Santa Maria is getting a taste of Broadway, thanks to one local performer.
Diane Borad-Mirken will demonstrate her keen sense of comedic timing on Jan. 21 in a one-time-only performance at Temple Beth El in Santa Maria. In addition to the comedy bits, she has also chosen a selection of her favorite Broadway songs and standards across a range of decades and styles.
“I’ve never put on a one-woman show,” Borad-Mirken said. “This time I decided to go for it and do it. I love entertaining and I love singing and I love making people laugh.”
Borad-Mirken, who recently directed the Special Needs Network’s annual holiday show, is a retired teacher who has been performing and producing shows locally for many years. She said she always wanted to perform a one-woman act but had difficulty finding a balance in the material at first.
“I’ve always loved to sing, but in the early part of my life I was only comfortable making people laugh,” she said. “I wasn’t comfortable singing serious songs.”
But then Borad-Mirken started at UCLA, taking classes as an extension student while she was working as a teacher. She took a musical comedy workshop that met once a week.
She said that class opened her eyes to a new world of possibilities through her talent.
“I found out that I could sing serious ballads and not have to stop and make jokes,” Borad-Mirken explained. “It worked, and I had enough of a good voice to carry it off. That’s what I was afraid of—that my voice wasn’t good enough to sing those serious songs.”
Armed with a new confidence in her ability to seamlessly move from serious ballads to more comedic fare, she began doing small performances where and when she could while still working full-time as a teacher. As she entered retirement, Borad-Mirken suddenly realized she had the time to pursue her passion more extensively and launched herself into singing and comedy.
“I made up cards and started marketing myself a bit,” she said. “I usually get hired to do luncheons or things like that. Doing public concerts is a little more difficult because you’re just never sure how many people are going to show up. So you put your ego on the line a little bit.”
In planning the show for January, Borad-Mirken selected her favorites from Broadway musicals she personally enjoys. She said one of the songs, “Don’t Tell Mama” from the hit musical Cabaret, directed by Bob Fosse, is an especially unique treat for the audience because the number isn’t featured in the Oscar-winning movie starring Liza Minnelli most people are familiar with.
“That always makes people laugh,” she said. “It’s a really cute and funny song that a lot of people have never heard before. So I always try to include that one.”
Borad-Mirken also features music from another Fosse musical, Pippin. The musical follows the exploits of a young Medieval prince seeking adventure who goes off to war and later takes the throne from his father. Borad-Mirken’s show will feature the song, “No Time At All,” performed by the character Berthe, which was once sung by Beverly Hillbillies star Irene Ryan.
“It’s a song about people exactly my age,” she said. “It’s about grabbing life and swinging it around and taking advantage of the precious time we have left here on Earth. The first time I heard it, I knew I had to add it to my repertoire.”
In addition to songs like “Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” from Annie Get Your Gun, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and “Summertime,” by George Gershwin, Borad-Mirken also dives into the work of Stephen Sondheim, tackling “Send in the Clowns,” an achingly stirring song from his musical A Little Night Music. Frank Sinatra famously recorded a version of the song in the early 1970s.
“I love all those kinds of songs,” she said. “I love really moving emotional songs like that. It’s so moving, and I think the audience is really going to respond to that particular number.”
Borad-Mirken said the event will also serve as a fundraiser for Temple Beth El and a CD release party, featuring songs performed by her. She said ultimately her goal is to bring the community together and feature new and old music for a broad range of fans and first-time attendees.
“I just hope that people will enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a fun way to get together and listen to some new and old music.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose says the clowns are already here and they refuse to leave. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2018.