Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s number twenty-three was a rousing success and one of our all-time best shows. Everyone did a stellar job, and the two performers who were a bit ill at ease in rehearsals, really took the few notes I gave and made everything work wonderfully. I had so much fun doing the patter for this show. When I was introducing One More Walk Around the Garden from Carmelina, I said it was based on the film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell. Someone from the audience shouted out, correcting my pronunciation of Buona. That’s all I needed. I said, “Hey, I’m a Jew what do I know from Italian. We say Good Yontiff, Mrs. Campbell. I love when that stuff happens. We had a very large and wonderfully appreciative audience and there were lots o’ laughs throughout. And then all those gloriously glorious Alan Jay Lerner songs. Four days ago, I decided to put I Remember It Well in the show as a duet for Shelly Markham and me. I found a funny way into it and I thought it would be amusing for two guys to do it. And boy was it – it landed better than I could have ever hoped for. Shelly was right there every step of the way, and the interplay between us was really funny. I had built into it several stops where we could both do takes and those worked splendidly. Maybe we should do an act. But it was really about our marvelously marvelous cast – Chelsea Emma Franko, Gordon Goodman, Kim Huber, Dennis Kyle, and Jane Noseworthy, along with our special guest, Andrea Marcovicci, who was her usual luminous self. I could not have been more pleased. Going into this last week it felt a teeny bit weird not having a usual cast member with us, but it all worked out fine and I feel really good about our shows and will continue on to number twenty-four, which will either be our tribute show to Laurie Beechman (what I announced) or a Burt Bacharach show. I’ve wanted to do the Laurie tribute ever since we did the Michelle Nicastro tribute, but it’s kind of a weird show to try and put together, since we only did two albums together – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Album and No One is Alone. So, I’ll ponder today and decide.
There were so many fun people in attendance, including our very own Mr. Lanny Meyers, who did the orchestrations for Brent Barrett’s Alan Jay Lerner CD. After the show, a few of us went downstairs – they had dessert and I had dinner.
Prior to all that, I’d had nine lovely hours of sleep. I got up, answered e-mails, and then did a two-mile jog, after which I decided to buckle down, Winsocki and write some liner notes. I have about six sets to write, but I decided on Follies first. I wrote the first draft in about two and a half hours and I’m sure it will need a lot of finessing, but at least I got it done. Then it was time to mosey on over to The Federal for our sound check. The move to The Federal has turned out to be a good one and I hope it will be our home for some time to come.
After I got home, I had a ton of e-mails to go through, and that was that. Basically, it was a lovely way to begin July. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get another night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall be having a breakfast with Alet Taylor – she and her kids are moving back to New York mid-week to live and be with her hubby Andy, who is in Once. I will really miss them, but I’ll get to see her when I’m in town in August to record a Christmas CD with the East Coast Singer. Then the helper will come and get invoices and a bunch of stuff has to be shipped before she leaves town for a week on Tuesday. She’ll be back just in time for the shipping of The Wayward Bus/The Enemy Below. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, and the rest of the day will be finessing the Follies notes, and doing some other liner notes.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week is basically going to be working on all these projects we’re trying to finish up – about eight of them all told, plus prepping and announcing a new title for a week from today. There will also be meetings and meals and errands and whatnot.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have breakfast with Alet Taylor, ship stuff, hopefully pick up some packages, finesse liner notes and write new liner notes. Today’s topic of discussion: Which show do you think would be better to do next – the Laurie Beechman tribute or a Bacharach show? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that our twenty-third show was truly wonderful.