Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s 44 was beyond fabulous, one of our best shows and I realized that these kinds of shows are much more fun for me to assemble, as opposed to the composer shows, so I think we’ll have more of these kinds of shows over the next few months, where I can be very eclectic in my song choices. Everything about this show just clicked right from the get-go – lots of patter laughs, including a huge one on my introduction of the opening number, when I said, “To begin, since we’re feeling especially foolish right now, we thought it would be fun to open the show with something completely inappropriate and wrong, the title song from Dreamgirls – sung by two 14-year old Jews and an 18-year old Shiksa – I’ll let you figure out who is which – please welcome Maddy Claire Parks, Sami Staitman and Jenna Lea Rosen.”
They came out and proceeded to KILL with Dreamgirls – big laughs, great choreography by Heather Hoppus-Werner and the girls were fantastic. From that point on, everything went great. The cast all delivered stellar performances and it was one of only two or three shows where there wasn’t a single flub from anyone. So many highlights – Robert Yacko getting humungous laughs out of Something, Denis Markell and Doug Bernstein’s brilliant version of Nothing from A Chorus Line from Mr. Karp’s point of view. Maddy Claire Parks doing one of the most sublime It Might as Well Be Springs ever. Jenna nailing Pulled and Sami nailing Some People. Shannon Warne, beautiful on her opening two ballads, and then bringing down the house with my parody lyrics to a ton of songs from A Chorus Line, called I Can’t Dance. She and Sandy Bainum doing a brilliant job with my song Who Do I Have to Blank to Get Out of This Show? Sandy working her magic on Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. Zachary Ford doing a great version of Younger than Springtime. And of course the sublime Andrea Marcovicci working HER magic on her medley. And me having one of the highlights of my entire life – premiering the song I wrote with the legendary Richard M. Sherman – Two Roads. It was such a special moment for me and the audience really seemed to like the song – we got a wonderful applause at the end and Richard is just one of the world’s great treasures and I’m beyond honored that he collaborated with me – so hard to even imagine even now. All the other songs worked splendidly, too, and Lloyd Cooper was his usual great and solid self. Adryan Russ kept us all on track, as always.
We had a wonderful sold-out crowd, including Disney’s Howard Green, Leonard Maltin and his lovely wife, Barry Pearl’s ever-lovin’ Cindy Dellinger, our very own Donald Feltham and his partner – they were celebrating their tenth anniversary together – some cast members and our stage manager from Li’l Abner, our very own Mark and Amy and our very own VinTek and his lovely wife, and many others, including Maddy’s proud parents, Karen Culliver Parks and Garrett Parks.
Here are some photos from last night. First is our wonderful troupe of players.
Next, here’s a photo of Richard M. Sherman, Sandy Bainum, and li’l ol’ me.
And finally, me and Sami.
I will be posting some videos from the show in the next day or so, so stay tuned for those. After the show, a bunch of us went to Little Toni’s, where I finally ate dinner – some pasta with meat balls and a salad.
Prior to all that, I did a two-mile jog, I relaxed, and I watched some of a motion picture entitled The Stuff, about which more after I finish it. I worked a little bit on our edit road map, too. Then we had our sound check and that was that.
Today, I have a morning meeting at LACC that shouldn’t last too long, and then I may or may not have a meeting with our stage manager. I may have some pancakes at the House of Pies afterwards. We shall see. Then I’ll come right home, hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll spend the rest of the day on the edit road map, which I’m hoping I can finish so we can get this CD done and announced.
The rest of the week is filled with meetings and meals and liner notes and choosing songs and casting and then on Saturday, my book signing for Red Gold at Mystery and Imagination.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a morning meeting or two, eat, hopefully pick up packages and then work on the edit road map. Today’s topic of discussion: Parenting today – the good, the bad, and the ugly. What do you think today’s parents are doing wrong, and from my vantage point they are doing plenty wrong. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still on a high from our wonderful show 44.