I had the honor of meeting Ms Beechman when she and her mother came into the stationery store where I worked to order her wedding invitations. When she came in to pick up the invitations, I had my Cats Playbill in hand (I saw her in it) and she was just so sweet to autograph it with a lovely personal note. A wonderful wonderful person.
Seeing & hearing this, I could just weep at the loss of her. I never saw her live, or knew of her until she was gone, but this reveals someone truly unique, the kind of which there are so few these days, who fit no one's mold, & take us to places we've never been. Just beautiful.
In life, we always seem to have 20/20 hind sight. I was in a band called Carnival with Laurie on the road during the summer of 1974. At the time, I was very young and immature and didn't realize how great she was and how lucky I was to be working with her. Watching her broadway work here on You Tube makes me realize how important it is to savor every moment of this journey called life and pay attention to every detail. You never know, you just might be working with Laurie Beechman! I wish I could tell her.
She was a very nice person and a fantastic talent. The band was called Carnival. Carnival was a show band. We did dance sets and floor shows in hotels. She and the leader, a guy named Bobby Fitzgibbons co fronted. I played guitar, trombone and also got to sing with her. When you are young, you tend to take a lot for granted that when you are older, you would stop and say wow, check this out. The funny thing is, for the past five years, I have been acting. We might have actually gotten to work with each other again! Life is crazy. You just never know.
Jeff, your note made me cry. It's so true by every word you said. And I adore Laurie. I played her songs on my radio show though not many people in Thailand heard of her. I still have her CDs released on DRG records. I really miss her.
I just love Laurie! I saw her do "Cats" in Boston when I was in college but I was too young to see her do her cabaret act that night--she performed in a club that required you to be 21 or older--I was only 19! I wish I could have seen her live more often because her voice just blows me away.
Such a fabulous and underperformed song! The sentiment in the title "his is the only music that makes me dance" is sheer, timeless poetry. Well done here, but listen to Babs' rendition on the original B'way cast album - nothing beats it.
I just looked her up on Wikipedia -- I'm sure I must have seen her on TV back in the 80s and 90s. What an amazing voice and personality.BTW, today would have been her 61st birthday. Thanks so much for uploading this. Wonderful.
She was so amazing. Does anyone remember her less-than-stellar-but-still-moving performance at Clinton's inaugural? I think she was already in treatment and was not her best, but she brought the house to tears.
