Well, dear readers, Kritzerland 115, our eleventh anniversary show, went rather splendidly. In fact, I don’t see how it could have gone better. I’d tried for some major mystery guests but for whatever reasons, everyone was either out of town or booked, but we were fine with the show we had, and it would have been too long had we added another performer or two. I knew right away the audience would be wonderful, with a big laugh right out of the gate. It was a really nice-sized crowd – in fact, I didn’t see any tables that didn’t at least have some people at them, and all the booths in the back were taken, so that was good. After the opening commentary, I began the show with my song Opening Numbers, which is just a really fun and good ice breaker. It’s an easy number for me to sing and it got a great reaction. Then came Daniel Bellusci singing Giants in the Sky – a great job he did. After Daniel came Adrienne Stiefel doing a wonderful version of Frank Loesser’s I Wish I Didn’t Love You So. Then came Robert Yacko with Come Back to Me, from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It’s a tricky list song, but he did it perfectly. Then it was Kerry O’Malley doing one of the two new songs Adryan Russ and I wrote for Nothing in Common, since she did the mother role at the reading. She did it beautifully. I could probably have set it up better for the audience, but it stood on its own just fine. I’m really proud of the tune, too, and Adryan’s lyric works really well. Then Daniel did I Am Adolpho from The Drowsy Chaperone and he absolutely killed with it – huge belly laughs throughout. Then Peyton Kirkner did another Nothing in Common song, one she’d done on one of the streaming Kritzerlands – she loves singing it and wanted to do it and she did it beautifully.
Then came Accentuate the Positive, which Adrienne accentuated positively perfectly – it was a song I felt compelled to have in the show, since all people seem to do these days, especially on Facebook, is to accentuate the negative. Then Robert came back and did another song I’ve wanted to do from the very start of our shows – I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore from Gigi. At one point, for two lines, I had him do a little Chevalier accent. After it was over, I said, “How many people thought Robert was doing Inspector Clouseau?” It was funny. Then Kerry did 100 Easy Ways to Lose a Man from Wonderful Town. She’d just done it in the Group Rep cabaret show, and she stopped the show with it once again. Daniel was next with Love Can’t Happen from Grand Hotel, a song that ends with a crazy belted A-flat – he nailed it. Doug Haverty repeated his Group Rep performance of Think of the Time I Save from The Pajama Game and the audience ate it up because they’ve never seen that side of him. Robert did the George and Ira song Isn’t It a Pity, which nobody really knows – it’s a real charmer. Then Barry Pearl came up and did What Causes That from Crazy for You – we did this same bit in the Group Rep show and I knew our audience would love it. For an encore, I had him put a bunch of walnuts in his mouth, repeating that bit from The Man Who Came to Dinner. Really fun. Then Kerry did the penultimate number, I’m Going Back from Bells Are Ringing and once again stopped the show. What a great number it is. And for our final song, it was Adrienne doing The Story Goes On from Baby, which got quite the ovation. For our sing-along, it was Happy Birthday to Kerry. Lloyd Cooper did a grand job at the grand piano and the commentary got a lot of nice laughs, and there were three or four times when I went off book because I was kind of on a roll and I always enjoy those moments a lot. So, it’s on to show 116 in December – our annual holiday show, and then we have big news about what Kritzerland will be doing next year. Here’s our merry troupe sans Doug Haverty, since he was nowhere to be found.
After the show, Robert Yacko and I went downstairs and had food. I had a small pepperoni pizza, which was great. I took half of it home, heated it up in the oven, and ate the rest as I caught up on e-mails and stuff.
Yesterday was a lovely day. I got to sleep by two-thirty, was up at four-fifteen for about forty minutes, then fell back asleep, so I did get eight hours. Then I rested my voice and relaxed, shaved and showered, and then it was time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for sound check. We did that rather quickly, so we had about thirty minutes more to kill than usual. People began showing up at five-thirty, I had my tiny Caesar salad, and then I visited with some people until it was time for the show. And the rest you know. All in all, a perfectly perfect evening and I am currently quite filled up with pizza.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, and I’m thinking I need to take the day off and just do as little as possible. I do have a play to read, but that won’t take all that long, otherwise I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, putting together a little medley of sorts for the singer whose act I’m directing – actually, the medley already exists and we’re just swapping out three songs for other songs. Shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll be attending the opening night of London Suite at the Group Rep and dining with the Pearls beforehand. And, of course, doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, take the day off save for reading a play, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What YouTube rabbit holes have you gone down? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a wonderful Kritzerland 115 eleventh anniversary show.