Well, dear readers, we had us a wonderful and special Kritzerland 118 last night at Feinstein’s at Vitello’s. We had a very nice crowd, and they were a wonderful audience. There were lots o’ laughs, both for the funny songs and for the patter, including stuff that just came to me at the moment. We opened the show with If You Can Find Me, I’m Here from Evening Primrose – by Stephen Sondheim, of course. That was followed by my song Goin’ Home, which Adrienne Stiefel did – she introduced the song in the first of our online shows. Then came a TV theme song medley that included Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight), Love Is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore), Makin’ Our Dreams Come True (Laverne and Shirley) and Believe it or Not (The Great American Hero) – Daniel Bellusci did a great job of it. Lottie Arnold was next, doing Jason Robert Brown’s I’m Not Afraid of Anything from Songs for a New World. Then Danika Masi did An LA Love Song, which she introduced in LA Now and Then – the audience was howling with laughter. From there, it was Robert Yacko again, this time with another Amanda McBroom song, Old Habits Die Hard from Heartbeats. Then Guy Haines was supposed to sing my song, Ode to NoHo, but he was a no-show. I explained that he was petrified to leave his house because he didn’t want to be the first person in the San Fernando Valley to get monkeypox. I fumfered a couple of words, but the song got all its laughs and I had fun doing it. Then Adrienne Stiefel did a put-together of Who Are You Now and Isn’t it Better from Funny Girl and Funny Lady. It was quite beautiful. Daniel then did Sibella from A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
Then it was time for some Yiddish Sondheim and Robert did the complete version of Bury Me a Little and it got a great reaction. Next up was Lottie Arnold doing The Black Dahlia, which she did in LA Now and Then. After that, Robert and Daniel did the showstopping Silverware from We Take the Town. Then Adrienne and Danika did Every Day a Little Death, Daniel did Maltby and Shire’s Watching the Big Parade Go By, followed by Danika doing I Remember from Evening Primrose. After the thank yous, Lottie closed the show with The Life I Never Led from Sister Act. The sing-along was Over the Rainbow. Cassie Nickols was great at the piano and the whole thing was just a load of fun and good cheer.
Lots of fun people at the show, but, for me, the most surprising was former actress Christina Hart, who worked quite a bit all through the 1970s and 1980s, both in film and TV. Well, fifty-one YEARS ago, Christina took part in a reading of my musical version of To Kill a Mockingbird, playing Scout. It was that reading that led to the show being booked in Seattle with Don Murray as Atticus. Sadly, it wasn’t to be because Harper Lee, while being very complimentary about my work, simply didn’t want her book to be musicalized. I haven’t seen Christina in fifty-one years – she looks great, but the surprising part is she began singing the songs from Mockingbird, which she’s never forgotten all these years later. I couldn’t believe it, really. She was married to actor Frank Doubleday, who sadly passed away a few years ago, way too young. Frank, of course, played Arvin/Riff in The First Nudie Musical – he was brilliant in the movie, and apparently they played a clip from it at his funeral.
After the show, and yakking with folks, Robert went down to get us a table – unfortunately, the kitchen had just closed down. There were no nearby places to go, so I just came home and ordered from the Cheesecake Factory, my usual farfalle dish. I called the restaurant and told a manager that I’d just placed the order and then told him about the disaster of last week, where everything had spilled, and that two-thirds of the ingredients weren’t there. He promised he’d personally make sure it was done right.
It arrived about thirty-five minutes later and it was done right and was excellent – my first food o’ the day. Here are some photographs from the show.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty, she of the Evil Eye will arrive and I’ll go somewhere and have a light breakfast and then I’ll see if any mail has come in during the past few days. Then I’ll come home and relax until it’s time to go see the show at the Group Rep.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax mostly, but I also have to film the Indiegogo trailer so we can get that to Marshall Harvey so he can edit it together. Meanwhile, on Monday, I’ll get everything prepared for the campaign, which does take quite a bit of time, what with writing the copy and figuring out all the perks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty, have a light breakfast, hopefully pick up packages, relax, eat, then see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite TV theme songs – just music only and the ones with lyrics? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that Kritzerland at Vitello’s 118 was a rousing success.