Well, dear readers, before I get back to aligning The Planets let me align something else. Yesterday, I had a swell lunch with Richard Sherman and the quirky writer/filmmaker Larry Cohen. When Richard had come over with the material that would eventually (in three weeks) become Unsung Sherman Brothers, he brought several other things to listen to. One of them was another heartbreaker for the brothers, a stage musical they’d written with Larry. It had been optioned a couple of times, but I believe it never even had a reading – options came and went and the project languished. They revised it a couple of times to no avail. When I heard the songs I thought they were quite good in the typical and wonderful Sherman Brothers style. Richard was very emotional while we listened to it. So, I asked him to bring me the script so I could see how it all fit together, which he did a few days later. Right off the bat, I promised him that we could do either a private reading or a semi-staged reading of it early in 2017, which he got really excited about. As I read the script I could immediately see what the problems were with the way in which the show began and I knew it would be easy to fix with some rearranging, cutting, and focusing. I quite liked the story and the characters and there was a lot of very good humor in it, too.
I already knew that LACC and I had agreed that I’d do a musical next year, in September, the first show of their new season. I’d been thinking about what I’d like to do, and I’d pretty much decided on Bells Are Ringing because, like Li’l Abner, it’s a show I love, it’s a show that everyone says is creaky and can’t work today and, as with Abner, I wanted to prove people wrong because there’s no reason it can’t be the delightful and daffy show it’s always been. But the more I thought about this Sherman Brothers show the more I began to think that it would be a wonderful gift for Richard and a helluva thing for LACC to be able to premiere a new Sherman Brothers musical. But I had to know that Richard and Larry would be completely open and collaborative in terms of fixes and changes and that’s what yesterday’s lunch was about. Well, it was kind of a love fest and they’re completely on board with the way I like to work, and so it looks like, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we’ll be doing a reading in February (I want to first fix the stuff I know doesn’t work – the opening, end of act one, and a few other little things – none of it’s really difficult as it doesn’t really require any new material at this point), and then if all goes according to Hoyle we’ll do the show in September. We will have to raise money again for the sound and music stuff, but we may have a way to do that without having to resort to yet another Indiegogo campaign. I can’t say what the project is or even what it’s about, but I think it has real possibilities and I think it will be really fun to work on with these two very creative people.
And now we return you to The Planets, which I know is probably boring some of you, but others have told me they’re enjoying my rambling on about the various performances. So, yesterday, after our lunch, I picked up two more performances of The Planets on CD – the much lauded Charles Dutoit performance and the Bernard Herrmann performance originally done as one of those Phase 4 records back in the early 1970s – one of the few of those that I’d never bought. I began with the much-lauded Dutoit – it has a humungous number of five-star reviews on Amazon and it’s mentioned as one for the ages by almost everyone who’s written about it on various sites, their go-to Planets, especially those amusing audiophiles. So, it was with great anticipation that I uploaded it. Of course, I was expecting the moon but unfortunately got something wholly other. I don’t know if it’s always been mastered at such a low level, but I had to turn the volume all the way up to even hear the softer parts. Then, of course, the louder bits come on and they’re too loud from turning up the soft bits so much. I just don’t get it – the audiophiles LOVE that kind of dynamic range and it’s a joke. Recordings are not live concerts – and one should NEVER EVER have to adjust their volume knob while listening to anything, sorry audiophiles. Their arguments are usually that you have to have great headphones, great speakers, great this, great that, none of which changes that you have to adjust the volume constantly and if you play it at your normal listening level you don’t hear much of anything, even the louder bits. I think the performance is fine – not as magical as Steinberg, but fine – not the second coming. Maybe I’d like it better if I could actually hear it in a pleasing manner. I may take it in the den and play it there and see if it’s any better, but I already tried it on my state of the art headphones and it wasn’t any better with those. What a disappointment.
And then came the Herrmann. I used to love those Phase 4 records, especially Herrmann’s, even though by then he was conducting his own music at a very slow pace, which was fine for his stuff, I suppose. Again, many five-star reviews on Amazon saying it’s the BEST and only Planets. Well, no. It’s one of the wackiest Planets I’ve ever heard. It’s mind-boggling, actually, like a music hall version of The Planets. The distortion in Mars is beyond belief – how could they not hear it in the studio and fix it? Herrmann’s take on Uranus makes Holst sound like Jule Styne – I couldn’t really believe what I was hearing. The piccolos seem to be sitting in the middle of the violins, the balances are mad as a hatter. I recommend it just because it’s so goofy, and also, I believe, the longest Planets EVER. But for some – it’s the BEST.
Speaking of Bernard Herrmann, boy did Larry Cohen have some great stories. They were very close – Herrmann scored Cohen’s film, It’s Alive, and while Herrmann was frequently caustic and mean to everyone in earshot, he and Larry got along famously and Larry never saw that side of him. In fact, right after Herrmann insisted on finishing the Taxi Driver score, Larry had dinner with him. After, Herrmann went home and died in his sleep. After the funeral service, the guests all went to Larry’s house.
Other than that, I got about six hours of sleep, answered e-mails, printed out orders, had telephonic calls, did the lunch, picked up packages, did stuff on the computer, listened to music and then I got a screener from the DGA for a motion picture entitled Sully. I really knew nothing about it other than it was directed by Clint Eastwood. So, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched it.
I really liked Sully, the story of that plane that had to land in the Hudson back in, I think, 2009. It’s amazing how compelling the film is, especially if you don’t know anything about the investigation that followed. It’s well written, Tom Hanks is, as always, terrific as Sully, and the rest of the cast is fine, including Laura Linney as his wife – a rather thankless one-note role that she somehow makes interesting. I’m not always a fan of Eastwood’s films of the last decade especially – the average run time of all his films from then is 130-plus minutes. And maybe that’s what makes Sully so good – sans the end credits the film runs exactly eighty-eight minutes. Lean, to the point, and good storytelling – I recommend it.
After that, I moved on to the symphonies of Jean Sibelius, with whom I share a birthday. I’m a fence-sitter with Sibelius. Some of his stuff I love, like his second symphony and especially his wonderful violin concerto, other stuff I’m less fond of, including some of his warhorses. But I found in the closet a complete set of the symphonies conducted by Lorin Maazel. So into iTunes they went. Now, I also had some of the symphonies already in iTunes, conducted by Eugene Ormandy. So, I listened to Maazel’s first symphony, didn’t love it, then compared it to Ormandy and there WAS no comparison – a whole different piece under Ormandy so I nuked that one. And the same thing with symphony two – the Ormandy is absolutely stellar while the Maazel just sits there like so much fish. So, as I write this I’m listening to the third by Maazel and it’s enjoyable – Ormandy didn’t record that one, in fact the only other Ormandy I have is the seventh and that’s supposed to incredible. So, I’ll just keep listening to the Maazel and if one of the symphonies strikes my fancy I’ll probably find a different conductor – I’ve never really cared for Maazel, truth be told. Oh, and yesterday thankfully there were no disasters, but other than the project mentioned, no real miracles either, so please keep sending your strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones for major miracles because we NEED them NOW.
Today, I will hopefully get back the liner notes with the credits added so I can get that packaging done. Then I have to put up the Kritzerland event page on Facebook as we’re somehow just two weeks away from that right now – oh, and we added the eternally young Bill Hayes as guest star. I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll jog, and at some point I’ll relax.
Tomorrow we have a work session with Kay Cole, Friday I hope to lunch with dear reader Jeanne, and then Saturday and Sunday we record Kay’s album. It’s just her and the amazing John Boswell on piano.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, jog, get packaging done, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that next year may just bring a new Sherman Brothers show that will be unsung no more.