Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s Upstairs at The Federal number forty-one was a rousing success. We’ve done a lot of great shows but this one really took the cake, as I knew it would, because having a show with nine kids strutting their stuff with such energy and heart simply cannot be beat. I had one friend at the show who told me it was the one show of ours that he’d been dreading the most, just because of the what it could have turned out to be, with a bunch of precocious kid “performers” – but he ended up thinking it was one of our best for precisely the reason that I would never allow it to be what he was fearing. All I ever ask of a singer, whether they’re nine or nineteen or ninety is that whatever they’re doing come from a place of truth, whether a hilarious comedy number or a touching ballad. In other words, to really understand the intention of the material and deliver it without being phony. And that’s what I asked of our young performers and I assigned them some material that I knew would challenge them and push them a little out of their comfort zone.
The show began like gangbusters, with Matchmaker, Matchmaker. Sami Staitman, Sarah Staitman and Jenna Lea Rosen had done this number exactly a year ago at our Bock and Harnick show. For that one, I put in a joke after the yenta line to Sami, where Jenna sings “have I got a man for you, he’s handsome, he’s young, all right, he’s sixty-two” – at that point, Sami said, “Who, Bruce? He’s sixty-five.” It got a big laugh a year ago, and it got a big laugh this year when she said, “Who, Bruce? He’s sixty-five” and her sister chimed in, “Sixty-six.” Every number landed perfectly, from Brennley Brown’s gorgeous versions of Reflection/The Girl I Mean to Be and Part of Your World, to Quintan Craig’s great tap dancing in All I Need is the Girl, to Carter Thomas’s adorable Wilkommen/Shy, to Jenna’s breathtaking Disneyland and Gimme Gimme, to Paige Befeler’s incredibly touching Anyone Can Whistle – in fact, the most touching version I’ve ever heard – it just takes on such resonance with a thirteen-year-old – to Oliviana Marie’s fun take on At the Codfish Ball (she tapped, too), to Sarah’s Children Will Listen (also very touching), to Sami’s absolutely perfect rendition of my song, Annie, to little nine-year-old Hadley Belle Miller’s wonderful rendition of I Won’t Grow Up. There were other numbers, of course, all equally good. And the icing on the cake was Sharon McNight’s delicious and rather frighteningly funny version of Little Girls. And I’m happy to say that I got through The Maladjusted Jester without error, so that made me very happy. Tom Griep accompanied beautifully. I must also give a shout out to Kay Cole, whose choreography for You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile was done in high style by Brennley, Oliviana, Hadley and Paige – it stopped the show cold.
In the audience were, of course, lots of family members, but also the beautiful and newly-married Kerry O’Malley, Shelly Markham (who’ll be playing the February Kritzerland show), Kay Cole, Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, our own Amy and Mark, David Wechter with wife Barbara and sons Zach and Daniel and Zach’s gorgeous girlfriend Haley, and lots more. After the show, a whole slew of us went to Little Toni’s for some food. I had some pasta with meatballs and one slice of cheese pizza, which filled me up very nicely. It was really fun. So, all in all, a rather perfect evening and I am so proud of all these talented kids. We’ll definitely make this a recurring show, probably one more of them this year. Oh, and I will have both photographs and videos to share. For those who are interested in studying the way I sequence, here is last night’s show order:
Matchmaker, Matchmaker Sami, Sarah, and Jenna
Reflection/The Girl I Mean to Be Brennley
Wilkommen/Shy Carter
Anyone Can Whistle Paige
All I Need is the Girl Quintan
Part of Your World Brennley
I Won’t Grow Up Hadley
Agony Carter and Quintan
At the Codfish Ball Oliviana
Once Upon a Bedtime/This Dream Sami
You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile Oliviana, Paige, Brennley, Hadley
Disneyland Jenna
The Maladjusted Jester BK
Annie Sami
Children Will Listen Sarah
Little Girls Sharon
Santa Fe Quintan
Gimme Gimme Jenna
Just received three photographs that I can now share. Here’s Michael Sterling, little Hadley Belle Miller and yours truly.
Next, here’s our full cast of players.
And here’s musical director Tom Griep, yours truly and the divoon Sharon McNight.
Prior to that, I was up at six, but thankfully fell back asleep until eleven. I stayed in bed till twelve so I could get the house warm. Then I did a three-mile jog, then finessed and futzed with the previous day’s writing, adding about a page-and-a-half of material before writing one new page. That was all I had time for. After I got home I wrote three more pages – I’m now into chapter three and having a lot of fun so far.
Today, I shall be up by ten at the latest, I may try to jog, I’ll finesse and futz, then move on to try and get two or three new pages done, after which we have three benefit people rehearsing. I’ll then eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’ll write at least three more pages or however many I can do.
Tomorrow are more rehearsals, more writing, and I have an early dinner meeting. I also have to write some benefit patter, figure out all the entrances and exits, and the rest of the week is more of the same, including a brush-up rehearsal on Wednesday night for the revue. But it’s basically now non-stop until the benefit’s show night, one week from today.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe jog, write, rehearse, eat, hopefully pick up packages and write. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Eyetalian foods? Where have you had your best Eyetalian meal and what did it consist of, and what Eyetalian foods do you not like? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that the Kritzerland show was so stellar, thanks to our amazing kids.