The Theory of Pearls
The art of embellishment

Composer Jerry Herman, hot on the heels of huge successes with "Mame" and "Hello Dolly", took a risk in 1969 with a musical based on Giradoux's "Mad Woman of Chaillot and failed spectacularly.
"Dear World" is probably not deservng of such a failure, but it is flawed. It's low point is undoubtedly the title song. Its high point "The Tea Party" is a tantalising glimpse of what Herman might have done if he had succeeded in writing a serious musical.
In the Tea Party the Madwoman of the title gathers together her two fellow mad-women (of the Flea Market and Montmartre) to save Paris and the planet from the madness of Big Business. And in the middle of the Tea Party we come to this short interchange.

M: Suppose I were to say your pearls were false ?
C: They were, they were.
M: I'm not asking you what they were, I'm asking what they are.
C: Surely you must know when you wear pearls, that little by little the pearls become real.
M: And isn't it the same with memories ?

Memories are pearls, and conciously or unconciously over the years our memories shift and change, we embellish and edit as it suits the moment, and little by little we lose track of the changes. Still, our memories are our realities, the only reality our past can have.

Melly copped two of my pearls at lunch today, and suggested I should be writing them up here. Parallel lines of thought - I'd been considering that was maybe where this blog should be heading. Well, we'll see what happens.

Watch this space.