Paging Mr. Peanut

Went to the Zephyr Theater this afternoon to see Del Shores' "Southern Baptist Sissies." I saw this show when it first ran in the Fall of 2000. Now it's back as part of the "Season of Shores" at the Zephyr.

It looks at the anti-gay attitude of the Baptist Church and its affect on young people raised Baptist.

In addition to scenes in a Baptist Church in Texas there are a series of hilarious dialogues, set in a bar, between two barflys -- Odette Annette Barnett and Peanut.

Peanut must be a dream role to play -- given lines like:

"I'm a social drinker. You have a drink and so shall I."

and

"My entire family is white trash...I'm the only one who rose above it."

I was excited because Leslie Jordan (best known as Karen Walker's nemesis on "Will & Grace") was reprising his performance as Peanut.

I bought my tickets early on from Plays411.com and they made it very clear Jordan was only performing in the show until February 19. That's why I made it a point to go today.

So you can imagine my disappointment when Gary Ballard came on stage to play Peanut. Ballard did a fine job -- but it's such a distinctive character I was really looking forward to seeing Jordan perform it again.

I asked about Jordan at intermission and they told me "Mr. Jordan never performs matinees." Well I never. I know Nathan Lane did the same thing in New York when he had vocal problems during "The Producers." They told me "the website" explains Mr. Jordan isn't in every show. All I know is I sure didn't see it when I was ordering the tickets.

I think the problem was I ordered tickets through Plays411.com -- which sells tickets for lots of small theaters in Los Angeles. At some point after I ordered my tickets Del Shores dropped Plays411 and started selling tickets through his own website.

This also may explain why I was treated like a second class citizen with my Plays411 tickets. The folks who bought tickets through Shores' website were given assigned seats and those of us who made the "mistake" of buying tickets elsewhere were forced to sit in seats in the back on the sides of the theater.

Pretty tacky on Del Shores part, if you ask me, in order to probably make 5 bucks more a seat.

At 12:31 this morning someone in Daly City, California became the 5,000th visitor to this blog. They were referred by www.rpaulv.blogspot.com -- where my blog is included in the list of interesting blogs!