Social Gadfly

Table 12 was the raucous one at Saturday night's Cleveland Play House's annual benefit, held at the soon-to-be-transformed Allen Theater at Playhouse Square. Your announcer, released from the confinement of Master Control, regaled Table 12 with Tales from Morning Drive, including "The Nude Marchers of Silverlake" and "The Man who Didn't Think Marches were Music." All while wearing a simple plum crinkle rayon column gown and a white organdy wrap with appliqued and embroidered flowers.

The black-tie occasion featured a dinner of greens and berries, herb-stuffed chicken breast with potatoes and asparagus, and a dessert buffet.

Red-maned Maureen McGovern, wearing a beaded and fringed voided velvet coat over black, presented one of the best sets in recent CPH benefit memory. Beautifully accompanied by pianist Jeffrey Harris, McGovern chose her program largely from the Great American Songbook. She revealed that she recorded her big hit, "The Morning After," in Cleveland. She invited the audience to sing along in the evening's last song, the Gershwin Brothers' "Love Is Here to Stay."

And even better, the audience KNEW the words.