Well, dear readers, I’m looking forward to my signing this very evening at Barnes and Noble at The Grove. It begins at seven o’clock, so tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell the man in the street. I have chosen the selections I shall read, which differ slightly from what I’ve done in the past. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I watched the first forty-five minutes of Mr. Trevor Nunn’s production of Oklahoma! It’s on a PAL DVD. I’m sure it’s a lovely production but you sure wouldn’t know it from this DVD. Why is it so hard for the people who do these to know how to do them correctly? If you’re shooting a stage production there will be a certain amount of artifice. Sorry, you cannot get away from it much as you might like. But they’ve made the silly and ridiculous decision to shoot everything within the proscenium. The immediate problem with this is that you never, not once, get the geography of the set, from a front and center perspective. Okay, that’s a bad thing, but rather than have the courage of their convictions, at the end of every scene they cut to a camera which is at the rear of the stage looking out at the audience. So, not only do we not get geography, we don’t even get to see the set changes. We do get to see the audience, however. We have lots of shots of the audience before the show starts, during scene changes (fully lit, by the way – BTW, in Internet lingo), clapping wildly at the end of numbers. But once a scene begins we are within that proscenium two inches from the actors and the audience is simply gone. No laughs, no sound from them whatsoever. Terrible. It looks like Stroman’s dances are fun, but it’s hard to tell because you never seen them from the front other than a couple of times, and then the front view is never wide enough because we’re within the proscenium. Terrible. I mean, they’re shooting a stage show – by doing it the way they’re doing it they’re almost trying to hide that fact, but then they suddenly don’t hide it. It’s schizo and it’s a load of hooey. Hugh Jackman is a manly Curley, the Laurie is non-descript and ordinary as is Ado Annie, I wanted to kill the actor playing Ali Hakim (that’s how annoying he was), Aunt Eller was good, but this production seems, at least at the forty-five minute mark, to have none of the magic of Mr. Nunn’s Carousel. Then again, if Carousel had been filmed like this it probably wouldn’t have any magic either. Someday they’ll get it right – maybe our very own Brent Barrett’s Kiss Me Kate will be better.
Speaking of our very own Brent Barrett, his marvelous and sparkling Unseemly Interview will be up tomorrow. You simply must check it out because Brent is charming, funny and candid, not necessarily in that order.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I do believe I have some excellent questions to answer, don’t I?
Yes, Virginia, I have some excellent questions and by gum and by golly I am going to answer them because frankly or even gregoryly I’m just a boy who cain’t say no – oh, an Oklahoma! reference.
William E. Lurie asks if there are songs from Mr. Irving Berlin’s version of the Mizener Brothers story (the same story Mr. Sondheim and Mr. Weidman are telling now in Bounce or whatever the hell it’s called) other than the three I recorded. It’s been awhile since I went through all that material, but if memory serves a couple of others ended up in his aborted movie project, Say It With Music, but I really don’t remember to be absolutely certain. Who was doing the book to Mr. Berlin’s version? If it’s not in the booklet notes, I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Among the other Berlin material, were there any shows far enough along to be reconstructed and produced today? The way it worked was, I was allowed to go through all the files, but they were just filled with music sheets, so it’s hard to know what shows were in what stage. Some of the songs we chose were literally just melody lines and lyrics with the most rudimentary chord symbols. Lanny Meyers and I had to put ourselves in a Berlin frame of mind to harmonize those particular songs, and when the family heard them they were quite certain that Mr. Berlin would have been pleased as punch. Have I ever considered doing a revue of the material I recorded? I have considered many things and that is one of them.
Matthew asks if the CDs I made of Overtures was for personal use or did I actually produce two CDs with Overtures on them. Nope, I just made my own home-grown Overtures CDs for my very own listening pleasure.
George asks if I can give the proper pronunciation of Varese Sarabande. Yes, I can: Vuh-rehz Sarah band.
JMK asks if the rumor about the Tourette’s benefit being cancelled is true. Yes, sadly it is. The charity decided to cancel based on the ticket sales. Unlike the LA concert, we’d told them they were responsible for getting the word out and for ticket sales, and basically they just didn’t get the word out enough, although, that said, I think if they’d put a concentrated effort into the two weeks we had left I think they would have been fine.
Jrand52 asks if I was ever of a certain mind about a performer and then after meeting said performer realized I was of the wrong mind. Yes, shockingly, Laurie Beechman and Brent Barrett. I was very slow in coming around to working with either of them, but once I actually met them and got to know them, I knew it would be magic. If I knew a performer was best for a project but I was personally at odds with said performer would I cast someone who might not be as good, but with whom I could get along. I’ve used the expression, life is too short, and I believe in it. If I didn’t enjoy working with someone it wouldn’t matter how good they were, it’s not worth the time and energy and negativity. I would simply find someone who could do the job as well or better and that would be that.
Tom from Oz asks who was the best Gypsy Rose Lee I’ve seen on stage or film. Did I ever meet the real Gypsy? Have I read her autobiography? I thought Christa Moore was the best Gypsy ever. But I also liked Natalie Wood very much, and I thought Cynthia Gibb did okay, too. Never met the real Gypsy but I did meet the gypsy in my soul once. Haven’t read her autobiography. Do I know of any Baby Junes who have gone onto stardom? Yes, June Havoc.
Jay asks what my thoughts are on intermissions, specifically the fact that the revisal of Anyone Can Whistle is not two acts rather than three. I think Anyone Can Whistle was originally in three acts partially because of set problems. I’m sure it would work fine in two acts. The Most Happy Fella works very well in three, but might also work in two. What I do not like is when they insert an intermission into a show that originally was designed not to have one.
Kerry asks why in the song Everybody Wants to be Sondheim does Mr. Guy Haines pronounce it as “Sond I’m” without the “h”. Well, that is how he pronounces it, and ironically it is how I pronounce it, too. I suppose one could sound the “h” but it’s not nearly as smooth to sing it that way.
George mentions that on Brent Barrett’s Kander and Ebb album the song Give Me Love is paired with Only Love, but Only Love is not listed on the track list. Was it an oversight or because there wasn’t enough Only Love to warrant listing it? I haven’t heard it in a while, but I’m sure that’s the reason.
Sandra asks if I had an essay due tomorrow on the use of symbolism in Mr. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (not 1984, dear reader Sandra), what would I say? First of all, I love Nineteen Eighty-Four, it’s one of the greatest books ever written in my humble opinion. I, however, would not talk about the use of symbols in Nineteen Eighty-Four, I would talk about the use of cymbals in Nineteen Eighty-Four. That is a much better topic for an essay. Many bands in Nineteen Eighty-Four used cymbals, and in the novel by Mr. Orwell, the cymbals crash with relevance on almost every page.
Dennis asks if out of all the things I’ve had the good fortune to do, is there something I would love to do but have never had the chance to do. Yes, yes, and yes. I would love to be in a Broadway show, that is my great dream. Barring that, I would love to have a show of my own devising on Broadway, and that may yet happen. What is Mr. Jason Graae up to? He has been doing lots and lots of concerts all over the country.
KT asks if I’ve kept up with my tap dancing since The First Nudie Musical. No, I’m afraid I haven’t. I’m afraid that when I went dancing last Friday night I looked like quite the buffoon. Do I get excited about helping out and encouraging promising young-or-otherwise performers, be it writers, performers or musicians? Not only do I get excited, I put my money where my mouth is – I’ve hired many unknowns in all those fields to work on my albums, movies and shows. I love new talent. Would I like to teach or do workshops in comedy, production, music, writing? I’ve lectured quite a few times and I’ve really enjoyed it. One of the things I’ve discussed doing was having something like a master’s class with singers, specifically geared to studio work and song interpretation. I would love doing that. I would also enjoy teaching and working with writers, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go hither and thither and also yon, and I must relax and rest my voice so I have a sparkling tone this evening. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite underrated scores, the ones you probably listen to more than the classics? In other words, your guilty pleasure stage and film musical scores. I’m sure we’ve done at least a variation on this topic, but probably not in a long while and I always find your answers interesting and we do have new posters, too. I’ll start – Minnie’s Boys, Whoop Up, Wildcat, Take Me Along, Smile, Lolita, My Love, The Yearling, Passion Flower Hotel, Dance a Little Closer and quite a few others. Your turn.