Well, dear readers, we had a wonderful Kritzerland at the Gardenia 123, our all young people show. Of course, we’d already done one performance, but this was the real one. Our sold out show turned out to be not quite sold out due to people not showing up. Normally for shows at The Gardenia, they take a credit card as a guarantee and if people don’t show up, they’re charged the cover charge and that’s how it’s supposed to work and how it works at ticketing places because they charge you right away – you have about forty-eight hours to cancel before you’re charged. But for some reason they didn’t do it. So, I was out about eight covers, which was really annoying but not as annoying as the fact we could have sold those seats. Same thing on Saturday night, about six no-shows. That said, it was a really full room and a fun audience. At our table we had Marshall Harvey, Doug Haverty, and Karen Staitman. And our very own Amy and Mark were there, otherwise it was a lot of family and parents and stuff. That can be a VERY difficult audience for me because they don’t know the Kritzerland vibe and they don’t know our running gags and my humor. But both our audiences turned out be very vocal in terms of laughs, and that happened instantly with my first bit, in which I said my usual line, “For those of you who are new to us, I always must explain that I AM elderly and must read from the paper.” And then, I continued, “You know, back when we did our second anniversary show in 2012, I did a joke – Can you imagine if we’re still doing shows ten years from now? And then I proceeded to do my impression of me as an old Jew. And the only thing that’s really different now is that’s no longer an impression.” Both shows, big laugh, although in show one, they caught on right after “my impression of an old Jew” and I was able to double that laugh with a look. I love stuff like that. Anyway, everything went beautifully and the sound was fixed and there were no hiccups at all and not even a single lyric flub.
We began the show with Erin Choi, who I think is around nine and a little bundle of dynamite. She did Born to Entertain from Ruthless and it was perfect – short and a showstopper. Then came Ava Madison Gray doing What Do I See from the 1977 animated film disaster, Raggedy Ann and Andy – but the score to that film is great and by Joe Raposo and Ava did the song beautifully. Then came Notice Me, Horton, sung by Alexa Margolis, who performed it perfectly. As you know, I choose all the songs and I’m very careful about what song goes to whom. After that, we had a duet of my song Pals with Erin Tardibuono and Libby Rue and they did great. After that it was Rae Martinez doing a song from Bonnie and Clyde called How ‘Bout a Dance – I’m not one for doing stuff from newer shows, but when her mom sent me a video of her singing it, I liked the feel and it fit in very well with what I’d already chosen. Rae has a beautiful voice and did it to a T.
Then came Elena Bertucchi doing my song Annie. Her dad had e-mailed me about six months ago to tell me Elena had discovered the song and loved it and they bought the Welcome to My World songbook. Well, this little girl of eleven brought the house down with it, getting every single laugh and sockin’ it home at the end. Who had any idea back in 2004 that this song would be my most performed song ever. In fact, they sent me a video of another girl doing it at a rip-off all young people show and while she was good, she missed the most important laughs by using the wrong Annie character at one point – Molly, instead of Tessie, leaving out the set-up line of dialogue that leads to the last part of the sung, and then fudging the ending by not holding the final note out and abbreviating the accompaniment and it’s the latter that builds the song to a place where the audience can’t help but explode.
After that, Angelina Pendleton-Mendez did a beautiful When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2. Then it was back to Welcome to My World and the song Prom, which I’ve never heard anyone do but Sami in the show. Marissa Margolis did it in this show and since she’s going to have to deal with prom soon enough, she did it really well. Next, our lone boy, Levi Sternshein did the title song from Smile and it was delightful and I do believe that several of our cast members developed crushes on him. Then we did a young people’s show staple, Mama’s Talkin’ Soft, cut from Gypsy – Audrey Cymone and Orenda Wurth were the singers and the audience ate it up like candy. Then we did a put-together I did of The Beautiful Land and Pure Imagination for an album and that was Erin Tardibuono again. Then Alexa Margolis was back for a hilarious Be Kind to Your Parents from the musical Fanny – it was an audience favorite.
Elena Bertachhi came back and did He Was Grandpa from Welcome to My World, and several sniffles could be heard during it as it touches a lot of people, which is lovely. Then Libby Rue was back with a super cute song by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia from the play Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron. The song was Imaginary Friend and it, too, went over really well and Libby’s a real charmer who I think will do really well. She’s already doing voice-over work for Disney. Next, Ave Madison Gray was back to sing The Girl I Mean to Be from The Secret Garden and she was great AND she’s the cover for Mary Lennox in the show when it plays the Ahmanson in a month and she’s guaranteed all the Saturday matinee performances.
Then Erin Choi was back with my Shermanized Words Medley and that never fails to land and she did a grand job of it. Then we did Kids from Bye Bye Birdie. This was originally supposed to be Barry Pearl but he dropped out because he got a gig in Florida. Then it was to be Kay Cole and I – the idea with Barry and Kay is that they were both in the Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie when they were kids. So, I did it by myself and I have to say it was the right decision. I did write some special lyrics to it and updated the patter Paul Lynde does in the middle of the song and I will tell you I channeled my inner Paul Lynde rather well. The first two lines of the patter I updated to: Kids! I remember when rappers were the people you took your packages to at the May Company (imagine it with Mr. Lynde saying it). Then the second was: Kids! When I was a kid the influencers were the parents! I kept the original third line of I didn’t know what puberty was till I was almost past it. I wrote special lyrics for our duet girls, Audrey Cymone and Orenda Wurth and the whole thing just worked really well.
Then Levi Sternshein was back with Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and he was followed by Angelina Pendleton-Mendez doing my put-together of Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang and Hushabye Mountain and it was stellar. Then Mariss Margolis did the penultimate song, Disneyland from Smile and did a great job, and finally it was Rae Martinez bringing us home with my put-together of Beautiful City and Day by Day. And that was our show.
Yesterday was a bit weird in that I could not fall asleep, my hands and feet were both cramping for reasons unknown, but it was very irritating, so I barely got six hours of sleep. Once up, I did futz and finesse and wrote a page, shaved, wrote another two pages, showered, and them moseyed on over to The Gardenia for a brief sound check. Then the audience arrived, they ate, and we did our show. They pay in cash at the end of the show, so I had to hang around for almost an hour after. Then I stopped at Taco Bell for food, came home, ate it, whilst writing four or five new pages, and that was about it. My intention is to try and write five more pages before bed.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll futz and finesse and then send Muse Margaret 110 new pages. After that, I have some errands and whatnot to catch up on, I’ll go to the mail place (or is it a holiday), I’ll eat, I’ll try to write ten pages, I’ll await Muse Margaret’s call and hope she likes the new stuff, and then I’ll probably watch something and then write another five pages or so.
The rest of the week is more of the same and hoping for no drama. I do know that I’ll probably get a really needed haircut on Thursday and then on Friday I’ll probably see episode eight.
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, futz and finesse, send pages to Muse Margaret, do errands, go to the mail place, if open, write new pages, hopefully have a call from Muse Margaret, write more, and then watch something. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your never miss TV shows? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had such a fun Kritzerland 123 with such a talented bunch of kids.