I Heart
Mary Testa/Dear Shahs Of Sunset... This post is 100% a love letter to
Mary Testa. You're welcome, BroadwayWorld! Know why? Cause
Mary Testa is the best-a (yup, that happened) and here are the reasons why: 1. She has an adorable dog whom she loves so much. You know how everyone has a silly voice they use to talk to animals and babies? It's usually high pitched and your lips pucker when you do it. Imagine the voice belting out "Evil Woman" from your Xanadu soundtrack saying, "Look at the puppy!" It's the best!!!! 2. Mary and I have something very important in common: we both love trashy reality television. It warms my heart more than you know that I can show up to work and ask her what she thought of Brandy Glanville's shenanigans on this week's episode of The Real Housewives of
Beverly Hills. One show that we both follow very closely is The Shahs Of Sunset on Bravo, which is about a group of lavish Persian friends living/gossiping/fighting in Los Angeles. For just a quick second, this post is also going to be a joint love letter to the Shahs Of Sunset/
Andy Cohen. You guys should come see our show and I'm going to make a list within this ultimate list to tell you why: -
Mary Testa and I are obsessed with you. -I'm 100% Persian and my cast mate,
Saum Eskandani, is 50% Persian. (for those of you keeping score at home, that's 1.5 more Middle Eastern people than there are in Aladdin) -Reza, one of the "Shahs" who has a very sassy and prominent mustache, and Shirley, Mary's character, go to the same funky suit stylist. See the picture below! Now back to Mary... 3. She's a huge deal (hello, two Tony nominations), yet she's the most humble lady. We were joking (worshipping) her backstage one day saying that she is THE
Mary Testa and she just laughed and asked what that meant. This summer, I geeked out so hard when Seth emailed me to tell me she was joining the cast. In case you had any doubt, I was that super cool girl in high school who was driving around Newport Beach, California in her VW Bug listening to the cast recordings of A New Brain and See What I Want To See trying to belt like Mary mother expletive Testa. If you would have told me then that we would be in a show together, I would've never believed you! Back in November, I went on for the role of Sister Mary Downey who has a couple of fantastic scenes with Mary's character. I almost hate to admit it, but there were times where I would just start thinking, "Oh My God, I'm doing a scene with
Mary Testa and people are laughing at us! Ah!!!" but then I would remember, "Hey Sherz, maybe try acting..." If you love Mary the way the cast and I do, then come check out the show soon because her final performance is January 17(the adorable
Annie Golden will be stepping into the role of
Shirley Starting the 20th. Give me Orange Is The New Black spoilers!!!!!). We're really going to miss her so we tried being very sneaky backstage on Tuesday and a couple of us made a video. Here are the
Disaster! cast members doing their best impression of
Mary Testa as Shirley Summers. Enjoy and we'll miss you on The Barracuda, Mary!
