Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s 50 is done and was a boatload of fun. We had a sold out crowd, filled with fun folks like Karen Morrow, Richard and Elizabeth Sherman, Kyra Da Costa, Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont, Barry Pearl, Lloyd Schwartz (whose dad created Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch), Grant Geissman and family, Patricia Ward Kelly (Gene Kelly’s wife), Will MacKenzie and his ever-lovin’ Patsy, and lots o’ others. The show got off to a strange start, due to Michael Sterling not being there – he normally introduces the show and me, but he was working the opening of Jersey Boys at the Pantages, which was annoying because they were supposed to have their press night last week. So, someone else made the announcement and it just felt weird. But, a little into the opening patter and all was right with the world. We had a running gag throughout the show, the Kritzie Awards – it was pretty funny. The cast did well – some unfortunate lyric flubs in the one number that had them in every rehearsal – not sure why it was such a problem but the two people involved covered and got through it. But the pace was good, and the numbers really worked well and the reaction was terrific. We closed with the song I wrote with Richard Sherman, Two Roads. In the instrumental, Sandy began to play the kazoo, then stopped, and said the line I gave her – “I think we need a bigger band” – and then Richard and I came up and all three of us played the kazoo. It was really fun. John Sloman, Sandy Bainum, Heather Lee, Brent Schindele and Andrea Marcovicci all delivered the goods, and our kids were especially great last night. No one does my song Annie like Sami – she just gets every beat right and it got the best reaction she’s ever gotten at any of our shows. This wasn’t an easy show for her sister – I had her singing the Joe Raposo song Blue and I was just very tough about what it had to be – she struggled with it at every rehearsal, but was better at the stumble-through, after which I worked with her some more. And she did a great job last night. All in all, a fun show and a great audience. Here are a couple of photos – more will be coming. Here’s our merry troupe.
And here I am with Richard and Sandy doing our big band kazoo playing.
After the show, several of us went to Little Toni’s for a bite to eat. I had my new favorite – noodles with butter and cheese – and one slice of pizza. That was fun, too.
Prior to all that, I’d had a fitful night of sleep – you know the kind where you’re probably sleeping but thinking you’re not. It’s so irritating. I think I did get around six hours of sleep somehow. Once up, I did a two-mile jog. The heat was unbearable and everyone in LA is so over this nonsense – we want FALL not summer in October. It’s not really going to abate much this week either. Coming out of The Federal was like walking into a sauna bath. Ridiculous. I did finally catch up with a motion picture I’ve wanted to see for four decades – the 1951 Joseph Losey version of M starring David Wayne. I found it on You Tube – not a great-looking video, but it was nice to finally see it after all these years. It really is almost a scene for scene remake of the Lang film – and it has some very interesting things in it, and a lot of things that just are weird and don’t work. In its own way, the opening twenty minutes are very much like the Lang but still manage to be a bit different. That part was very well directed by Losey. But there are some truly bad performances, including one by Raymond Burr, shmacting all over the place. The writing is also quite bad at times. But there are some good actors here – Luther Adler, Glenn Anders (from Lady from Shanghai) and others. But the show belongs to David Wayne in the Peter Lorre role. He’s really interesting and his monologue at the end is very effective. Some of the music is okay, but some is way over the top. But the best of it is setting it in LA – great shots of Bunker Hill and the Bradbury building downtown, but even better absolutely stunning shots of Ocean Park Pier. If they’d just aimed the camera a little differently we would have seen my grandfather’s Wheel-O stand. Also a great shot of the boardwalk and the Dome Theater. Worth watching.
Today, I shall be up at six in the morning to announce our new CD. We’re very proud of this one – Jerry Goldsmith’s superb score to Rio Conchos. It was issued once before on CD, fourteen years ago. That presentation was the best it could be back then – most of the stereo tracks were too damaged to be included, so it was the entire score in mono and a few stereo tracks. But technology had changed and our presentation is now ALL stereo except for three cues, and those are so skillfully interwoven that you wouldn’t even know they were mono. The sound is superb and Mike Matessino did an amazing job on this restoration. It’s like an entirely different album now and do not hesitate to order it because at 1200 units it will not be around long. Here’s the cover.
I’ll probably go back to bed for a while, then I’ll hopefully print out a LOT of orders, then I finish choosing songs for the next Kritzerland show – as you might have surmised from the topic of the day a couple of days ago – it’s a Jerry Herman show and we have an incredible cast and guest star already lined up. So, I choose songs, gather the material and get it to the cast, all in the next couple of days and I’ll be way ahead of the game, which I like. I may have a foot rub at some point, and I do have to relax a little and eat a little and hopefully pick up some packages a little.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals galore and seeing a few things. Beginning with tomorrow’s notes, I thought it might be fun, a year later, to tell you the real story about doing my Pure Imagination revue. I hinted at things back then but never really went into it, and I was thinking that it’s interesting enough on several levels so tell it I will.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce our new title, I must sleep, I must choose songs, eat, hopefully pick up packages and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could bring back one long-gone fad, what would it be and why that one? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had such a fun Kritzerland at 50 show.