Well, dear readers, I have to say that Kritzerland at the Gardenia 15 – Kimmelsongs – could not have gone better. It was just a wonderful evening straight down the line. First of all we had a really full house, much fuller than I was led to believe we’d have. But not only that, it was a really stellar crowd and included some folks that I had no idea would be attending. So, in addition to our very own Mr. Richard Sherman and his ever-lovin’ Elizabeth, we also had Mr. Mike Stoller and his ever-lovin’ Corky Hale – I thought it was so nice of him to come, a real class act, Mr. Stoller is. Also, next to them were the eternally beautiful Lee Meriwether and Bridget Hanley – had no idea they were coming. Also in attendance, our very own Mr. Nick Redman and his ever-lovin’ Julie Kirgo, Barbara Deutsch, the beautiful Susan Buckner (she’s the first person who sings in Honey, Watcha Doin’ Tonight), cousin Dee Dee, our friend Nancy Lee (she did the artwork for the Nudie Musical main titles) and former dear reader Panni. Plus our regulars, like Adryan Russ, Doug Haverty, The Singer, friends Tina and Joanna, Michael Sterling (he books the Vitello’s room, which is where these shows will be moving in January), cabaret’s best friend Les Traub, Clent Bowers, Melody’s dad, my pal Ashley Palmer, Outside The Box’s editor Marshall Harvey, our very own Amy and Mark, Vincent Jan and his lovely wife, and lots of others I’m forgetting at the moment. It was a fantastic audience. All attendees got a free Nudie Musical CD.
The show, for me, was very emotional – to hear these amazing singers do my songs was just so special. Our MD, Richard Berent did a great job. And, as it turned out, I had no vocal problems at all and I had a blast singing the three songs I did. I opened with Opening Numbers, which really went well – patter got lots of good reaction, too. Then Shannon hit The Lights and the Smiles out of the park. That was followed by Alet Taylor’s wonderful rendition of When You’re Waiting For Love. Then Melody killed with Annie, which was followed by a terrific Kevin Symons doing No Letting Go from Stages. Then it was back to Alet for her kick-ASS I Need An Earthman from The Brain From Planet X. Shannon then did Simply from the stage version of Nudie – for me, especially, it was a real highlight of the evening – just beautifully sung. Melody came back and socked home Melodyland and was captivating as always. Then it was guest star Jason Graae – he didn’t really have enough time to learn his song, and so he had the lyrics with him, but he was still hilarious doing All About Men from The Brain. That was followed by another Brain song and my personal favorite from the show, Here On Earth, delivered perfectly by Shannon and Kevin (with Melody playing daughter Donna – we did the little scene in the middle of the number).
Then came the Dancing Dildos – three of the original movie dildos stopped the show cold. It was truly hilarious. I think a lot of the material we did was a little shocking to Mr. Sherman but he told me that he truly loved everything in the evening. I then did Chinese Food In Bed, which, I must say, of all the songs I’ve written that aren’t from shows, really seems to go over best, which is why I think it’s had a life in cabaret. Kevin did The World Of Tomorrow from The Brain, again really delivering it perfectly (he would and hopefully will be a great Fred Bunson one of these days). Then Alet came back and did The Burning Bush from the stage version of Nudie Musical. Lots and lots of laughs – it’s sometimes hard to do these kinds of numbers outside the show (when we did The Burning Bush in the staged reading, the laughs were so huge I thought people were going to die), but I set it up very well, and Alet, who did it in the reading, delivered the goods. It’s a pretty randy and outrageous number. Next up was I Want To Eat Your Face, from The Creature Wasn’t Nice, sung by the likes of me – I was actually taken aback by the response to it, which was pretty fantastic. The penultimate number was What Do I Do Now from my musical version of The Comedy of Errors. It’s a really hard song – very long, and really requires a terrific actor to have it not all sound the same at the same level – Shannon’s interpretation was thrilling, exciting, and aces all the way. The final song was delivered by Melody – a song I wrote to do in my act – called Sing-A-Long. It begins very tunefully and slowly basically just saying that it’s a very easy song to sing a long to and to just listen carefully to the sing a long part. Then she launches into the actual sing a long part and it’s really fast, really complicated lyrically, and jam-packed with word after word in quick succession. Then we ask the audience to sing a long and we have the words printed on a chart – so small that it’s almost impossible to read them, although people were really trying. It’s a really funny number and Melody did great.
After the show, we had lots of photo ops (I’ll hopefully get copies in the next day or so to post), and then Doug, Adryan, The Singer, and I went to the Coral Café for a bite to eat. It was a heavenly night any way you look at it, and, for some in the audience, who don’t really know the songwriter side of me, there was some genuine surprise (good surprise) and the material, especially comedy songs that actually get laughs.
Prior to all that, I got up around nine o’clock after not getting more than two or three hours of sleep. It was one of those nights where I really needed the sleep but I began thinking about different projects and that was that – I could not fall asleep. Once up, I did some work on the computer, I did the four-mile jog, I did some errands and whatnot and did some writing. Even though there was a package waiting for me at the mail place I never had time to get over there.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get some sort of beauty sleep and it’s almost two-thirty in the morning.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a decent night’s beauty sleep. After that, I have to do the four-mile jog, a ton of errands and whatnot, pick up the package that’s waiting and hopefully a few others, and then I have to collate music, make CDs and get them over to the LACC students who are doing Lost and Unsung.
Tomorrow will be more of the same. Saturday, I’ll be seeing Richard Sherman at one-thirty so he can sign the Chitty booklets. And I have to write some quick liner notes for Melody’s CD, listen to the master, and get it and the off-Broadway cast album reissue ready to announce on Monday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, do errands and whatnot, pick up some packages, eat something very light but amusing, collate music and make CDs, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What living celebrity, author, composer, lyricist, raconteur, politician, or anyone else at the top of their game would you like to take supper with. And what would you talk about? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland happy that Kritzerland at the Gardenia 15 was a success.