Well, dear readers, the countdown to Christmas has begun. I believe today is the day we start singing The Twelve Days Of Christmas. Of course, we’ve exhausted that particular lyric many times in many different ways, so I don’t know that we’ll go there this year. And yet – on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree. First of all, have you ever actually SEEN a pear tree? I certainly haven’t and I’ve seen plenty o’ trees in my time. I’ve seen apple trees and orange trees and lemon trees and people trees and waffle trees, but I’ve never, not once, seen a pear tree. I have, however, seen a partridge – six of them, to be exact. Shirley, Laurie, Keith, Danny, Chris, and Tracy. We call this particular species of the partridge, The Partridge Family. Frankly, I think it was awfully nice of my true love to give me such a thoughtful gift on this first day of Christmas, don’t you? What the HELL am I talking about? Don’t I have notes to write? Isn’t it almost the midnight hour? Speaking of the midnight hour, yesterday was a quite lovely day. For example, I got up. That was quite lovely. I then packaged up a few more items to ship, and toddled over to the postal office, where, I’m happy to say, there was not one person in line. I then did another errand, and then it was time to toddle over to the West Side to lunch with our very own Hisaka. She gave me a lovely belated birthday present, a large book of Haiku. We lunched at Dolores, which she loves. She told me that she will be coming back to the site, probably early in the New Year. I then did a few more errands, then came back to the Valley, picked up one of the several packages that are overdue, and then came home and had a brief meeting with Mr. Kevin Spirtas, in anticipation of our lunch meeting today. I then watched a DVD screener, about which more in a moment, then I decided to do a little DVD and CD Spring cleaning even though it isn’t even Spring. I took a big bag o’ stuff over to Amoeba and got a nice amount of credit – and was happy there was no one in the trade-in line, a rare occurrence. I picked up a few new things, and a couple of Christmas gifts for people. I then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a DVD screener of the upcoming PBS special, Words and Music by Jerry Herman. It’s a ninety-minute look at Mr. Herman and his work and the program, like Mr. Herman, is a charmer. It doesn’t delve very deep, but it does present a nice glimpse of this very talented man. The show is filled with some amazing clips of the original Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Grand Tour, Dear World, Mack and Mabel and others – most of these I’d never seen and they’re astonishing to watch. There are interviews with Fred Ebb, Charles Strouse, Michael Feinstein (who sings a few things), Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury, George Hearn, Charles Nelson Reilly, Arthur Laurents, Don Pippin (one of my favorite people), and others, and a fun glimpse of our very own Jason Graae working with Jerry on the Colony Theater production of The Grand Tour. One interesting thing is that they don’t hide the fact that other writers were brought in during the Hello, Dolly! out-of-town tryout, and that whole section of the program is very interesting, as is Mr. Herman’s very frank and touching discussion of losing his partner to AIDS. As most of you know, I produced the revival cast album of Hello, Dolly! and also did a Paige O’Hara Jerry Herman album, and I found Jerry to be a warm and delightful person, and also someone who knows exactly what he wants, and all of this comes through loud and clear – the show is a must for musical theater fans, and I hope that younger theatre fans tune in so that they can see (and hear) show tunes that not only illuminate character, but that also have the kinds of melody and lyrics and, more importantly, style, that are becoming a lost art. And, of course, as soon as the show is over, you’ll just want to grab all your Jerry Herman original cast albums and revel in some of those glorious songs. As for me, I’ve been singing Put On Your Sunday Clothes for the last three hours (and doing the choreography – scary). The show airs on December 31st.
I then watched a motion picture I TIVOd some weeks ago, entitled The Manhattan Project, one of those 80s War Games things written and directed by Marshall Brickman. It’s funny to watch these films now, to see just how cookie-cutter they all were – they all look and sound exactly the same, which is, of course, the complaint I have about today’s films (it’s worse today). The Manhattan Project is about a precocious and brilliant teen (what else) who builds a nuclear bomb (what else). It’s inane, but the film has two saving graces – well, three: John Lithgow, who is just a wonderful actor. Occasionally funny one-liners from Mr. Brickman, and an absolutely knockout score by Philippe Sarde, that almost, ALMOST, makes you think you’re watching a terrific film, which, of course, you aren’t. It’s the kind of score that American composers simply don’t know how to write anymore, or, if they do, the kind they aren’t allowed to write anymore – you know, scores that actually help the film, get under the skin of the characters, have melody and variety, and don’t just drone and thump.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m trying to figure out what to do with this fershluganah pear tree, not to mention The Partridge Family.
I wonder what my true love will give me next? You never know what my true love has up his/her sleeve. Today, I hae a few morning errands to attend to, then a lunch meeting, then some afternoon errands, so it’s a busy little day.
Tomorrow, it’s more of the same, and then I’m seeing a show at the El Portal Theatre entitled The Kid From Brooklyn, which is about Danny Kaye. It hasn’t gotten very good reports, but I loved Mr. Kaye and the fellow who plays him is supposed to be very good. I will, of course, have a full report.
I don’t have plans for the weekend, other than to finally watch the DVD of Hairspray. Other than that, it’s just sending out Christmas cards and such, and relaxing with my brand spanking new pear tree.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, drive about in my motor car, have a lunch meeting, do errands, perhaps pick up a package or three, and maybe even do some whatnot. Today’s topic of discussion: That’s easy – what are your all-time favorite Jerry Herman songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I highly anticipate what my true love has in store for me.