I decided at the last minute to attend the second show. There was a script reading for the next show at Herongate that I should have attended the same night but really, how often do you get a chance to see Molly Ringwald in a small, intimate club? So I called Hugh's Room yesterday morning and made a reservation for two. I couldn't convince my daughter to come. She's usually good with concerts but she wasn't impressed with Molly's status as a "movie star" and had never heard her music.
If you want to Google Monday, July 8 2013 and Toronto I'm sure you'll see some lovely pictures. Apparently the most rainfall in a single day, more than Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Go Trains were stopped, the subways and highways flooded, power outages everywhere. Yet there was just a light rain here in Whitby. So my wife and I headed right into the heart of this madness to see Molly.
It took us two and a half hours to get to the club. Normally it would have taken, maybe forty-five minutes, depending on traffic. Start time for the concert was supposed to be 8:30, and we arrived about 9:15. Fortunately for us, she was a little late starting, so we only missed a little bit.
I'm guessing here--I didn't actually count, but Hugh's room can maybe hold two hundred people, packed to the rafters. I don't think there were more than about one hundred there, but I wonder how much the weather can be blamed for that. My wife and I appeared to be the last to arrive so we were seated as far from the stage as possible, but it's not a huge room, and half full/empty, so that was okay.
I had my CD with me, hoping to get it autographed. When it turned out that Molly didn't have her box of CDs due to the weather my wife took mine and brought it up to the stage. Molly was very grateful that she could hold it up to show the audience, none of whom seemed to have one with them. She kept the CD on stage with her until the end of the concert and held it up a few more times, and referred to it a couple of times to say what track number the particular song was on the CD. That was pretty cool.
Two marriages, three children, and forty-five years on the planet certainly have not taken away any beauty from Ms Ringwald. She's every bit as cute as she was in Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and Sixteen Candles. And she CAN sing, no doubt about it.
She performed with a trio (piano, bass and drums) and sang most of the selections on her new album, as well as other songs that fit into the "Great American Songbook" mould. She didn't take a break (due to the late start she said), and did the encore as the second-last song (a nice rendition of "On the Street Where You Live") and finished with her tribute to John Hughes, "Don't You Forget About Me", from the Breakfast Club.
Oh, and she scolded me! I was taking pictures, as I always do, and she asked me to stop. She said the little red light (the autofocus) was annoying her. MOLLY RINGWALD told ME to stop taking pictures of her. I feel like a paparazzi now. So I did. And it was three-quarters of the way through the show so I had taken plenty already. Unfortunately, due to very low lighting only a few turned out okay. I would have needed to use my flash to get really good pictures. Imagine how much THAT would have annoyed her...
I don't know what to make of Molly's voice. I've loved her for years, and I would love to love her voice too. She's a really good singer, as I said, but there's something about her voice that she'll never be my favourite. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it's there. Technically great, but lacking, I don't know, warmth? Maybe when I get more used to it I'll like her more but right now she's not among my favourite singers. I sincerely wish it were otherwise. I know it's just a personal taste thing so you may disagree. I hope you do.
At the end of the show she came out to sign albums. At least she would have if she had had any albums to sell and sign. She signed mine, and when I told her it was the one she was holding up throughout the show she remembered my wife's name. For everyone else she signed posters, if they ordered one of her CDs which she promised would be mailed out soon.
She would not sign anything else. There were young people in line with pictures and DVDs but she told them, nicely, that she was only signing the CD. She told them they could order the CD and she'd sign that, but a lot of these kids seemed to leave disappointed. I guess if she had made an exception for them, she would get nothing but DVDs and crap at every show, but I really felt bad for the kids. I think Molly did give some of them a poster, which you were only supposed to get if you ordered the CD so she might have felt a little bad as well.
I had a 1986 Time magazine with her on the cover that I had hoped to get signed. When I saw her refusing to sign memorabilia I didn't even take it out--at least I had the CD and my wife managed to grab the poster from the stage that she had been holding up during the show. She also signed that for me. I didn't even dare asking her if she would pose with me, and no one else seemed to be asking her either.
She did chat a lot during the show, told little stories and such. And the show was a decent length (probably an hour and a half after we got there). And, as tickets were only $35 we didn't feel cheated, or feel like why did we drive for two-and-a-half hours for this? So I guess all ended well. I enjoyed the show, and I'm glad I braved the weather to get there. My wife also seemed to enjoy it and that's all that really matters, right?
And the drive home was amazingly fast! Police had been asking everyone to stay home all night, and it worked. We made it home to Whitby in record time!
Michael
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