By Marcia Blondin***The idea to write a show about their life together sprang up during COVID, locked down in Nevada, with DVDs and reruns of “I Love Lucy “and other TV shows that Brent Barrett and Bernie Blanks watched growing up decades ago. Islands in the Stream opened in 
Las Vegas for four shows, was amended somewhat for Palm Springs, and altered again for its debut in Puerto Vallarta at Act2PV—with musical director Mark Hartman, playing crisply and flawlessly as always, and who’s back for the season (you can find him holding court at Ovations Piano Bar at Act2PV every Saturday at 9 PM),
Brent and husband Bernie fittingly wore their white, not-quite-matching “wedding dresses” for the first half of the show. After the back-story of how they met (during a production of Camelot), how their lives were with Bernie living and working in Germany and Brent in the US, Brent told us in song how he proposed. After 14 years of living together ,and in front of the 80 people at their place for brunch (about the same number as in the Casa Karma Red Room), Brent got down on one knee, and a surprised and delighted Bernie wept and accepted. It was a lovely and poignant recreation that moved the entire audience.
Islands in the Stream is as joyful and fresh as the New Year; it overflows with gentle respect and caring – when two people are as in love as these two are after two decades, the entire dynamic around them changes. We were changed and charged positively by the energy of their love that makes everything possible.
