Well, dear readers, it was a lovelier than lovely birthday yesterday, the first day of my 77th year. But let’s cut right to the chase, shall we, with the lowdown of the highup – our show. We had a blast at the Arboretum’s Ayres Hall doing our holiday show. We had about 260 people there, which basically filled the room. The cast, as they always do, delivered the goods and having John Boswell with us was the icing on the cake. So, here’s how it went: I had to grab this audience and make them “get” the vibe of our show and I knew I had to do it on the first line of patter. Thankfully, I was handed the perfect set-up by the opening remarks from the Arboretum librarian, Leena Waller, who said something about the Arboretum being about beauty and love and being kind to each other. Now, I need to set this up slightly by saying that there are peacocks wandering around the Arboretum – beautiful peacocks, just wandering around. I did my usual welcoming and then said, “I love that the Arboretum is all about beauty and love and being kind to each other. So, how come as soon as I walked in the gate, a peacock bit me? It got a HUGE laugh and we had them all the way. I did add, “All these peacocks – I thought I was watching NBC.” As always with the holiday show, we opened with Be a Santa with uber talented little Sadie Reynolds knocking it right out of the park. Normally, we do it with two kids, but I knew Sadie could handle it on her own. Next, Robert Yacko did a beautiful The Christmas Song, thenAnastasia Barzee, who I would work with at the drop of a hat, did my song This Christmas and landed every single laugh in the song.
Then came Adrienne Stiefel, who has one of THE most beautiful voices, did a gorgeous What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve. Then came a man and his oboe, Jason Graae, who did Sleigh Ride, and it was great. Kerry O’Malley did a beautiful and moving Winter Was Warm. Then Robert was back with a put-together of Let It Snow, Let it Snow and The Holiday Season, which was lots of fun. Then Adrienne was back with her daughter, Kerby Lee (making her Kritzerland debut) doing my song, Little Miracles – Kerby was a trouper and they both did it splendidly. Then Sadie was back doing the Shirley Temple classic, That’s What I Want for Christmas and giving Shirley a run for her money.
Jason came back and did a song he recorded for me way back in 1994, She’s Roses from Drat! The Cat!, which I’m about to direct for the Group Rep. Jason doing that song brought back such happy memories of what led to doing the studio cast album of the show. Anastasia did a heartfelt and lovely Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, then, since this was a benefit for the Arboretum library, I had Kerry do A Trip to the Library from She Loves Me, which she did brilliantly and in a way that no one has ever quite done it before. Adrienne then did a most beautiful A Place Called Home.
Jason came back and literally brought the house down with the hilarious My Simple Christmas Wish, then Robert did another song because we were at the Arboretum with their breathtaking botanical gardens – so I chose the cut song from I Do! I Do!, Thousands of Flowers and Robert did a great job of it. Then Anastasia did the song she sang when she created the role of Betty Haynes in the stage version of White Christmas, Count Your Blessings – one of my all-time favorite songs and you could not have asked for a lovelier version. Then I thanked everyone, and we closed with Kerry doing Happy Holiday/White Christmas. Most of the audience had no idea what a Kritzerland show was about – they do now, and they could not have been a better crowd, and they gave us a standing ovation. Then they sang Happy Birthday to Adrienne and me, which was the icing on THAT cake. It really was a great afternoon and I have to give a special shout out to our sound man, Bas, who was the BEST. Everything was well organized and there were literally no hiccups. Here are a few photographs courtesy Adryan Russ. Our merry troupe.
Jason and his oboe.
Kerry O’Malley.
Adrienne Stiefel and daughter Kerby Lee.
John Boswell at the piano.
Sadie Reynolds.
Sadie doing Be a Santa.
Robert Yacko.
Anastasia Barzee.
After the show, we mingled for a bit, with many lovely comments from people, and several of our regular audience members thought it was the best holiday show we’ve done, so that was nice. Then the cast and some family members drove to a nearby jernt called The Derby, a very pricey, high-end jernt. Adrienne’s hubby planned it as a little birthday celebration. He got a bunch of appetizers for everyone – great shrimp cocktail, out of the world crab cakes with amazing tartar sauce, bacon-wrapped scallops, and calamari – I didn’t try the latter two. We were there for about forty-five minutes and then Marshall Harvey and Henry Stanny and I went to the Coral Café for a birthday dinner, where we were joined by Robert Yacko and Leena Waller from the Arboretum library. I had a cobb salad and they brought me cake, I blew out the candle after making a wish, there was lots of gabbing, and then I came home and practically fell over from exhaustion. I had a ton of e-mails to answer, over 600 Facebook birthday wishes to “like”, and that was pretty much the rest of the evening. Prior to that, I got eight hours of sleep, shaved and showered, moseyed on over to the Arboretum, everything was set up perfectly, we did our sound check, and then relaxed until show time.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll have me a ME day straight down the line, I’ll pick up whatever’s at the mail place, I’ll pray for a few modern major miracles, I’ll eat something fun, and then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, it’s dinner with the Pearls, Wednesday, I get my permanent crown and I take my car in to get fixed, and then I’m just stuck here doing whatever 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, have me a ME day, pick up whatever’s at the mail place, pray for a few modern major miracles, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Appetizers. What are your favorites, which don’t you like, and where have you had the best of the best? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had such a wonderful Kritzerland 130.