Well, dear readers, we had us a lovelier than lovely and quite wonderful Kritzerland at Sterling’s 51. When you’re doing a tribute to Jerry Herman, you begin with real honest to goodness show tunes, the kind that have gone the way of the dodo bird. He can do more in thirty-two bars than most of these endless musicals with ten-minute show-off musical “sequences”. The cast was fantastic – yes, a few futzed lyrics right at the top of the show, but they were handled fine and we’ve actually only had about three Kritzerland shows without any at all. There were so many highlights throughout the evening – I’ll just mention some of my favorite moments: Damon Kirsche crooning his way beautifully through To Be Alone With You, a song Jerry wrote sans credit for Ben Franklin in Paris. Chelsea Emma Franko’s defiantly captivating Wherever He Ain’t. Sami Staitman not only doing a bang-up job with Look What Happened to Mabel, but doing it in the face of a slightly too fast tempo. The song starts slow and builds to tempo, but when it hit, our musical director went faster than he’s ever gone. Sami tried to slow it down, but when that didn’t happen she kept up with it perfectly and landed the entire number perfectly. Valerie Perri doing her torchy best with so much heart and pain on Time Heals Everything. Shannon Warne just grabbing hold of and never letting go to a shattering climax I Don’t Want to Know. David Engel and Damon doing a wicked Bosom Buddies and David closing the show with a spectacular rendition of I Am What I Am – he’s played Albin several times, and he just hit it so far out of the park it wasn’t even funny. And Karen Morrow, beginning with a funny story about Jerry having to lower her keys over the years, and then doing an absolute master class in song performance with Love, Look in My Window. Tom Griep did a great job at the piano. Lots of the patter got really good laughs, which always makes me happy. In a couple of instances they were my favorite kind – where I do a line and there’s silence until what I just said actually sinks in and then the laughs start in waves and just build and build. It happened twice in this show. I had a song ready for me to sing, but in the end I didn’t do it – it was My Best Girl, and I was just worried about my breath control, because the Omoxacillan has done weird things to me in terms of taking deep breaths.
We had lots of fun folks in attendance, including our very own Richard and Elizabeth Sherman, co-producer Adryan Russ, Shelly Markham, Will MacKenzie (the first replacement Cornelius on Broadway) and his ever-lovin’ Patsy, Susan Watson, cousins Dee Dee and Alan and Dee Dee’s wonderful mom, Paula, along with Paula’s neighbor, my old pal Diane Linder (Noble) who I’ve known since 1964 and the Bluth Brothers days, Dancing Dildo Artie Shafer, performer Georgia Osborne’s sister (I worked with Georgia in FJL’s The Last Starfighter – her sister is delightful), and lots of other great folks. It was pretty much sold out.
After the show, a few of us went over to Little Toni’s, where I had my usual penne with butter and cheese – I didn’t eat any pizza this time. After, I came home and it was almost time to write these here notes. Here’s an actual photograph of our wonderful troupe of players.
And here’s a little photo of Sami and li’l ol’ me – I’m so proud of this young girl. She’s been doing Kritzerland shows for over two years now, and the growth she’s shown is just amazing and very gratifying for me personally. I can’t really talk about particulars at this time, but I think 2015 could just be a life-changing year for her because of a couple of brewing projects.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten over nine hours of sleep, I got up and reset the two clocks that needed it, then I just relaxed until it was time to leave for sound check. I am feeling much better than in previous days.
Tomorrow, I must be up at six in the morning to announce our two new CDs. The limited edition soundtrack is a world premiere release of a stunningly beautiful Dave Grusin score for the film Falling in Love. Here’s the cover.
And, of course, the other release is the new Sandy Bainum CD, It Might Be Fun, a CD of songs by ME sung by HER. Here’s that cover.
After I announce, I’ll probably go back to sleep, then once up I have to finish casting the December show, get everyone their music, and begin figuring out the New York rehearsal schedule and how everything’s going to work. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, I’ll eat something at some point, I’ll hopefully print out a LOT of orders, and then I’ll relax at some point.
The rest of the week is more of the same, some meetings and meals, and seeing Dr. Chew to make sure everything is healing properly.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce two new CDs, I must finish casting, I must gather music and get it to people, I must eat, I must hopefully pick up packages, I must hopefully print out a LOT of orders and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite holiday songs, and let’s not just have the standard issue ones, but some eclectic choices, too. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know Kritzerland 51 was a success.