Well, dear readers, I’m back from a wildly entertaining show with our very own Mr. Jason Graae and the wonderful Faith Prince – The Prince and the Showboy. The Federal was jam-packed and completely sold out. Fortunately, we had a front and center table, which consisted of my very own self, our very own Kritzerland designer, Doug Haverty, and Sami Staitman, a very talented twelve-year-old and her mother, Karen. At the table next to us, the delightfully delightful, Joanne Worley. Also in attendance, the great Karen Morrow and her pal Beverly Sanders, Beth Malone, Heather Lee, Jason’s ever-lovin’ Glen Fretwell, Jason’s lovely mother, Ben Lanzarone and his ever-lovin’ Ilene Graff, and lots of other fun folks.
Faith and Jason have incredible chemistry together and their duo bits are really fun. They switch off doing their solo things – Jason doing some of his usual repertoire and Faith, I presume, doing some of hers and both score big. Jason did sing a song I hadn’t heard before, very funny, about someone who’s obsessed – really obsessed – with a woman named Claire. Faith did her brilliant rendition of The Boy From… from The Mad Show, which she’d done in Hey, Love: The Music of Mary Rodgers, which I, of course, recorded. The show breezed by, both were in excellent voice and, of course, you can’t ask for a better musical director than Alex Rybeck.
After the show, I introduced Sami to as many folks as possible, including Faith and Jason. In the show, Faith talks for a minute about doing The King and I – she replaced Donna Murphy – and how she couldn’t whistle. Neither could Donna – they both had off-stage whistlers do their whistling. But how many here know that on the cast album that I produced Donna Murphy’s whistling was done by the one and only Guy Haines? The things you learn here at haineshisway.com. Apparently, Faith is in some TV show that Sami loves, so that was fun. Sami will be doing an episode of Outside the Box, one we’ll be shooting in the next few weeks. The food, as always at The Federal, was terrific. In fact, the grilled artichoke was the best it’s ever been, as was the fried chicken breast. Instead of dessert, we all split an order of their yummilicious garlic Parmesan french fries.
Prior to that, I woke up for some unknown reason at four-thirty in the morning. Rather than try to go back to sleep, I just stayed up until six, when it was time to announce the new Kritzerland title, Andre Previn’s wonderful score to All in a Night’s Work. Then I went back to bed and was asleep by six-thirty. The telephonic device rang several times, but I just kept falling back asleep, finally getting up at eleven. I think I got around six hours total sleep – not enough, but better than two.
I was supposed to do a telephonic interview for the book, but something got miscommunicated somewhere and it didn’t happen and will be rescheduled at some point this week. I did some errands and whatnot, picked up my new order of books (I had to get fifty more copies) and a couple of other small packages, returned the telephonic calls, printed out orders, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I finished watching the third Beck movie, Cop Killer. The culprit wasn’t much of a surprise, but that’s not really the deal with the Beck movies (and I’d guess the books, as well). This one was very good – simply directed, well plotted, with excellent performances. I then watched the final episode of this season’s Mad Men – it just seemed to meander around and then ended. For me, this season has been very erratic, with the majority of episodes not thrilling, at least for me. There were a handful of episodes where they found the magic and the cast is wonderful.
Then I found out that Andrea Marcovicci will be our July guest star – we still cannot find two men – it’s really unbelievable and I’m frankly ready to dispense with men altogether, although that’s hard to do in an Alan Jay Lerner show. So, the search continues. Then it was on to The Federal.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep because soon I shall be on my way to the city that never sleeps and I must be rested and in good repair.
Today, I shall hopefully get up after a good night’s beauty sleep, then I shall try to cast two men, finish picking songs, get music, meet with our musical director, Shelly Markham (probably tomorrow), hopefully pick up some packages, eat something light but amusing, and do some errands and whatnot.
Tomorrow, I have to pack and relax and go to bed early for my early morning Thursday flight to the city that never sleeps. Thursday night I have a dinner at Angus McIndoe, then Friday is the book signing and dinner, Saturday is a rehearsal as is Sunday, and then show time is Sunday night, and Monday early afternoon I shall be on my way back home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, cast two men, finish song choices, get music, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then see a staged reading of excerpts from two musicals. Today’s topic of discussion: What are the most memorable television specials you’ve ever seen? And the worst? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where the faerie pipers shall lull me to sleep with their faerie pipes.