Well, dear readers, Kritzerland at Sterling’s 63 was a great show and certainly the best of all our holiday shows. It was just the perfect cast doing the right songs and an audience that was just wonderfully demonstrative. I didn’t think we’d be full and we weren’t – but we had a great crowd of about seventy-two. Again, I always know in the first fifteen or twenty seconds how it’s going to go – in this instance there was a huge laugh in the third sentence of the patter, and that set the tone for the evening. I was very free with the patter, going off the page every now and then. In fact, my biggest laugh was off the page, although I’d thought about the line earlier in the day, but never got around to either writing it down or placing it. But at some point I asked, “So, how was everyone’s year?” No one really applauded or reacted, so I continued, “My year was wacky – some of it was incredible and some of it was not so hot, but the good far outweighed the bad, and now I outweigh the good AND the bad.” Then I promised I was going on a diet. The performers were all terrific with every number being hit out of the park. Adrienne Visnic did my song This Christmas and got more laughs out of it than anyone else who’s done it, and we’ve done it in the last three holiday shows. And as she did every night in Inside Out, she stopped the show with her solo, I Don’t Say Anything. Kerry O’Malley and Robert Yacko got the show off to a great start with Be a Santa, and Kerry did a deliciously cozy The Christmas Song and a great Happy Holiday/White Christmas. Robert was his usual terrific self on both his solos, especially Count Your Blessings. And as worried as I was about my voice, I think I sounded pretty good on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and I did it in my normal key, rather than a step down. Kimberly Hessler was in beautiful voice and was captivating in her three songs. Sharon McNight was, as always, an audience favorite – they just ate her up, and she got to show her other side in the Janis Ian song. And Andrea Marcovicci was her usual wonderful self in her two numbers. She was accompanied by Shelly Markham, and James Lent did the piano honors for everything else. Here’s a photograph of our merry little troupe. Left to right: Kerry O’Malley, Shelly Markham, Robert Yacko, Andrea Marcovicci, li’l ol’ me (and note I’m wearing a sport coat – a first for me in a Kritzerland show), Sharon McNight, Adryan Russ, Leslie Visnic, Kimberly Hessler, and James Lent.
I did my usual thank yous, gave a shout out to pal Grant Geissman and of course Richard and Elizabeth Sherman. Mark your calendars of his PBS special on December 17. And then I announced that the co-producer of all sixty-three of our shows was so busy with other projects that she was stepping down to work on her other stuff. I called her to the stage and gave her a Kritzie Award for five great years. And then I announced her successor – all in the family, really – Doug Haverty. I think with him the transition will be effortless and simple. It’s funny, when I was calling out Richard Sherman, I mentioned the new song he’s written for the LA show and how beautiful the lyric was – and I got really emotional. I can never predict when that’s going to happen and I think it’s something that gets worse with age. After Adryan sat down, I told the audience that there have only been four recipients of a Kritzie Award and I was one of them (can’t remember who the second was) – but then I gave a shout out to Sami and I got emotional again – I could barely get through what I said – which was that I’d been working with her since she was twelve and to see the growth and maturity in her was so gratifying and that I was so proud of her – so she got a Kritzie for Welcome to My World. She came up and got her Kritzie (I had hers and Adryan’s framed) and I think she liked getting it. As I was about to launch the sing-a-long at the end, everyone suddenly sang happy birthday to me and that was like the icing on the cake.
After, just four of us went to Little Toni’s, where I had the chopped salad and a piece of pizza for my meal o’ the day.
Prior to all that, I’d arisen at nine after about six hours of sleep, then had a little breakfast with Alet (I only ate some fruit) – that was fun to catch up with her, and then I did some banking, then got the flowers for the show (Kimberly gave them out during Wouldn’t It Be Loverly), then came home, did a jog, and relaxed until it was time for sound check. All in all, it was just a wonderful evening.
Today, the helper comes by to get some stuff, then I have a work session with a young person, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to take my car in.
Tomorrow I attend an opening night of a new musical about the Righteous Brothers. Saturday I’m seeing Sharon McNight’s club act at the Gardenia, and Sunday will hopefully be a day of rest for the likes of me.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a work session, eat, hopefully pick up packages, finish casting the kid show and I’ll need to start choosing the material soon, so they have plenty of time with it. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could choose songs for extremely talented kids from nine to seventeen to sing, what would they be. I don’t mind some actual suggestions for songs that fit young people, but I’m really looking for things to challenge them – both humor-wise and drama-wise and prefer more adult material, sometimes even if it’s inappropriate to sensitive minds, like when we had ten-year-old Hadley Miller do Dance Ten – Looks Three with my adjusted lyrics. That was so unexpected that it was hilarious. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that Kritzerland at Sterling’s 63 was so stellar.