One day back in October, during the rehearsal process in Tampa, Josh, one of the dancers, out of the blue asked me if he could call me "Miss Matt." I have no idea why, but as I called the cast "campers" (to try to make rehearsals feel more like camp), I said "yes," and from then on had images of Miss Hannigan from ANNIE flooding my head. Well, on another day, at the rehearsal studio, Todd asked if he could call me "Melissa." Again, I have NO idea where these gay boys get these ideas, but without missing a beat, I replied, "sure, but I'm going to call you Tabetha." Thus was born "Melissa & Tabetha." Wait - it gets better!
Somehow, totally organically, Todd, who always sat shotgun in the van (which I drove) to/from rehearsals, decided that one morning, he was going to start a "talk show." "You're here with Melissa and Tabetha," he'd say . . . "this is the beauty section of the show" (as he'd moisturize his face, using the mirror on the sun-visor. Or, "You're here with Melissa and Tabetha, and the cooking segment. What will you be making for dinner tonight?" OK, so it's probably a lot funnier when the dramatic inflection is there, and when a pen or hair brush or some other "prop" is used as a microphone. Regardless, it still makes both of us laugh.
Well, today is Todd's . . . er "Tabetha's" birthday! So, for his birthday, I created the "poster" below, and hung it over his place in the dressing room. The photo was taken on March 5, the night of the "Cosmo Club" posting . . . several photos were taken, all for the purpose of this birthday surprise, but he didn't know that then. Anyway, eat your heart out, Regis Philbin!
