The theme encompassed diamonds and pearls.
Guests for Red, Hot & Soul took it seriously. Some applied rhinestones to their apparel for the Zach Theatre benefit. Others wore the real thing — in stunning fashion.
Robert Brown and Dennis Karbach
This marked the first in this series of highly entertaining Red Hot parties to fill the new Topfer Theatre and Bobbi Pavillion. First, folks clumped in the Topfer lobby where male and female models were festooned to 007 looks that reflected the “Diamonds and Pearls are Forever” leitmotif. The only minor distraction was the blinding light of the setting sun.
The pavilion, on the other hand, was as cool as a Bond girl. The elegant tent was decorated to the hilt in black and white accented by levitating floral arrangements. Speeches stayed short. Dinner and chat went long.
I sat between the head of Zach’s Theatre for Youth program and a retired accountant with a history of theatergoing in Houston, Cincinnati and New York, beginning with the same version of “Our Town” that I also saw at the Alley Theatre in, oh, 1970.
We agreed that, with the advent of the Topfer, Zach has joined the legion of regional theaters that reflected their host cities and their cultural dreams.
Venus Strawn and Anna Johnson
The live auction followed back at the Topfer. Although slow to start, the inclusion of yelling bid spotters helped build excitement, similar to the spectacular auction last week for Mack, Jack and McConaughey at ACL Live. All told, the party grossed in the range of $450,000, doubling the take just two years ago. (That number might change over the weekend.)
The entertainment itself was priceless. When you’ve got singers like Ginger Leigh, Jill Blackwood, Kia Dawn Fulton and Laura Benedict, how can you go wrong? One auction item promised roles in a concert version of “Les Miserables” coming next season, so this portion of the evening ended with a stirring choral rendition of “One Day More.”
After such a full evening, I skipped the dancing out in the pavilion. Leave that to Gatsby …