Wednesday 10 June 2009

What will Rita Moreno be remembered for?

Fame is fickle, and history is fickler. More fickle. Ficklest. Anyway, what role will people think of when they hear the name Rita Moreno, in a thousand years time?

Will it be Anita, in West Side Story? Zelda the snitch in Singing in the Rain? Googie Gomez ("Hot Bitches") in Dick Lester's 1973 bath-house farce The Ritz? Compassionate Sister Peter Marie in Oz?

So Lilly Gave to Solly, just what Billy gave to Molly.

No of course not. Here's the performance that will last a thousand years. Here is a touch of distilled musical genius. Here is her crowning achievement: playing Lilly in the Electric Company's Billy Lick A Lolly. Got a hangover? Turn the volume right up: this will burn right through it, pal.