Well, dear readers, we had our first Kritzerland rehearsal and as these things go it was pretty smooth with no hiccups. One of our cast wasn’t with us – he’ll be here on Wednesday and Thursday. Our rehearsal began with Lauren Rubin. We first ran a put-together of I’ve Got a Crush on You and S’Wonderful that was frankly s’wonderful. Then we ran her two ballads – Our Love is Here to Stay and They Can’t Take that Away from Me. Then came young Mackenzie Wrap. She’s doing two put-togethers, both of rarely performed songs – the first is Boy Wanted and Where’s the Boy, and the second is Got A Rainbow and What Are We Here For – delightful any way you cut it.
Then Damon Kirsche arrived and we ran his three songs. First up was one of my favorite Gershwin songs, Liza. Then a fun put-together of Embraceable You and Treat Me Rough, and finally a rousing Stairway to Paradise. Always great to have Damon with us. Next was Sharon McNight. We began with her amazing arrangement of The Man I Love – we’ve done it once before, and it’s really brilliant. Then it was But Not for Me, and finally Strike Up the Band – she plays the piccolo in the latter. Too much fun.
Finally it was Meredith Patterson, her first Kritzerland show. We began with the Lanny Meyers arrangement of I Can’t Be Bothered Now and Kickin’ the Clouds Away, then she did the gorgeous Someone to Watch Over Me, and finally the second Lanny chart, I Got Rhythm/Fascinating Rhythm – she taps during the latter so that will really be fun. Everyone was pretty prepared this time around, we never got behind and therefore I was a happy Kritzerlander.
Prior to that I’d only gotten six hours of sleep. Once up, I did the usual things, then decided I had to do the jog and therefore did the jog. Once back home, I shaved and got ready for our rehearsal.
After rehearsal, I was really hungry but I didn’t want to sit for an hour in a restaurant and I really didn’t want to cook, so off I went to Taco Bell, got a nice compliment of things, came home, and ate it all up. By my count, the calories added up to 1100 so with the jog it was basically a net 800, so I had a sweet worth 200 calories and I’m still full all these hours later. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and had a long telephonic conversation with my old pal Max Preeo, the man who did the Show Music magazine, which is so sorely missed. Then I watched a bit of the Twilight Time Blu-ray of Forever Amber – I’ll finish that up tonight. On the Flix of Net I watched the new Steve Martin and Martin Short special, which is mostly very funny and fun.
Then Doug Haverty came over with the newest version of the book for our musical, which I’ll read today. He hadn’t heard a lot of the orchestrated tracks so I played some for him and sang along. Then I just relaxed and listened to music, mostly John Alden Carpenter, a wonderful composer whose music, especially the marvelous Adventures in a Perambulator, you should know.
Today, I will write a new set of liner notes for our next release, which I’m thinking about announcing on Friday if I can get everything together in time. I’m now going to try and have one release every two weeks as we used to. We’ll see how possible that is. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, jog, and then relax.
Tomorrow we have a brief rehearsal for our missing performer and for Mackenzie who can’t be with us on Thursday. Thursday we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Saturday is our stumble-through, and then Sunday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write liner notes, eat, hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, jog, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Yesterday we had favorite Beatles songs, so let’s cover the rest of the 1960s pop songs – which were your favorites from that rich musical decade? I have so many – Sealed With a Kiss, She Cried, California Girls, The End of the World, all of Jimmy Webb’s 60s stuff, especially the Richard Harris albums, and on and on. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a first rehearsal that was s’wonderful.