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June 17, 2007:

THE DAY OF THE FATHER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, once again I must write these here notes in a hurry, for I am home late and the notes were supposed to be up a half-hour ago. But, before I go any further, might I just say Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there? I know we have a lot of mothers, but fathers can sometimes be big mothers, too, and I’m happy to say that I fall in that category. Have you ever fallen in a category? It’s very painful, especially if it’s a deep category. Where was I? Oh, yes, Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there, including my very own self. Speaking of my very own self, my very own self is quite sore all over because I spent most of yesterday lugging boxes all over the garage in an effort to find a few thing and also to reorganize and make it easier to get to all the Kritzerland product. So, first I got up, then had a bit of breakfast at an excellent little jernt not too far from here called Vivian’s. I then came right back home and began the garage task. Five hours later, laden with sweat, I was finished and I must say the garage looks much better and everything is now easy to find. I’m also happy to report that I found the two or three boxes I was hoping to find, and I took three boxes-worth of stuff into the house, including a whole slew of interesting cassettes and DATS that I’ve now begun to transfer to CD. I’ve already done a little Assorted BK compilation consisting of all my music for the Danny DeVito cable film, The Ratings Game. I haven’t heard that stuff since doing it in the early 80s. I was hired to write a bunch of faux TV themes for the film, which is about a mythical TV network called MBC. Hearing them again was rather amazing – I wrote network promos, about eight show themes and even a chorus number done for the network affiliates. The TV themes are so right on the money you’d swear they were real – I was very proud of what I heard and, in fact, some of it actually amazed me (I not only wrote theme-only stuff, but also lyrics to several of the themes). I found the musical number I wrote to another cable show, The Execution Of Frank Musso. I’d totally forgotten the number (I wrote the music, not the lyric), and it was really fun – I had Lanny Meyers do a big Nelson Riddle-type orchestration (we had a full orchestra for it), since it was supposed to be a Sinatra-like My Way song. I also found a couple of songs I wrote for a musical Samuel French licenses called Yearbook, a musical (long before High School Musical) which was written expressly for high schoolers to do. Various composer/lyricists contributed songs to the show. I have two songs represented in the show, and I wrote one that didn’t get used because I wrote it for a teacher to sing, and there aren’t any teachers. I suggested they have a kid do it, pretending to be the teacher, but they didn’t want to. It’s a shame because it’s a really funny Sweeney Todd-esque number called The Dissection Of The Frog. It made me laugh out loud hearing it again. The other song on the DAT was the one I knew they’d use for sure – it’s called Nerd and it’s a really pretty, heartfelt and amusing song about, you guessed it, a nerd. The other song I have in the show is called Three Friends, but it wasn’t on the DAT and I have no memory of how it goes or even what it’s about, other than three friends. The final song I found was my favorite of this batch – again, I completely had forgotten about this song or that I’d even written it. A friend of a friend was getting married in the early 90s and I was invited to the wedding. So, as my wedding gift, I wrote them a song called Truly Married, and recorded it professionally. Hearing it again, I think it’s one of the simplest and best songs I’ve ever written – and Guy Haines sings it nicely, too. I then had to take a shower and be on my way to Hollywood High School, as our very own Miss Adriana Patti had invited me to see their production of A Chorus Line.

Last night, I saw the Hollywood High School production of A Chorus Line. I’d seen one other high school production over at my alma mater, Hamilton High – that production used the original staging and choreography, and I was amazed that the kids got through it as well as they did. Hollywood High, on the other hand, didn’t use the original choreography for anything except One. I, in fact, have never seen a production of A Chorus Line that didn’t use the original staging and choreography so it was interesting to say the least. While the choreography wasn’t that wonderful, the kids did a beautiful job of doing it, and I must say they sung the show very well. Interestingly, they cut curse words but kept Dance: Ten, Looks: Three intact as well as all the other dirty stuff. In any case, the first of many odd things happened during At The Ballet, when all the cut dancers from the beginning of the show came back to do the number. To say it was jarring would be an understatement, but I assume the director wanted those kids to have a chance to have more stage time. Unfortunately, it kind of negates what the show is about. They came back for Nothing, one of the most nightmarishly bad stagings of a number I’ve ever seen – it’s one for the history books, actually. During the first verse of the song, all the cut dancers come on and pretend they’re in Karp’s class, completely pulling focus from Diana. This keeps up for the whole number. Then, at the end, when she says she heard that Karp has died – wait for it, ’cause you’re not going to believe it – they carry on a coffin and cross the stage with it. I thought I was in some surreal world whilst I was watching it. They put in an intermission after Hello Twelve – this piece simply doesn’t work with an intermission, but, I suppose, they had to sell their goodies. Then, the cut dancers came back to “assist” Cassie in her solo, The Music and the Mirror. Now, there’s no way to get around what that number is about – Cassie, the music, and the mirror. It’s a cathartic and amazing solo turn, but not in this production, which looked like a Kay Thompson number. Also, for some odd reason, Zach played her solo scene preceding the number ON stage with her. He also played a good deal of Paul’s monologue ON stage with Paul. Methinks the director is not really understanding what A Chorus Line is about. And then, after the winners are chosen, the light fades out and we sit there for three minutes while a big set is brought on and only then do we get the finale. Strange as the evening was, I was very taken with the kids and their energy and they should all be very proud of themselves. The orchestra was union and sounded amazing – they’d give the Broadway pit band a run for their money.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is, after all, the day of the father and this father must get his beauty sleep.

Today, I shall be celebrating Father’s Day, what with being a father and all. I wonder if my darling daughter will call her darling father and say hello? That remains to be seen. That is always remaining to be seen, because that always likes to be the center of attention. I’ll be lunching with Mr. Kevin Spirtas and then I think I may even have an invite to supper. Other than that, I intend spending all day transferring DATS and cassettes to CDR.

Tomorrow and much of this week will be spent in rehearsal with Miss Joan Ryan – we start staging this week. I also have many meetings and a few meals planned, and it will be quite a week.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, lunch, be lazy, make transfers, and then sup, and perhaps even watch a DVD or two in the evening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we wish all fathers the happiest of days.

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