Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle reciting Ode to a Nightingale by Keats. Does anyone still recite Ode to a Nightingale by Keats? I, for example, have never recited Ode to a Nightingale by Keats or anyone else for that or any other matter. Nor have I recited Ode on a Grecian Urn by Keats, but I have recited One Grecian Urn by Willson. This Keats fellow wrote a lot of odes. He was Mr. Odes, this Keats fellow. He was the go-to guy for an ode, that’s all I know. There is one interesting line in Ode to a Nightingale that begins with “Darkling, I listen…” What’s interesting about that, you might ask and I might tell you. What’s interesting about that is that Maxwell Anderson titled his adaptation of the Boileau and Narcejac novel Des Entres les Mortes, Darkling, I Listen. Obviously Mr. Anderson was into his odes and his Keats. Of course, his version, Darkling, I Listen was mostly discarded and eventually was retitled The Living and the Dead and finally Vertigo. Can you imagine that if people weren’t lining up at the box-office for Vertigo what would have happened if they’d kept Darkling, I Listen? There would have been empty theaters all over the United States of America – they were pretty empty anyway for Vertigo, but they would have been ghost towns for Darkling, I Listen. I wonder if Keats ever wrote an ode to a notes? Perhaps I should write Ode to a Notes. Perhaps not. I seem to have lost the point. I think I had a point at some point but the point became obtuse and then died a slow painful death – Ode to a Point. I have no idea what the HELL I’m talking about but I hope darkling is listening.
Since so many have asked over the course of doing our Kritzerland shows if we’d tape them, I allowed just a handful of numbers to be taped. Here’s the first of them – Three Friends. The girls from left to right are Sami Staitman, Sarah Staitman and Jenna Lea Rosen. After having to endure the awful performances on the recorded version from Yearbook, with bad pitches, wrong notes, and even a wrong word or two, it was such a pleasure to hear it the way I wrote it – and we fixed some of the show arrangement problems (a few wrong chords and an ending from hunger) so it sounded the way it should.
Didn’t they do a lovely job? Yesterday was some kind of day, just not sure which kind of day. First of all, I got up really late, at about eleven-fifteen, which meant I finally got a good nine hours of beauty sleep, which I desperately needed. I was awakened by the ringing of the doorbell – the gas meter-reader person. Had that not happened I probably would have slept till noon. I got up, answered e-mails and then went and had a ham and swiss on rye with no fries or onion rings. It was another really hot and disgustingly humid day. Then I got an e-mail from one of the gals we’d cast in the Kritzerland show saying she’d screwed up on the dates and couldn’t do it, so we’re now back to finding two women. But we got our two men, both of whom have a nice Maltby and Shire connection – Will Collyer, who starred in a well thought of production of Big here in LA, and John Sloman, who was in the Broadway production of Big, so that was great news. Sally Mayes has booked her flight so that’s all set, too. As soon as we cast our two remaining women then I can finish choosing the songs and assign them and gather up the sheet music. After lunch, I picked up a few packages and that was that. Here’s the next little video, this one the wonderful Jane Noseworthy doing Stephen Sondheim’s Getting Married Today in a really fun arrangement. It may now be my favorite version of the song ever.
I just adore Jane Noseworthy. The rest of yesterday afternoon was kind of a blur. I had a brief visit, I did work on the computer, I got no writing done, I didn’t put any songs into iTunes, and yet the afternoon was over before I knew it. I then wrote Ode to an Afternoon. I did a three-mile jog, I planked, and did thirty sit-ups, then went to Gelson’s for some small evening snacks, which included half a small thing of mac-and-cheese, half a small thing of lobster salad, and half a small thing of crab bisque soup. I also got some beloved melon balls and some green grapes. Then I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish and ate it all up. Here’s another video, this one Jenna Lea Rosen stopping the show with Dear Mr. Gershwin, from Radio Gals, the cast album of which I produced.
Isn’t she great? Just love the young ‘uns and how talented they are – they’re focused and there, take direction and, most importantly, have good parenting.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Tarnished Angels, a film of Douglas Sirk (from the novel Pylon, by William Faulkner), starring Mr. Robert Stack, Mr. Rock Hudson and Miss Dorothy Malone, along with Jack Carson, Troy Donohue and Robert Middleton. I’m quite fond of Mr. Sirk and his wacky melodramas – this one isn’t in color, it’s in black-and-white and Cinemascope. As always, his direction is striking and the man really knew how do to melodrama, which this film has aplenty. The acting is terrific from all. It gets a little overwrought from time to time, but that is a Sirk trademark. The good news is the transfer on this region B release is fantastic – sharp, great contrast, and just lovely to look at.
After the film, I answered more e-mails, one of which was asking me to write some patter for a benefit in January. I told the person doing the asking that I was not inclined to write for a benefit that I wasn’t directing – obviously they’ve gone elsewhere for a director, and that’s fine, but I kind of stopped writing for others a long time ago. But speaking of that, yesterday we got the news that The Brain from Planet X has been licensed for two more productions, both in the UK and both for early next year, I think. How fun is that? Here we have our final video (I have one more but I don’t think it’s complete, so I don’t know if I’ll post it – it’s The Yiddish Sondheim and since the complete version with the original cast is on You Tube, I don’t really see the need to post this one if it isn’t complete). This clip is Sami and Sarah Staitman doing the Stephen Schwartz song, Two’s Company. I’d asked them to learn it, then didn’t think I was going to use it, but I’m really glad I made the decision to let it stay because they did a great job and the audience loved it.
Would you think those two girls are sisters? They look nothing alike and yet they are sisters and talented sisters at that.
Today, I must do everything I didn’t do yesterday – I must write liner notes, I must import songs into iTunes, I must finish casting, I must assign songs and gather music and get it to the performers, then I must jog, eat and relax.
Tomorrow I do a Q&A thing at Los Angeles City College – I’ll speak, answer questions, and then two or three kids will sing for me and I’ll coach them, which will be fun. Tom Griep will be there to play. The rest of the week is meetings, meals, and seeing a few things.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, write, load songs into iTunes, finish casting, assign songs, and gather up music. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall recite Ode to a Nightingale and Other Assorted Odes.