50% of '50%' - Bea Arthur!

Hi everyone! In honor of the 30th Anniversary of the debut of The Golden Girls, I thought I'd write a quick post about Bea Arthur! I had the pleasure of seeing Bea Arthur perform her one-woman show, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends at her run at the Capitol Theatre in Columbus, Ohio the first week of July, 2001. I went with my friend, Erik, who is also a major fan of Bea and The Golden Girls. Here is a video clip of Bea performing the song, "Where Do You Start?" from her one-woman show on a Dutch variety show:

The story I always tell about the particular performance that I saw is that I, unfortunately, didn't get to see Bea perform the following song live because, ironically, I don't think Bea was feeling 100% at the time. She started to sing the song, "Fifty Percent" from the musical Ballroom. She got through the verse/introduction of the song, but then when she got to, "I don't iron his shirts," she started coughing violently and basically said to the audience and her accompanist, Billy Goldenberg, that she was going to move on to the next song. It was still a great show and so great to see her perform live! Here is a clip of Bea singing 100% of "Fifty Percent," pre-The Golden Girls on a PBS special called Broadway Plays Washington.

Here is a clip of Bea performing with the Boston Pops and a whole slew of other Broadway performers. The song is "Conga!" from the musical Wonderful Town, singing the song that Rosalind Russell originated. Ruth Sherwood would have been an amazing role for Bea to have done on Broadway or in concert, so at the very least we get this amazing clip of what her Ruth would have been like!

I wish they would have recorded Bea Arthur On Broadway: Just Between Friends and released it commercially, the same way Elaine Stritch At Liberty was released on DVD. At the very least, we have a full, professional audio recording of the show pre-Broadway in 2001 in West Palm Beach, FL. If you haven't heard it before, it's amazing! Here is a link to purchase the album on Amazon: Bea Arthur On Broadway: Just Between Friends

#MusicalTheater #Diva #BeaArthur #Mame