Well, dear readers, Luckie has moved in and seems perfectly happy and I have had my last day in the madhouse known as reality television, at least for now (I’ve already been broached about directing some interviews next week – we shall see). I’m ready to start writing every day and, in fact, can’t wait to do so.
My goodness we had a lovely number of posts yesterday and not only were they a lovely number their content was most excellent, oh, yes, their content was most excellent. Today I shall be doing errands and catching up, shopping for groceries and so on and so forth and also so forth and so on. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Also, my friend Nick Redman has told me to run, not walk, to my nearest compact disc emporium to pick up Mr. John Williams’ soundtrack to Mr. Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me if You Can, which he tells me I will love.
Despite dire predictions of rain it does appear to be quite sunny outside. Of course, when Los Angeles, California weather people direly predict rain one can always count on sunny skies. Can someone please tell me how December can be half over? I haven’t done any Christmas shopping or even Christmas decorating. But starting Monday I shall be doing both. Also, starting Monday we’re going to start our countdown celebration to Christmas right here at haineshisway.com. Yes, Virginia, the spirit of Christmas will sparkle brightly every single day, so don’t miss out on the fun for one single moment.
Also, tomorrow at six p.m. Pacific Mean Time is our Unseemly Live Chat which, in just a few short weeks, has become the most popular chat room on all the Internet. What fun we have and if you haven’t partaken you must partake so that you can say you partook. It is wild and zany non-stop fun, let me tell you that. People let their hair down, let me tell you that. Why do people let their hair down? What did their hair ever do to deserve such insensitive treatment? What the hell am I talking about?
Perhaps we should all click on the Unseemly Button below because don’t I have some excellent questions to answer? Don’t I have to let my hair down? Don’t I have to amscray because the cleaning lady has arrived and is giving Luckie and me the evil eye?
There, I’ve let my hair down and my hair is now sulking like a little baby in the corner. Well, on to your excellent questions.
Craig asks if the rumor he heard, that Rupert Holmes is bringing Drood to ABC Television is true? I shall e-mail him and get an excellent answer for you.
Jrand55 asks if I ever met or did I work with Kevin Coughlin, Carroll Baker and Debbie Reynolds. If Kevin was/is a casting director, yes. No to Carroll Baker (although I always liked her) and no to Debbie, although we’re asking her to do a cameo in my upcoming film.
William E. Lurie asks if Guy Haines and I exchange Christmas gifts and if so what are some of the gifts I’ve given him? Well, Guy Haines has never given me anything (except attitude occasionally) – I, on the other hand, gave him many albums to sing on. But he has a devil-may-care attitude so what can one do. He did say thank you once and I nearly fell over onto a divan, oh, yes, I nearly fell over onto a divan. If a school or community or stock theater wanted to present a show that had had a Broadway revival with a revised book, are they stuck doing the new version or can they still do the original script? I don’t know a definitive answer, but I believe that it varies from show to show. Does the original librettist (or their estate) have any control over this? It would depend on their contract, who held the overall grand rights of the show, and what deal they or their estates signed when the revival was done.
Sandra asks how are the literary techniques in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado similar to those in Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever? Also, how are they different? To address the latter before the former: They are different in the following way – Edith Wharton wrote one of them and Edgar Allen Poe wrote the other. Also, they have totally different words in their respective titles, although there are certain words that do appear in both books, such as “the” and “and” and “who”. As to the literary techniques between the books, I find they both use sentences and paragraphs. Also, the first word in each sentence is capitalized. I hope this helps you on your paper. Did you know that the original title of Poe’s story was The Cask of Armadillo? But when an armadillo threatened a costly lawsuit, Mr. Poe changed it to Amontillado. Of course, changing it did no good because he was then sued by Chester Amontillado.
Michael Shayne asks if I can write one or two sentences as to what it was like working with the following people: Brent Barrett, Liz Callaway, Petula Clark, Jason Graae, Randy Graff, Debbie Gravitte, Judy Kaye, Rebecca Luker, Sally Mayes, Michelle Nicastro, Christianne Noll, Paige O’Hara, Helen Reddy, Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley and Twiggy. If they asked me I could write a book – oh, a Rodgers and Hart reference. Here goes: Brent – totally professional, easy to work with, takes direction as well as anyone I’ve ever worked with and is totally there to do the best he can. Liz – dreamy. Again, very open, there to do her best and wants to be very involved in everything. She’s an amazing talent. Petula – a legend. I loved every minute of working with her. Again, totally open to direction, a total pro and a very randy sense of humor. Working with her was a dream come true and we had a blast and laughed constantly. She was amazed that we could do an album as fast as we did, but she loved the experience. Jason – a laughfest, start to finish. Easy as pie, a wonderful person, and we adore each other so it’s just pure joy. Randy – it was a difficult album for me – I wasn’t thrilled with some of the charts and arrangements, but she and her musical director were hard-nosed about what they were doing. I should have taken more involvement early on, but I was in the middle of two other albums. However, in the studio, once we got used to each other, she was faboo, simply a wonderful singer/actress and she did a fantastic job and we had a great deal of fun. Debbie – I’ve known Debbie since she was nineteen. She’s a diva (in a good sense) and we love working together. She’s used to doing her thing, and I’m very strong about interpretation and subtlety and playing the lyric for all it’s worth, and she’s phenomenal to direct. I really do love singers who can take a note you give them, make it totally their own and unique and give you something fresh and wonderful. Judy – what a great person. Again, I’ve known her for ages, and we just get along great (this is a recurring theme here) and she’s a dream in the studio. Terrific singer/terrific actress. Rebecca – Rebecca was going through some bad personal problems when we did her album. I think she’s brilliant, but I must tell you that she did not understand the concept of “scratch vocals” (when we do the band I always have the singer do vocals on each song – then on three successive days they come back and do their final vocals). She just nailed practically everything because I’m not sure she understood she was coming back to do finals. Ninety percent of her album was from that first session which is pretty amazing. Sally – tough but fun, and again, we really understand each other and are on the same wavelength. Michelle – the nicest human being you’d ever want to meet and doing her four albums were a total treat. Christianne – one of the guys, and one of the most amazing vocal instruments ever – she can really do everything. Like most Broadway folk, her tendency is to want to “sell” but she’s very good at trusting me and listening and going to new places and trusting her subtle side. I adore her. Paige – I never really got close to Paige, and again I would like to have been more involved in the selection and arrangement process. But she’s very talented and we did have a nice time in the studio and I like her album. Helen – well, that’s a toughie. A great voice, but she doesn’t really like to listen, she just does her thing. She’s also very randy but not in as much fun a way as Petula. Still and all, when she opens her mouth the angels sing. Emily and Alice – what can I say? They are wonderful, each in their own way, and you couldn’t ask for better voices, nicer people, or a more wacky time. I’d work with either one any time, any place. Twiggy – well, I love Twiggs with a passion. In terms of great sessions, she’s in the top ten – she was just a blast and a dream to work with. She loved getting direction, craved it, and then delivered in spades when she got it. A funny story – when Tommy Tune came in to do his duet with her, I went up to him after the first take and said a couple of things, and he sort of looked at me funny. Twiggs saw it and said to him, “You listen to Bruce, he’s brilliant.” (brilliant is her favorite word). And Tommy listened and I simply am charmed to pieces by that duet. Whew, what a trip down memory lane.
Tom from Oz asks if I have any favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber how tunes. Sure – Tell Me on a Sunday is lovely, and so is Unexpected Song. I really like the tune of All I Ask of You and I love the song Laurie Beechman did from Jeeves, Half a Moment.
Jed asks if there is a long-running show, past or present, that ran so long that it made no sense to me. Not really. I mean, I have never understood the popularity of Cats, but people went and went and went again. Even when it was cool to like Cats (when it first opened) I didn’t really think it would ever have nine lives. I was surprised The Life lasted a year, and I was really surprised Titanic lasted as long as it did.
Jose asks if I’ve ever played a cast album backward. Well, the needle would never go in that direction even though I tried when I was a mere sprig of a twig of a lad of a youth. I suppose one could say that when I listen to Merrily We Roll Along I’m listening to it backward. But, no, I usually start at the beginning and go right through. I’m conventional in that and every other way, especially when I am in a dither. Who has surprised me in a role that I didn’t think they’d be able to pull off or they were not appropriate for. Certainly Phyllis Diller in Hello, Dolly! I thought it would be a joke and she was one of the best Dollys I’ve ever seen. Marin Mazzie surprised the hell out of me (no mean feat) in Kiss Me Kate because while I really like her, I had no idea she could do the comedy as well as she did. Do inchworms stop adding after sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two. Certain inchworms do, but others continue on although they are usually castigated for doing so.
Donna asks if she’s right in noting that the way a show is developed has changed since the golden age – aren’t workshops relatively new and wasn’t A Chorus Line developed through a series of workshops? Yes, and I am on record as saying that I don’t think all these workshops and endless readings are so healthy. Michael Bennett started it all with A Chorus Line, but it is much different today – fully staged workshops with lots of friends in attendance, with full publicity and now even the public in attendance. It’s really gone too far and shows like Seussical and Sweet Smell of Success have suffered for it. Both of those shows came out of their multiple workshops with such a sense of cockiness and sureness that when they opened out-of-town and totally didn’t work that their creators were so taken aback that they could never do all the fixing the shows needed, because they sat there and scratched their collective heads and said, “But the workshop was great.” The Producers did one go-through and then opened in Chicago, did the fix-up work they needed to and came in. What about heavy advance ticket sales? Donna read an article that said that society women’s groups were the impetus behind the huge advance for The Producers. Did that method exist before? Oh, my, yes. The theater party ladies have been around forever. In the golden age, they were absolutely instrumental in advance ticket sales and in making shows have long runs, and even insuring that a tour for the show would happen. They used to do special run-throughs or tab versions of new musicals for the theater party bookers.
George asks when I purchase movies or even TV shows do I prefer widescreen or pan-and-scan or does it matter? It matters very much – I always want the original aspect ratio of whatever film or TV show I’m purchasing. I want how it was shown originally – if that’s 1:33 (the old Academy ratio) that’s what I want. If it’s 1:85 (most post 1953 films were shown in and continue to be shown in that ratio) then that’s what I want, etc. Have I ever chosen not to buy a movie because the only available version was pan-and-scan. Sure. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, originally scope, is only available full-frame and I avoided it like the plague. I will buy certain 1:85 films if they’re full-frame even though they don’t thrill me. George then brings up Dick Tracy which he feels should have been in the Academy ratio because that’s the way it was originally shot. He feels they cropped it top and bottom to show it widescreen and feels it should have been full screen. Well, I’ve read this before, but it’s more complicated than that. While the creators of the film can say anything they like (and I’m not sure what they’ve said, frankly), the fact is that Dick Tracy was never shown full frame anywhere except on home video. There are only a handful of theaters in the US that even have the ability to show full frame. The creators of Dick Tracy shot the film and new how it would be projected in almost every theater in the US – i.e. 1:85. So, the current DVD of Dick Tracy replicates the theatrical version. I don’t want any film or tv show altered from the original aspect ratio it was projected or shown in. I endured years of Nudie Musical being shown on video full frame (open matte) where you could see over the tops of the sets and one of the most famous gags in the film was ruined because you could see the bottom of the frame. How many other Bruces have I known? Oh, a few, I suppose. I had a chiropractor named Bruce and I knew several other Bruces in school. What’s the most number of Bruces I’ve been with at one time? Two. Other than family, how many Kimmels have I known? I know of many other Kimmels but I don’t know them personally. What’s the one question I’ve been asked most often on Ask BK Day.? Surprisingly, we haven’t had a lot of repeat questions, and I can’t remember which ones were – although I’m pretty certain it was album-related.
Well, my goodness, I had some long-winded answers. However, I do hope I sufficiently let my hair down and provided some decent ones.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must travel hither and thither and then thither and hither all the while letting my hair down because frankly I have had it with my fershluganah hair. Don’t forget the live chat. I’ll have details tomorrow. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first toy you remember getting? And what was the first board game you ever got? I’ll check back later, but post away and post often and while you’re at it let your hair down just to teach it a lesson.