Barbara’s Column
My Funny Valentine
By BARBARA DIAMOND
If you missed either of No Square Theatre’s production of “My Ridiculous Valentine,” it was your loss.
The cabaret, composed of love and lost love songs, was perfectly suited to the intimate setting at Legion Hall. Sly winks and asides from the cast to the audience just added to the fun.
“I am just sorry there were only two performances – it’s was that good,” said No Square board member Sande St. John.
The show was created and directed by No Square Theater founder Bree Burgess Rosen and 2019 Patriots Day Artist of the Year and pianist Roxanna Ward, who was joined on the stage by drummer David Pager.
Besides them, the cast included Eric Anderson, Rebecca Butkivich, Kelly Goldstein, Gary Greene, Rob Harryman, Pat Kollenda, Joe Lauderdale, Marc Marger, Kristen Matson, Claire Day McClung, Steve McIntosh and Ella Wyatt.
The show opened with Lauderdale wandering through the audience to the stage, dressed as a somewhat disheveled cupid, singing Stevens Sondheim’s “Love is in the Air.”
All 14 cast members crowded onto the stage to perform their version of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

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Cast performing “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
Other tunes included “I Really, Really Love You,” subtitled “I’m a Stalker.”
“Not every romance is pretty,” said Rosen. “But some are pretty funny.”
Should No Square decide to reprise the show next year, may I suggest ”One Alone” from “The Desert Song,” which could be spelled with two “s’s.”
The first act ended with Kollenda mugging her way through “I’m Tired,” from “Blazing Saddles,” along with Anderson, Marger and Harryman.
Anderson had the last word, singing “I Will Always Love You,” and presenting a rose to his wife as he left the stage.
In the audience on Saturday night: Leah Vasquez and her son, David, and daughter-in-law, Suzy; Ann and Charlie Quilter, major donors to No Square Theatre; Roger and Bridgette Englis; Richard Moore; Eve Loftsgard’ Molly Joseph and Dina Waters.
Also: Carolyn and Dr. Thomas Bent; Dee and Jim Perry; Lula Buckle, 12, her mother, Laura, and grandmother, Lyn Kirkham.
Lula, a performer in her native United Kingdom since she was three, most recently performed in No Square’s “Annie,” and also in the Pacific Symphony’s “King Arthur and the Legend of the Dragon,” at the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center.
John Weld – A life well-lived and well-loved
“The Remarkable Life of John Weld” is a documentary on the lives of John and Katy Wells, one-time owners of the Laguna News Post and residents in our town for more than 60 years.
Executive Producer Roger Jones could think of no better place to hold the premiere than Laguna Beach High School’s Artist Theater. It was a fundraiser for the Laguna Beach Historical Society. .
“It was a sell-out,” said local historian Jane Janz, a member of the society. “We are so grateful for the donation.”
Jones, the former owner of Villa Rockledge, introduced the film. The premiere is the only public showing of the film.
“It was a one-time shot for a charity,” said Jones.

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The Welds ran the Laguna News Post
But it will available on DVD at Walmart, on Amazon Prime and on Direct TV, Google Play, iTunes and Fandango, Jones said.
The documentary was a 15-year project for Jones and his wife Sherill Bottjer.
His account of how it came about was printed in the Historical Society’s newsletter:
“In 1999, Laguna Beach resident Nancy Bushnell introduced my wife, Sherill, and me to John and Katy. Nancy had correctly thought, since John has authored a number of books and I had written a few, we might enjoy each other’s company. We became good friends.
“We traded some books and after reading John’s Fly Away Home, Memoirs of a Hollywood Stunt Man,” I was taken aback by the lives he and Katy had lived. I mentioned that I thought the public would be fascinated by Hollywood in its infancy and that I would like to work on the project.”
The deal was sealed.
The Weld’s story covers John’s career as a stuntman in Hollywood, looking more like a “matinee idol” than the daredevil he was. He performed with stars such as John Barrymore, Charlie Chaplain, Laurel and Hardy, Tom Mix and Gloria Swanson.
Later he switched to writing and was sent to Paris to cover the Lindbergh flight over the Atlantic.
Weld spent several years in Paris hobnobbing with an international set that included Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso.
He returned to Hollywood as a screenwriter for Columbia Studios, according to Jones. And it was at that time that he first laid eyes on a young, very beautiful and very married starlet at a party hosted by “Pancho” Barnes, at her home on the Simthcliffs Estate, owned by her grandmother.
(A stunt pilot and a bit of a hellion, Barnes used to fly guests down to Laguna, landing on Smithcliffs, driving her grandmother up the walls.)
It took John five years to convince “Gigi Parish,” as she was known on the screen, to become Katy Weld.
Their romance continued till the day he died in 2003.
“To the end, he remained my darling John,” she was quoted in an obituary for the multi-talented, multi-faceted man to whom she was married for 67 years.
They moved to Laguna after they wed and bought the Laguna News Post, which they published from 1945 to 1965.
Katy managed the newspaper while he wrote a weekly column that always ended with “Laguna, I Love You,” later the title of one of his 11 books, and illustrated by the late cartoonist Phil Interlandi.
But wait – there’s more. You will find advance notice of all the fun and interesting stuff for visitors or residents to do in Laguna by reading StuNewsLaguna.com. Contributions are welcomed.