A Proud Wife

There was a period of time there where every musical Mr. Mingle was cast in, he had to take his shirt off. It was a delight to my girlfriends and me, however Mr. Mingle was starting to feel typecast. He was literally getting some calls because he had taken his shirt off, and they needed his body type in the show. Cabaret out at Pleasanton Playhouse was a good case in point.

First, there was the King and I which started it all off, where he played a monk/guard, and at that time had only recently started working out and losing weight. This led to Joseph and the Amazing… where he played a guard but with even less clothes on. Then came Cabaret, where Mr. Mingle was one of the four well-built dancing Kit-Kat boys.
After that who could forget the outfit in Pippin? Although technically he wore a shirt throughout the whole show, it had such a unique cut that it showed his whole chest anyway. And finally, Damn Yankees – where cast as a baseball player, he and his teammates had a scene in the locker room where he had to strip down to a towel on stage during one number. This last one was during the summer of 2005.

Since then, Mr. Mingle has happily been moving away from these shirtless roles, and into more serious acting, which he generally prefers. Last year there was Shakespeare, this year it was Chekhov/Tennessee Williams. He loves these roles, although I must admit I am less of a fan of the serious plays. I will watch every opening night that I can, and I love seeing him onstage, but I don't usually enjoy the serious ones so much – they make me think too much. I, however, live for the musicals where I can see him dancing on stage. (Anyone attending Fossie's 30th Birthday to see the Mr. Mingle dance will understand why this is such a 'joy' for me.)

So, I was very happy when Mr. Mingle announced that he was going to audition for a musical in Half Moon Bay this month. A musical? Hurray!! The audition was on Saturday, and he was called back for further auditioning on Sunday. By Sunday night we found out that he got the lead!! No more playing shirtless monks, guards and baseball players with no lines. No sirree… because now my husband is the lead in the musical The Full Monty!!

Take a moment to think about that one folks…..