Well, dear readers, let’s just get to the nitty gritty and the gritty nitty, shall we? Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? Or as they say in Big Spender, let me get right to the point. Last night’s Kritzerland show was, out of our 125 shows, the show of shows, the best of the best, the gold standard, the whipped cream and cherry of shows. First of all, we sold out the jernt – I believe there were over 140 people there. We’ve never had anywhere near that number of people. We’ve gotten in the 90s for sure but not 140. Packed to the rafters, as I kept saying to Richard Sherman, who’s birthday, number 95, we were celebrating (actual birthday on Monday). Richard and Elizabeth were there, daughter Vicki and hubby Greg and various caretakers who take turns caring for Richard and Elizabeth. The venue is really lovely and worked perfectly for the show. And what a crowd – a whole host of Disney folks, friends Will Mackenzie and wife Patsy, Pete Menefee, who was one of the original Step in Time dancers, and tons of others. I knew a lot of folks, but also didn’t know a lot of folks. So, here was the show. First of all, I had an absolute blast – I was very loose, went off script many times, lots o’ laughs and I just knew instantly they were a great crowd and a lot of them were newbies to our show. First up was Marc Ginsburg doing my Shermanized Words Medley, which was a great opener. Then we had Adrienne Stiefel doing a put-together of two songs from The Parent Trap, the movie that introduced me the Wonderful World of the Sherman Brothers – first the title song, then the gorgeous For Now, For Always, which Adrienne sang beautifully. Then came Robert Yacko with I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book. The vamp to the song, between verses, sounded to me a little like the Dance: 10, Looks: 3 vamp that happens in the middle of the song. So, at one of our rehearsals, I had Richard Allen play that vamp instead and gave Robert a line paraphrasing the actual line from the Chorus Line song. Robert, who had bananas on a stand, looked at the audience and said: “You’re all looking at my bananas now, aren’t you?” Huge laugh and Robert delivered and timed it perfectly.
Then Kerry O’Malley did a very moving version of The Age of Not Believing – just gorgeously sung. Then it was a put-together of two songs Richard wrote with his best friend Milt Larsen, of the Magic Castle, who sadly passed away a week and a half ago – he was, in fact, coming to the show, but I felt he was there with us in spirit. The two songs were from an album they did called Smash Flops, songs you’ve never heard because the flops were fictional. Bon Voyage, Titanic and The Fracking Song – both songs got lots of laughs and Bonnie Gordon did a great job with them. Then Marc was back with Chim Chim Cheree, which, of course, was an audience favorite. Then it was Adrienne again with the song Richard and I wrote for the second act of Levi – So Many Empty Rooms. No one does this song better than Adrienne.
Then Robert did a put-together of two songs from Busker Alley – the title song and She Has a Way. Great performance and the two songs are just fantastic. At one point in the show I said, isn’t it great to hear actual melodies? Then it was Johnny Whitaker doing How Come, a song he sang in the movie Tom Sawyer fifty years ago. The audience ate him up and he was just wonderful. Then Kerry did Where Did the Good Times Go from Over Here – a true showstopper and Kerry kind of owns it and has performed it several times. Bonnie came back and did a put-together of two songs from Mary Poppins – the first was the Brothers’ first attempt at a song for Mary that explained her positive philosophy of life – a ballad called The Eyes of Love. But Julie thought her philosophy song should be up-tempo and so they wrote A Spoonful of Sugar, and the rest is history. Then Johnny did another song from Tom Sawyer, If’n I Was God – again, it was very moving. All during the show, Elizabeth and Richard were holding hands and she’d mouth the lyrics to every song. It was so sweet.
Then Robert did the song Richard wrote especially for L.A. Now and Then – The Whimsy Works, which Robert introduced in the original production of the show – a very moving song about Walt Disney and what it was like there in the 1960s. Then Guy Haines was a no-show again, so I did the song Richard and I wrote together, Two Roads and that seemed to go well. Adrienne did a stunning version of Tell Him Anything from The Slipper and the Rose. Then Kerry did a gorgeous Feed the Birds. That was followed by Marc doing a put-together of two songs from Levi, both classic Sherman Brothers songs – Opportunity and Levi’s big end of show number, Look How it Adds Up. Marc, of course, brilliantly played Levi Strauss in the production we did and he was thrilling and I know it’s one of Richard’s favorite songs. Then I did the thank yous and introduced the birthday boy – instant standing ovation. The final song was my put-together of Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang, and because it was an all adult audience I finally got to tell the story of a present I bought for Richard at a rare paperback show, an “adult” dirty novel entitled Titty Titty, Gang Bang. I said Richard read that book from cover to cover, which got a big laugh. Bonnie did the put-together and it was a wonderful ending for the show. I brought the cast out and then we gave Richard a chocolate cake with two candles, while everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. He blew out both candles in one breath. And that was our show. An amazing night to remember.
After the show, Robert, Marshall Harvey, and I went to the Smokehouse and I had their fantastic fish and chips and two pieces of the garlic cheese bread. That was my first food of the day and it was really good. It was a great way to unwind.
Yesterday was fine. I got nine hours of sleep and then just rested and relaxed, went and got the chocolate cake, shaved and showered, and then moseyed on over to the club, found street parking, and we did our sound check and then you know all about the show. Here are some photographs. Well, apparently not – they’re not uploading properly, so I’ll put them up as soon as they fix whatever the problem is. Problem fixed. Here they are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven-thirty and I have a one o’clock lunch with someone. After that, I’m doin’ nothin’ but having a ME day and then I’ll hopefully be able to watch the Tony Awards on some Firestick channel and we will of course have a partay right here and gab all about it.
Tomorrow, we’ll do some serious Sami Emmy promotion stuff, and we either rehearse at seven or we start that on Tuesday – have to find the schedule to find out. The rest of the week is all rehearsals and Sami promotion.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven-thirty, have a lunch, have a ME day, and then watch the Tony Awards and attend our haineshisway.com partay. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that Kritzerland 125 was the show of shows.