Last—An Election! at the Mahaiwe after a sold-out run at Symphony Space in New York. “Jane does a number called ‘Cindy McCain in Heaven’ to the tune of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’,” says Sheffer. “We also do a skit together where she’s Sarah Palin and I’m Henry Kissinger giving her a lesson on geopolitics. There are other numbers like “Between Barack and A Hard Place” and we’ll have Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston sing Paul Anka’s “Having Our Baby”. Our finale is a farewell to George Bush set to the Beatles’ “It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night” with the lyrics, “When he’s gone, everything’s gonna be right.”
So this Saturday night, you can see Jane Curtin do her Sarah Palin live show and be home in plenty of time to watch Tina Fey do her Sarah Palin on SNL one last time before Election Day.
Thalia Follies at the Mahaiwe
14 Castle Street,Great Barrington; 413.528.6415
Saturday, November 1 at 8 PM
Tickets: $40, $35, $25/Mahaiwe members
