(left to right:) Elliot Ames, Quinn Lemley as Rita Hayworth, and Linda Amiel Burns, NYSMS President

Quinn Lemley

as Rita Hayworth Turns on the Heat!
by Elliot Ames

Also on the program: Harry Simeone, Steve Ross and Scott Barberino

Ted Firth's trio was cookin' and the joint was jumpin' as Quinn Lemley brought highlights of The Heat is On!, her musical dramatization of the life of Rita Hayworth, to the Sheet Music Society's December meeting.

Blending dance, storytelling and intoxicating movie music before a mesmerized audience, Quinn--who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Love Goddess--brought to life all of Rita's glamour, wit and vulnerability.  She chronicled Rita's infamous marriages to Orsen Welles and Prince Ali Kahn, the disaster that was her marriage to the abusive crooner Dick Haymes, her turbulent relationship with movie mogul Harry Cohn and her final struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Other selections woven into the narrative were a suggestive Amado Mio from "Gilda;" a convincing rendition of  I've been Kissed Before from "Affair in Trinidad;" while more than a few tears were detected during a medley of Mercer & Kern's, I'm Old Fashioned from "You Were Never Lovelier."

Other numbers so closely associated with this most electrifying of screen sirens included Bewitched and Zip from "Pal Joey;" Please Don't Kiss Me from  "Lady from Shanghai", and (of course) Quinn's sizzling closer from "Gilda," Put the Blame on Mame.

Quinn Lemley's program also included: Fire Down Below, 1957, Ned Washington and Lester Lee. from "Fire Down Below;" Who's the Girl? Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, from "Applause;" The Shorty George, 1942 from "You'll Never Get Rich;" and Trinidad Lady, 1952 by Bob Russell and Lester Lee from "Affair in Trinidad."

In addition, the afternoon's program carried two further delights.  For a special holiday treat, Steve Ross arranged an appearance by the 94-year-old composer Harry Simeone, who played his original arrangement of The Little Drummer Boy. And, Scott Barberino,  talent booker and manager of the exciting new cabaret, Dillon's gave an amusing account of the travails, heartaches and satisfactions that have gone into making Dillon's one of the more entertainer/composer-friendly cabarets.