THE WILLETT SHOW HITS THE ROAD! While John Waters crosses the continent from west to east, Richard Willett will be making a journey in the opposite direction. I wish him continued success as he goes bi-coastal.

I first met Rick courtesy of Anne Newgarden, the darling of Blog About Town. Back then, Rick's pants were horribly stained by a tomato condiment. As I recall, he had inadvertently stepped on a ketchup packet that wreaked its revenge by splattering all over his jeans.

Since then, I've had the good fortune to become better acquainted with the Rick who was inside those pants. He's a witty and charming fellow whose The Flid Show was a theatrical highlight of the year for me. Published by United Stages and available at The Drama Book Shop in Manhattan, The Flid Show fuses a Christmas Carol plot device with documentary-style interjections to tell the story of a "flid" (a.k.a. a "Thalidomide baby"), performed in this year's revival by Mat Fraser. Judith Kampfner interviewed Willett and Fraser for WYNC; the production was very well-received at offoffonline, Theaterscene, CurtainUp, and nytheatre.com.

Rick has been a full-time New York resident for many (but not too many) years, so I was surprised to learn that he had never been to Chumley's (pictured on this page). I am relieved to note that the oversight was corrected last night.

Here's a picture of two good friends: Anne and Rick.



















Photo: David Marc Fischer