A Night to Remember: A Great Honor for Lou Allegrone, Bill Cosby and a Sold-Out Show
October 17, 2013
Last Sunday night, at the Mahaiwe Preforming Arts Center annual Gala, comedian Bill Cosby entertained a sold-out house. The Mahaiwe show was actually a benefit performance to honor Lou Allegrone. Allegrone Construction Co. was selected as Construction Manager for the restoration of the renowned Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a project implemented in phases to allow the historic theater to open seasonally for Berkshire audiences. (Read more about the project here >>)
An excerpt from a review of the show in the Berkshire Eagle:
”Allegrone was presented with a framed picture of the theater and a seat in the theater was adorned with his name in perpetuity.
Cosby delivered a one hour and 40-minute set that featured his iconic storytelling comedic method.
That entails meandering (but not rambling!) stories, mostly observational, almost exclusively personal.
It is not the rat-a-tat delivery of a Chris Rock or a Jerry Seinfeld. But that is, in the eyes of his fans, the charm.
The stories are peppered with jokes, and build up to a usually hilarious punchline. Cosby brought down the house several times on Sunday. There was a gentleman a few seats to my right that was laughing so hard he was having trouble catching his breath.
It is difficult to condense these stories into representative examples. Cosby, for example, riffed gently for about 15 minutes on Allegrone and his family.
‘I heard tonight that Lou has a seat in his name in this theater,’ said Cosby. ‘Lou, I'm sorry, but you'll never be able to sit in that seat. Your wife will sit in that seat, your kids will sit in that seat, their in-laws will sit in that seat. You? You will be off to the side somewhere.’
Read the full article here: The Berkshire Eagle, Bill Cosby at the Mahaiwe: At 76, the Cos is still the Cos, by Derek Gentile, October 16, 2013