Well, dear readers, let me start with the most interesting part of my day because it was the most interesting part of my day and therefore I feel it would be the most interesting thing to start with. Those who’ve read Kritzer Time (and who hasn’t) know that my early theater experiences began at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Hollywood, California, USA. I loved that theater more than any other. It felt like a home almost. The first play I saw there was Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man, which was a life-changer, and that was followed by another life-changer, A Thurber Carnival. I saw Beyond the Fringe there and another life-changer, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, and then stuff like Luv and The Odd Couple and Plaza Suite and a glorious The Glass Menagerie with Ann Southern and Rattle of a Simple Man with Tammy Grimes and John Astin and The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter and Hughie starring Jason Robards and many others. It was a fairly intimate large theater of about 900 seats, like a classic Broadway house. All the touring plays usually came there or the Biltmore downtown, but the Biltmore was a much larger theater. I wanted nothing more than to play there, to act in a show there, to step on that amazing stage. Alas, that never happened. I did visit backstage a lot – in those days there was no what the kiddies today call stage dooring – I was frequently the only one who came to the stage door – it just wasn’t done like the craziness today. So, I would be taken to the star dressing room, located right off the stage right wing where I’d get to meet Tammy Grimes or Jason Robards or whoever. They were all gracious and warm hearted to li’l ol’ teenage me. At some point it was taken over by the Center Theater Group and the name was changed to the Dolittle – I never liked that name, and they also did some “fixing up”, taking away the warmth of the place and making it more industrial in feel, a look I absolutely loathe. Then it became the Ricardo Montalban Theater and that was kind of the end of it. It’s still that, and maybe it’s booked a third of the year with one-nighter events and such.
Over the last few weeks, LACC and I have been talking about me putting together a benefit show for the theater department, as I did at the Alex back in 2007. We can’t do it on campus because their theater is less than 350 seats. The head of the foundation knows the fellow who runs the Montalban now, so a meeting was set up and yesterday was the day. We began in the lobby – no carpeting and everything kind of just what it is. Then we went upstairs to the bar area and the balcony – I actually rarely went up there as I always sat in the orchestra at the Hartford – I’d only go up at intermission to see what it was like up there. It’s nice, but it’s been totally redesigned and doesn’t look anything like it did back in the day. Then we went back downstairs and into the theater. And I cannot tell you the flood of emotion that hit me. There was that wonderful stage where I’d seen so many incredible shows that changed my life. The seats in the theater are all new but that stage is exactly the same. And a moment later I was standing on it looking out at where I used to sit. And do you know what I did? I started singing Once in a Lifetime in my best Littlechap voice. I’d already told everyone that I’d seen the show there, and they all laughed when I did it, but boy it felt really good. And the acoustics – I could be heard anywhere in that auditorium without pushing beyond basic theater projection (no one seems to know what that is anymore, since even straight plays are now miked either with mics all over the stage or with personal mics on the actors – shameful). Then we had our meeting in what was the star dressing room right off the stage right wing. It, too, looks nothing like it did, but it just brought back so many images. I don’t know if we’ll ultimately do the benefit there – it will depend on the deal, but I’m sure hoping we do – it would be something special for me to direct in that theater. So, yesterday from three to four-thirty, I was indescribably happy to be in what will always, for me, be the Huntington Hartford. Here is the side of the marquee in 1960 looking north to Hollywood Blvd. In less than a year I’d be seeing my first show there. Note the burger stand – the became Molly’s at some point in the 70s, I think and it stayed Molly’s until about four years ago. That entire space is now a hole eight feet into the ground – they’re putting up an eight-story building with a huge underground garage.
Here’s the inside of the theater – this is what it looked like back in my day.
And here’s an earlier shot from the mid-1950s. Mike Lyman’s was gone by the time I began going there – I’m not sure if anything too its place of if it was just torn down – then it was a parking lot until just about two years ago when they put up a parking garage there.
Otherwise, it was a perfectly nice day. I didn’t get quite eight hours of sleep, got up and did stuff on the computer. Then the helper came over and we spent almost two hours going through Indiegogo e-mails and putting everything, all the requests into our main spreadsheet – we’re all caught up now and ready for the mugs and T-shirts to get shipped when they arrive in a couple of weeks.
After that, it was off to the meeting. After the meeting ended at four-thirty, I was starving so I went right to Jerry’s Deli, where I had a turkey sandwich and a cup of chili. Then I picked up a couple of packages and then came home. I answered e-mails, caught up on stuff, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Foreign Intrigue, starring Robert Mitchum and Ingrid Tulean. Those who’ve read Benjamin Kritzer (and who hasn’t) know that I saw that movie when I was eight years old and had my first boy crush on Miss Tulean, who was in reality Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin. I saw Foreign Intrigue on our summer vacation in La Jolla at a nice theater. I really liked it, but the reality is it’s not a very good movie, but I still like it anyway. I cannot say I liked the transfer much – the source material is basically terrible – color is okay at some points, terrible at others – it’s filled with scratches and it’s never very sharp. I’ve got to find the DVD I have from overseas and see if that’s any better. I don’t really understand how a company can issue something that looks like this, but they do.
Earlier in the week, I’d come upon the edited video of The Brain from Planet X from the LACC production that we shot with three cameras. I was only going to watch a bit of it but I ended up watching most of it. It was fun in certain ways, and excruciating in other ways. First off, I made several changes after that production that improved the show, so to see it without those changes occasionally made me cringe. Then there was the sound mix or lack thereof – just awful – you can barely hear the audience because for some reason all the sound is coming from the head mics and the band mics. Only occasionally are you hearing what the camera picked up and frankly I preferred that because you could hear the damn laughs. Most of the time it just sounds deadly because you cannot hear the audience and the actors sound like they’re screaming in your face. Still there are some very funny things and most of the performances are great. Some of the musical numbers were improved with the new choreography by Adam Cates when we were at NYMF. That version of the show, which is basically what’s licensed now, just really sharpened so many things that were not quite working as intended at LACC. But what really infuriated me the most was remembering why we’d only taped the matinee – because my camera guy had an evening gig come up – I’d originally wanted to do the evening show anyway, but the plan was to tape both. Suddenly he could only do the matinee and it was too late to get anyone else. The matinee was fine, but the evening show (our closing night) was the best performance we had – what a shame we didn’t get that one. And there is one performance that is so horrifyingly bad that I literally could not watch any of the scenes this guy was in. I worked with him so hard and going into previews he was finally okay and seemed to understand the style he had to play. Then at the preview his friends came and hooted and hollered at everything he did and suddenly he just reverted to screaming everything and doing it the way I’d told him not to. I spoke to him many times and wrote many notes and even spoke to the faculty about it, but he would not listen and I only wish I could have just kicked his ass out of the show and replaced him. One of the joys of the NYMF production was finally having an actor who “got” the style and who played it superbly – he was hilarious. I wanted to just go find this guy and punch him in the face.
After that, I had a telephonic conversation about the Indiegogo campaign, which is now in its last day and a half. We have far to go and we really need help getting there. So spread the word far and wide, buy the CD in advance or whatever – the shocking realization for the person who’s actually doing the campaign is how many people she’s done favor after favor for have not bothered to come in and contribute. I find that absolutely sickening and she’s completely sickened by it – physically sickened and I don’t blame her. She will not be doing any more favors for any of those folks and will be happy to explain to them why. I mean, how hard is it for those people to buy a CD or get tickets for the show at a great discount? But, while there are many generous and wonderful souls in the world there are far too many entitled selfish twits who are only about “gimme gimme” “me me” and who then disappear into the good night when asked to return the favor. And to those people I only have one word: Karma. Let’s show those people how it’s done – we can DO this. We’re almost at forty percent funded and most of the Kritzerland Indiegogo action happened in the last fourteen hours.
Here’s the link to the campaign. Puuuuuuush.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/welcome-to-my-world-world-premiere-production/x/9165600#/funders
Today, I have some errands and whatnot to do, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages (expecting a new book that should have a little section on Nudie Musical), write, and relax.
Tomorrow I may have a meeting at some point, Saturday and Sunday I’m not sure what’s going on.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up packages, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What theater that you saw as a kid or teen was life changing for you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still amazed at the flood of emotion I felt walking into the auditorium that will, for me, always be the Huntington Hartford Theater.