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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2003
If you've been to any productions at Stage West Community Playhouse in the past two decades, you've probably seen the award-winning work of Jan Decker.
Jan designed and made costumes for many Stage West shows, some of them beautiful -- Brigadoon, The Red Mill; some of them outrageous -- Rocky Horror Show, Nuncrackers; and all of them wonderful. She won HAMI awards for her costumes for South Pacific in 1993 and for Gypsy in 1999. Remember those terrific costumes on the burlesque house strippers?
Jan was mostly a behind-the-scenes type, but she came out front to play the female lead in Courtship of Eddie's Father. I panned the play, but I loved Jan's acting in it. She won a HAMI for Spotlight Performer in the small role of Miss Cratchitt in Gypsy.
This really wonderful person died last week at the age of 45 following a long illness that she battled as fiercely as she tackled her sewing machine. There were moments when it seemed she would win, but then . . . and she's gone.
Jan Lavin, the president of Stage West's board, called her J.D., to distinguish her from the other Jans at the theater.
"You could call her and she would come through in a bind," Lavin said. "When she did our costumes for Rocky Horror Show, and I'd needed something at the last minute, she would just whip it out."
J.D. was the elegant woman in a blue pageboy wig in the first edition of Rocky Horror Show.
"She was just the nicest person," Lavin said.
To no one's surprise, within days after the Palace Grand announced that comedian Pat Cooper was coming back to town for two shows -- and two shows only! -- on May 8 and 9, both shows were virtually sold out.
So Palace Grand owners Nick and Sal Sessa persuaded Cooper to let them add a third show on May 7. Dinner and show are $39.95, plus tax and tip. Call 863-7949 or 1-888-655-7469.
I think it's time someone in authority gives the funny, irreverent Cooper a key to the city. He's becoming one of us.
The Timber Pines Charity fundraiser at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre, Kicking Up Your Heels, was a roaring success, said Barbara Barsky, who helped sell 301 tickets for the event.
Actors and musicians from the Show Palace starred in the show, and Show Palace owners Nick and Sal Sessa pitched in to help Timber Pines raise as much money as possible for the half dozen charities the community supports.
In my book, any show in which Sara DelBeato sings At Last is a success.
But this one had even more, including producer/director Matthew McGee as Barbra Streisand, Dame Edith and, best of all, himself.
McGee put the show together in his "spare time" between playing the frou-frou maid Jacob (that's Juh-COBE) in La Cage aux Folles and rehearsing for and playing three different roles in the Show Palace's current show, Gypsy.
It was great to hear music director Stan Collins playing keyboard live with his combo. I'm hoping the Show Palace will someday put its grand piano on stage and let Collins do a whole solo concert. He's extraordinarily talented, and we don't get to hear him play live often enough.
May I clear something up, please? In my recent review of Driving Miss Daisy at the Angel Cabaret Theatre, I mentioned that the marvelous caterers who were there in January had left, and a new caterer had come on board.
Several people have called to ask if the January cooks, New York Style Caterers, had gone out of business.
Not at all, not at all, owner Mike Milioto said. Both his restaurant and his catering service are in full operation -- so full, in fact, that he couldn't take care of the Angel and his busy business both, and that's why he had to leave.
The restaurant is at 7335 Little Road and is open for breakfast, hot lunches and takeout from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and is going to expand to weekends and evenings in a couple of weeks.
So if you are hungry for some of Milioto's heavenly beef stroganoff, minted baby carrots, pasta or fresh chocolate-topped eclair, some of it is available now and some is on the way.