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Just saw Pope Joan, a new musical, at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood. An unholy trinity of Catholicism, Dark Ages history and sex, and my limited familiarity with said trinity, left me a little lost in tonight’s viewing. But my friend Whitney Avalon plays the title role, and it was a pleasure to see her perform. Two other leads really stood out, so even if the story and the storytelling were mysterious to me, I enjoyed those performances.

The show is a mix of Rafiki from The Lion King, silly monks from Spamalot, Che and Evita from Evita, the masses from Les Misèrables, and a sentence of Sondheim, too. All very serious, except for the parade of dancing monks. So while the show was all over the map, at least there was Whitney. She and I were in a show once upon a time, and I helped her prepare the music to audition for this show. Many congratulations to you, Ms. Avalon!