Velma (56K)

Velma, a character from Leonard Melfi’s Birdbath

Leonard Melfi (to the left) wrote the one-act play “Birdbath.” After Magie had seen the play, she kept screaming the lines. Our musical setting for it was not particularly popular, and you’ll see why as you listen. Imagine us opening our set at the Whiskey a-Go-Go with Magie entering the stage as raving nutter velma_slow, the girl from the play. Half of the audience cheered and half booed. Ron Stringer, our guitarist, warned them, “Remember what they say about a ‘house divided against itself.’”

“Melfi’s play is an adroit bit of character sketching, which unfolds with delicacy, charm and power. Director Bjorn Johnson provides a clear, professional production . . .” LA WEEKLY “Leonard Melfi’s one-act masterpiece, Birdbath, is a character study of two hopeful misfits, Frankie and velma_slow, on the night in 1965 that they meet in a Manhattan diner. These two outcasts comically, clumsily and tragically attempt to connect with one another.” “Leonard Melfi was at the forefront of the Off-Off Broadway movement in the 1960s. Birdbath was first read at Café LaMama in 1964 and performed at Theatre Genesis in 1965. It played throughout Europe and had a successful run at the Circle-in-the-Square in New York.”