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August 2, 2015:

THE MEAT OF THE NOTES

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, August if flying by, like a gazelle twirling a baton while singing Glenda’s Place from Whoop-Up. Does anyone sing Glenda’s Place from Whoop-Up? Yes would be the answer because I just sang Glenda’s Place from Whoop-Up. I don’t sing it quite as well as the gazelle and I also have never twirled a baton (notab, spelled backwards) because my motor functions don’t work that way, or perhaps it’s my brain functions. In any case, enough preamble, let’s get to the meat of the notes, shall we, because these here notes have not gone vegan yet.

Yesterday was a fine little day as little days go. It took me quite a while to fall asleep and I slept until eleven, then slept almost one hour more, so I’m thinking I did get eight hours of blessed sleep, maybe even nine. I’d even taken NyQuil to ensure I’d fall asleep but it didn’t work. Once up, I sang Glenda’s Place from Whoop-Up but I had a lot of guck in my throat. I then did a jog, then got ready for our rehearsal.

Everyone arrived for our stumble-through – the smallest group we’ve ever had at a stumble-through due to no guest star. It went very well with only a couple of lyric fumfers. The structure worked very well – we do have three ballads in a row towards the end but there was no way around that and one of them is You’re Gonna Hear from Me, which is rousing. The cast is terrific. This show has been a bit of a struggle to get folks to and it kind of really irritates me. This is the poster child for the kinds of shows Kritzerland is known for, but for whatever reason, people just forget how good these are and play the “I don’t know Previn or his music.” Well, so damn what? How about this for a novel idea – learn. This is seriously great stuff and frankly I can’t worry about people who won’t take chances on this kind of show, especially given our history. We’re currently at around sixty people and that’s a nice number – we’ll probably end up with closer to seventy. And I guarantee you the people not in attendance will be the first ones to want to come to the anniversary show, where we’re charging a half-price cover charge as a way of showing our appreciation. The anniversary show tends to sell out within a few days, and if people play the wait till the last minute game, they won’t be seeing the anniversary show. We have our MD now, the great John Boswell. I’ve only got about six songs to choose, so that’s good. And I may have one additional cast member (I’ll know today) and if he’s on board he’ll be doing a put-together of three songs by yours truly. It will make sense once I reveal who it is – it’s going to be a show with a lot of songs – eighteen – we’ve done that, though, at every anniversary show, and I’ll make sure that at least five songs are under three minutes and I’ll keep the patter short for this one.

After the stumble-through, I had to eat something, so I went and had a Cobb salad with ranch dressing (much less than usual) and no bagel. Then I came back home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a moving documentary entitled I’ve Never Forgotten You, about Simon Wiesenthal. It’s very well directed, beautifully scored by Lee Holdridge, and, at times, not easy to watch. Even though it’s an hour and forty-five minutes, it really flew by.

Then I did a little work on the computer and that was that.

Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, and hopefully guck-free. I’ll definitely jog, then relax until it’s time to go to The Federal for sound check, and then we do our show. I know that we have some interesting folks with us, including the lady who was the voice of Disney’s Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Wendy in Peter Pan. And my pal Udana Power will be with us – she was in Coco all through rehearsals, but was replaced during previews because, as legend has it, Miss Hepburn didn’t want anyone who sang that well anywhere near her. Anyway, I will, of course, have a full report.

This coming week is filled with meetings and meals, getting singers their songs, making the final few song choices, figuring out the show order, writing the commentary, and getting all that stuff out of the way so I can prepare for the beginning of our rehearsals for Welcome to My World.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, relax, have a sound check and do a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had the meat of the notes.

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