{"id":16520,"date":"2015-02-26T09:50:09","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=16520"},"modified":"2015-02-26T09:52:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:52:07","slug":"duo-musically-spoofs-romance-marriage-and-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/duo-musically-spoofs-romance-marriage-and-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"Duo musically spoofs romance, marriage and aging"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sandy Riccardi is an accomplished New York comedienne-actress.<\/p>\n

Tall and attractive.<\/p>\n

With a robust, polished singing voice.<\/p>\n

Pianist Richard Riccardi has played with San Francisco\u2019s symphony, opera and ballet companies \u2014 and accompanied Pinchas Zuckerman, Joel Grey and Diahann Carroll.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s short and bald. And has a gravelly singing voice.<\/p>\n

Yet he\u2019s Sandy\u2019s trophy husband.<\/p>\n

She even sings an incomparable homage to his hairless head.<\/p>\n

At Petaluma\u2019s Cinnabar Theater recently, the pair presented a loving, charming cabaret act, \u201cMy Raunchy Valentine,\u201d that made me laugh aloud often and feel good for 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

Mostly, the rib-tickling diva vocalized and mugged.<\/p>\n

Mostly, Richard played.<\/p>\n

With tongue permanently implanted in cheek, and with lyrics that leaned toward the clever, they started with the downside of texting and tweeting (\u201cyou don\u2019t quite care enough to call\u201d) and ended with gallows humor from a Rodgers and Hart tune about serial husband-icide.<\/p>\n

In between, they dealt with a \u201cSouthern girl\u2019s mating call \u2014 \u2018I can hardly taste the liquor,\u2019\u201d waggish fallout from forgetfulness and blame, and other comic pitfalls of the wrinkling process (with a pill-filled bottle doubling as a rhythm instrument).<\/p>\n

I did find the \u201cMy Raunchy Valentine\u201d title a touch misleading, though.<\/p>\n

The Riccardi duo performed several tunes with double entendre after double entendre but its major focus was on the snags and snares of relationship.<\/p>\n

They used their own as comedic fodder.<\/p>\n

Sandy noted, in fact, that they total five marriages between them \u2014 and illustrated \u201cOur Perfect Family\u201d with a stage-length scroll featuring stick figures of the blended family (including three nurses from Fiji).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a glutton for punishment,\u201d she noted of her husband. \u201cI\u2019m the third wife Richard has seen through menopause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple offered many original numbers, then interjected amusing parodies of such familiar ditties as \u201cI Could Have Danced All Night,\u201d \u201cMemories\u201d and \u201cCat\u2019s in the Cradle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twice, the pair \u2014 married six years with 4 million YouTube hits under their collective belt \u2014 paused the merriment to execute love ballads penned for each other. Once, Sandy apologized for being saccharine (\u201cwe were supposed to be anti-Hallmark\u201d).<\/p>\n

All in all, I found the show fluffy and fun.<\/p>\n

And I definitely could relate to their occasional public expressions of love.<\/p>\n

To continue our Valentine\u2019s Day tradition, I\u2019ve already purchased the hundreds of tiny candy hearts I\u2019ll hide in my wife\u2019s music books, desk drawers and medicine cabinet \u2014 and tuck into various clothes in her closet.<\/p>\n

I know she\u2019ll undoubtedly take similar liberties with my things.<\/p>\n

And if the past is any indication, we\u2019ll still be finding each other\u2019s sugar treats for months and months. And smiling.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the way we like it. After all, we consider each other a trophy spouse.<\/p>\n

Even though we, too, have five marriages between us.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Raunchy Valentine\u201d was part of the Sunday concert series at Cinnabar, 3333 Petaluma Blvd. N., right off Hwy. 101, Petaluma. Upcoming shows in the series, all beginning at 7:30 p.m., include The Ring of Truth Trio on March 15, Red Hot Chachkas on April 19, Le Jazz Hot on May 17 and Amanacer Flamenco on June 14. Tickets: $15 to $30. Information: (707) 763-8920 or cinnabartheater.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5] Sandy Riccardi is an accomplished New York comedienne-actress. Tall and attractive. With a robust, polished singing voice. Pianist Richard Riccardi has played with San Francisco\u2019s symphony, opera…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"