Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s 37, our three-year anniversary show is done and I’m still riding high on our two show day. I can’t say that doing the show twice was easy (at least for me), but both our matinee audience and our evening audience were so much fun and thankfully I got my second wind just before the evening show began. The afternoon show was really fun, mostly because about eighty percent of the people there were seeing their first Kritzerland show. The show went very smoothly – a handful of flubbed lyrics, but everyone covered and behaved professionally and the audience was with them every step of the way. The first show had lots of laughs, although some stuff worked better in the second show in terms of patter because the first audience didn’t really know the various running gags we do. Lots of honest cheers in both shows – not the annoying woo-hooing that I loathe so much, but honest, deserved response. The cast was very consistent in both shows in terms of landing the material. And what a cast it was – Dan Callaway, Kay Cole, Joshua Finkel, Jane Noseworthy and Valerie Perri, along with Jenna Lea Rosen, Sami Staitman and Sarah Staitman, and our guest star Sharon McNight. All brilliantly accompanied by John Boswell. Here we all are backstage just before the evening show.
There were so many highlights in this show – the anniversary shows are fun for me because I’m not bound by a theme – it’s just songs I love that we haven’t been able to do before. Dan Callaway did such a beautiful job with The Kid Inside – he actually went up at both shows, but he recovered quickly and his performance was so powerful and heartfelt that the audience loved it. Valerie did the best As If We Never Said Goodbye ever. Jane hit it out of several ballparks with the rather unique version of Getting Married Today. One little vocal thing I gave her at rehearsal got the biggest laugh of the evening in an evening that was filled with laughs. Kay was so endearing on One Boy, as if the clock had been turned back fifty years to when she was playing Kim on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie. Josh socked home She Touched Me and the audience ate it up like a hot fudge sundae. And Sharon McNight killed with Some People, an amazing performance. Sami and Sarah got a huge ovation for their Two’s Company and Jenna stopped the show cold with Dear Mr. Gershwin – not only her wonderful singing of it, but her incredible tap dancing. The Yiddish Sondheim did what it’s always done – got huge laughs for the entire duration of the number. Everyone’s other numbers were equally as good – I’m just listing my personal highlights. But for me, the most moving thing in the evening was hearing Sami, Sarah and Jenna do my song, Three Friends. Each of them captured the pain and emotion in their solo verses and then shone in the choruses. Elizabeth Sherman told me it moved her to tears and I heard that from several others. I could not have been happier with their performance. I had a blast with the patter and kept energy high in both shows. And the Sing-a-Long number was really fun – people really tried and it was just very funny. I’ve been doing that number since 1986 and it’s never failed me yet. Here’s Jenna with the irrepressible Dick Sherman.
We had some interesting folks in attendance – ASCAP’s Michael Kerker, my doppelganger David Ankrum, who played Adam in the second pilot of Tabitha and who did the twelve episode series, songwriter Harriet Schock, who I’d met with FLJ a year or so ago – that was who I remember from the matinee. For the evening show, we had Richard and Elizabeth Sherman, Tom Hatten and his ever-lovin’ Pete Menefee, cousins Dee Dee and Alan, Dee Dee’s mom and her friend, neighbors Tony Slide and Bob Gitt, our very own Amy and Mark, our very own VinTek and wife, musical director Tom Griep (he’ll be back with us for the Sherman Brothers show), American Idol’s Michael Orland, Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, Kay’s ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont (Barry, Kay, and Michael were all in Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway), director/actor Todd Nielson, Cabaret Scenes’ Les Traub, and lots of other wonderful folk. I got lots of nice compliments, especially from the matinee newbies – several told me they’re not going to miss any Kritzerland shows from now on. After the second show, I was completely zonked.
Many of us went over to Little Toni’s after the show, including co-producer Adryan Russ, who works so hard on these shows. I’d only had my artichoke and I’d done a three-mile jog so I’d burned all that off – so I had one piece of pizza and some noodles with marinara and two meat balls, along with a salad with Eyetalian dressing, all very good. Prior to all that, I’d gotten about eight and a half hours of sleep, did a three-mile jog and that was all I had time for before going to sound check. Our matinee was very full, and our evening show was completely sold out, although, as always, some no-shows – I just don’t understand people who reserve and then either cancel the day of the show or who just don’t show up.
Today, I will hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. At some point I’ll jog, then at six I got to Tony Slide and Bob Gitt’s Labor Day partay.
The rest of the week is writing liner notes, prepping our new release announcement, finishing casting, finishing choosing and assigning songs, gathering up the music, meetings and meals, and seeing a few shows.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Black Bottom, for today is the birthday of dear reader Ron Pulliam. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Ron Pulliam. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER RON PULLIAM!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, do a jog, relax and attend a Labor Day partay. Today’s topic of discussion: What will you be doing on this Labor Day? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, exhausted but thrilled with our two anniversary shows.