Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
January 6, 2015:

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE PIPE?

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, what a long day and evening it was.  Or, to put it another way, the day and evening were long.  I have to say that this is a stimulating opening to the notes, isn’t it?  That just put me right to sleep.  That was a snoozefest of the highest or even lowest order.  After that rousing opening perhaps it would be best to immediately recount the story of The Randy Vicar and the Pipe Cleaner.  That’s a rousing story.  I think the damn Randy Vicar has been on hiatus for far too long, don’t you?  Those stories were a regular part of this here site and then they just disappeared, rather like the pipe cleaner.  I mean, does anyone still smoke a pipe?  Cigars made a comeback, isn’t it time for the damn pipe to make a comeback.  My father had a whole pipe thing in his bedroom although I never once saw him smoke a pipe.  On many occasions, however, I’d go in there, fill the barrel with pipe tobacco (who knew how old it was) and would attempt to light it so I could see the joy of pipe smoking.  The only problem was I couldn’t get it to light because I would BLOW through the pipe rather than SUCK through the pipe.  What the HELL am I talking about?  Blowing and sucking on a pipe?  I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole or a five-foot czech.  Well, this turned into a rather rousing paragraph, didn’t it?

Yesterday, in case you missed it, was a long day and evening.  I did get nine hours of sleep and was up a little before ten when the helper arrived to pick up some stuff.  I had a lot of e-mails to answer and after I did I began futzing and finessing.  I did a lot of both and it took me right to the lunch hour, so I got no new writing done prior to lunching.  I had some chicken tenders and then came right back home.

I then began the new writing and a new chapter.  I wrote about seven pages, which took me right up to our rehearsal.  First to arrive was the delightful and eternally young Kay Cole, who ran her number, from Best Foot Forward called You Are for Love – she was in the off-Broadway revival with Liza Minnelli, Gene Castle, Ed Gaynes and young Ronnie Walken who, of course, went on to become Christopher Walken.  We found a good key for the song and that was that.  Then came ten-year-old Hadley Miller.  She ran her two songs, a put-together of Happiness and My New Philosophy from Charlie Brown, and a song called Living Out Loud by Andrew Lippa from his show The Little Princess.  Then came Oliviana Marie, the daughter of Tom Griep and Evelyn Halus.  She’s singing my most recent song, which I wrote for this project I’m working on for Sami – it’s called Let Me Sing, and she’ll do it very nicely.  We went over each aspect of it, because while it seems deceptively simple it really isn’t.  So, she’ll work with her mom on it – her mom is a wonderful vocal coach.  Then came a trio of kids who carpooled together – Jenna Lea Rosen, Tommy Olaes and Sydney DeMaria.  First up was Tommy, who sang and danced Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, and he’s going to be terrific.  Jenna’s mom gave him some fun staging.  Then came Sydney who is a completely adorable sixteen-year-old school chum of Jenna.  First she sang Notice Me, Horton from Seussical and she just blew me away, actually.  She has incredible and very natural comedy timing and a beautiful voice to boot.  Then she did Popular, and she was really funny on that one.  I think I can say that she’ll join our stable of kids who perform with us regularly.  Then Jenna did her two songs – I Remember from Evening Primrose.  She’s already doing it great, but we talked about the meaning of it and the intention of the lyric and when and where she could build the song, while never getting too big.  Then she did our show closer, my arrangement of Meadowlark.  I was the first person to ever slow down the opening of the song and not go into tempo until about one minute in.  It had always been done fast and I’d recorded it that way and didn’t want to do it the same way again, and Mr. Schwartz was very open to it.  And we came up with a beautiful opening four bars to it.   The last time I told this story a former dear reader gleefully told me I was wrong, that it was in the score for the show that way and had always been done that way.  I knew he was wrong then but I didn’t want to make a deal out of it because he seemed to take such pleasure in it.  He even included a page from the score to prove it.  Well, not quite.  You see, after we did The Stephen Schwartz Album, The Baker’s Wife got revised, just as it’s been getting revised since it closed.  And in that revised version they simply used our arrangement complete with its opening four bars.  The ORIGINAL show had the song all at one tempo and all you need to do to know that is play its cast album or ANY recording made prior to our album, including Liz Callaway’s version.  NOW, the song seems to always be performed in the arrangement we did for The Stephen Schwartz Album.

After that, we had Sami.  She sang the song I wrote that opens the show I’m working on for her, Welcome to My World, and then There Won’t Be Trumpets, which she will do wonderfully.  We did have several musical problems to solve along the way because things were not always remembered from last week’s work session.  And then last but not least was Brennley Brown – she’s doing two put-togethers – first is a combo platter I arranged a few years ago of When She Loved Me and You’ve Got a Friend in Me, and the other is a put-together of I Know Things Now and No One Is Alone.  We didn’t finish until almost eight-thirty.  Then I joined Brennley and her folks at Jerry’s Deli – prior to going I wrote another page.  Once there I had a quesadilla.

Then I came home and wrote another three-and-a-half pages or so, so somewhere in there I think I did twelve pages.  Then I watched a couple of video auditions for Inside Out, both of which were terrific.  I’m not quite sure the one gal is completely right for the part, but her audition was so good and so funny that I’m willing to just give it to her.  In addition to the scene from the play, she also sent an audition she’d done for Saturday Night Live, and in it she did an impression of Melanie Griffith that was absolute genius.  I laughed out loud during the entirety of it, and then she did a great Liza and Judy thing, too.

Today, I have an eleven o’clock meeting, then I’ll futz and finesse, after which I’ll write new pages up until I go out to dinner at six with our very own Mr. Nick Redman and his lovely daughter Rebecca.  After that, I’ll try and watch a movie and write some more.

Tomorrow is mostly writing, I think, with one quick half-hour pick-up rehearsal with Sarah Staitman, who didn’t feel well yesterday. I also may take my car in.  Thursday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal and the end of week one of writing, so Muse Margaret will get however many pages I’ll have done by then, which, if I keep this pace up, could be between eighty-five and one-hundred pages.  Friday and Saturday are all writing days, Sunday is our stumble-through, and Monday is sound check and show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, futz and finesse, write, eat, and write.  Today’s topic of discussion: What other things besides pipes would you say are poised for an everything old is new again-style comeback?  What out of fashion thing would you most like to see come back?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall perhaps buy a pipe, put some tobacco into it and attempt to light it by BLOWING into it, just to relive those halcyon days of my childhood.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved