Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for I must be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland limited edition CD, which we’re hoping will sell very quickly. It’s two scores on one CD, both by Dave Grusin and they’re both world premiere releases, one of which has been a Holy Grail of mine (and many other people’s) for thirty-five years, so it’s particularly gratifying to tell you that it’s the score to Heaven Can Wait, that effervescent and very touching film starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Jack Warden, Charles Grodin, Dyan Cannon, Joseph Maher and Buck Henry – one of the most sublime comic casts ever. The score by Grusin is only about fifteen minutes of music in the film but what a fifteen minutes it is. We have all the Grusin music plus about twelve minutes of alternates and unused cues for about twenty-eight minutes of heavenly Heaven Can Wait. Here’s the iconic artwork on the cover.
The second feature is Racing With the Moon, a film directed by Richard Benjamin (his follow-up to My Favorite Year), starring then newcomers Sean Penn, Nicholas Cage and Elizabeth McGovern. Grusin’s score is achingly beautiful for this one – filled with nostalgia and yearning and first love. Additionally, the film takes place during WWII so there are several big band source music cues – rather than needle-drop old recordings, they had the great Billy May come in and do new arrangements, which he conducted, and they are spectacular. It’s a gloriously glorious package of sublime music and one you should not think twice about getting. Here’s the Racing With the Moon cover.
The CD will be live at Kritzerland at six in the morning PST. Some projects are like a dream come true and this was one of them, although it took seven months to birth. For Heaven Can Wait, we went back to the sixteen-track masters and did a whole new mix, since using the mono mixdowns for the film was not even contemplated. The Racing With the Moon score had stereo mixdowns for everything – at one point an LP release was contemplated and never happened, so there were those mixes, too. Between everything, we have every note of music.
Yesterday was a pleasant little day. I got nine hours of blessed sleep, had some telephonic conversations, did a three-mile jog, and worked on the show structure and order, which I now have in rough form and which I printed out for our cast members. I also watched another Sherlock Holmes episode, The Crooked Man – not quite as good as the previous three, but still very entertaining. Finally, it was time to mosey on over to Genghis Cohen for our meet and greet and a chance for the cast to get to know each other a little. It did exactly what I wanted it to do – got everyone comfortable with each other. I handed out the rough order so everyone knows which songs they’re currently in, although I told everyone that that it’s not locked in stone. This is a wonderful group of people, and as I told them, they are five completely unique performers – all completely different from each other. They are Shaun Baker, Dana Dewes, Bob Jacobs, Jane Noseworthy and Sami Staitman. Also in attendance were assistant Adryan Russ and choreographer Kay Cole. There were lots o’ laughs and the food, as always, was stellar, maybe the best it’s ever been. We had a lot of it, too – two orders of orange chicken (extra crispy), two orders of Kung Pao chicken, crackerjack shrimp, Schezuan green beans, white rice, fried rice with shrimp, veggie moo-shoo, and I think that was it. Most of it was eaten, and Kay took whatever was left for her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont. And now, we all begin our wacky and very quick journey on Pure Imagination – The World of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.
After that, I came home and answered e-mails, did some work on the computer and that was that.
Today, I shall be up at six to announce, then I have an teeth cleaning appointment with Dr. Chew, then I’ll eat something, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, hopefully pick up some packages, do a jog if I have time, and then shall be on my way to the Monica of Santa for our first rehearsal, which only involves Bob and Dana. We’ll go over all their songs, set keys and make work tapes for them.
The rest of the week is more of the same – meetings, meals and rehearsals. Saturday night I’m seeing A View from the Bridge at the theater where we’re doing our show and I think there are a few other things happening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce a CD release, have teeth cleaned, eat, maybe jog, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, hopefully pick up some packages, and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: Using the cast listed above for Heaven Can Wait, some of my favorite actors ever, what are your favorite films for each of them? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that our meet and greet was so much fun.