haines his way

09/10/2002:
"THE ANNOUNCEMENTS CONTINUE"

Well, dear readers, yesterday’s notes had a certain brio I thought, didn’t you? And today’s notes shall have more of the same, because I’m in a brio mode now. Add to that the fact that the mowers have arrived and they too have brio, well, it is impossible not to have continual brio. I promised you two more announcements and two more announcements you shall get. One today and one either tomorrow or Thursday. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I watched a DVD entitled The Dead Zone. But not The Dead Zone that I know and love. This was a brand spanking new The Dead Zone made for the USA Network. What I watched was an eighty-seven minute pilot for what became a short-run series (I think it was short-run, but for all I know it could still be on), starring Anthony Michael Hall. I have no idea what the actual series episodes are like, but the pilot covers much of the material from the book, especially the book as adapted by Jeffrey Boam for the David Cronenberg film. Now, let me just say here and now and also now and here that I think the Cronenberg film (with Christopher Walken) is wonderful – one of the top three Stephen King adaptations. This thing I saw last night tries to ape several scenes from it, right down to aping specific shots. I find that quite annoying. The leading lady is very reminiscent of Brooke Adams in the film (their mouths are almost indentical). But it’s all been made silly and the attempts to be hip and Matrix-like are stupid. How these things get made and approved are beyond me (well, it’s not beyond me – it also apes several network shows in both style and content), but that’s how the TV world works – they keep buying series from only people who’ve done other series (and I don’t mean the odd original idea either – I mean the same old, same old) and the whole thing just propagates itself with mediocrity after mediocrity. The bits of the story that are still emotionally powerful are the ones lifted directly from book and Cronenberg/Boam, but they all feel like some amateur theatrical group doing a classic play. They say the words, and do the scenes, but it’s just not very good.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button because I’ve got an announcement to make and trivia answers to reveal. Click away, my pretties.

My goodness, those mowers have brio. I have never heard or seen such brio from mowers. They are mowing with spunk, with pizzazz, with razzmatazz, with all that jazz, with élan, with spirit. They are the June Taylor Dancers of mowers these mowers are.
Well, we had several High Winners in last week’s trivia contest, and I didn’t think the question was so easy, and yet you trivia mavens got it quite handily. Here was the question as posed here in these very notes (with brio, of course) last Saturday:
A classic play, later turned into a film.
The two leading actors in the play also played their roles in the film adaptation. These two actors had something very interesting and unique in common.
The play was directed by an Academy Award-winning director. The film was directed by a different Academy Award-winning director.
Two of the supporting cast in the play went on to appear in two hugely successful comedy series on television.

Name the classic play.
Name its two leading actors and what they had in common.
Name the two Academy Award-winning directors
Name the two supporting cast members and their classic comedy television series.
And here are the answers (with brio, of course):
The classic play: Tea and Sympathy
The two leading actors: Deborah Kerr and John Kerr, who happened to share the same last name but are no relation to each other.
The two directors: Elia Kazan (stage), Vincente Minnelli (film)
The two supporting cast members and their classic comedy series: Dick York (Bewitched) and Alan Sues (Laugh-In). As some trivia players pointed out, Florida Friebus would have also been a correct answer for The Bob Newhart Show.
Our High Winners were Michael Shayne, Mark Rothman, JMK, Steve Gurey, Tim Hedgepeth and Jed. And our handy-dandy Electronic Hat has randomly chosen Jed as our Highest Winner, and he will be receiving a sparkling prize very soon.
Speaking of trivia, I will tell you this: I received an e-mail from one of our dear readers, with the header “trivia”. This was followed by two other e-mails from the same dear reader, which also had that header. Now, that first e-mail had an attachment – in other words it was one of those e-mails that when you click “read” it won’t open it without opening the attachment. Of course I did not open it and the dear reader confirmed that it wasn’t sent by him. That is the first time I’ve received a virus-infected e-mail with a header cloned from a real e-mail. So, please please please (that is three pleases which, of course, make a plea) do not open any e-mail with any attachment without checking with the sender first, to make certain that it is safe to do so.
So far I have made two count them two announcements – one, that I will begin work on a new Showtime TV series next week. Two, that I am more than half-way through the sequel to Benjamin Kritzer. Today’s announcement is very exciting to me. I will not go into any detail at this time, but can assure you that details will be forthcoming very soon and that you will be the first to know them (there will be press releases shortly for today’s announcement on the announcement that will be made in a day or two). So, I’m happy to tell you, dear readers, that I have made a deal to write and co-direct (with my pal, Nick Redman) a brand spanking new film which, if all goes according to plan, will shoot early next year. It’s a very low-budget film, but one that will be a lot of fun to do. You dear readers will especially like what it is. As I said, it’s too soon to give you the details, but I will say that my intent is to use many of the people I’ve used on my albums. I’m very excited about this, but I’m also smart enough to know that until we actually start shooting, things can change. But papers have been signed and we are moving in a forward direction. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? I will have further details very soon, I promise.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must lunch with a friend, I must sit at my handy-dandy laptop computer and write words, words, and more words. I must watch more DVDs this evening. Don’t forget, tomorrow is Ask BK Day, so get ready to ask your excellent questions. Today’s topic of discussion: If you, each and every dear reader, were given the opportunity to run Encores! for one season, what would your season be comprised of, and who would be in your productions. I believe the Encore season is four shows, so let’s make it four shows. I’ll start – of course they’ve already done Li’l Abner, damn them, damn them all to hell – so I’d do The Most Happy Fella, Lolita, My Love, Drat! The Cat! and either Carnival in Flanders (I have no idea if the book is workable or not – but the score is very intriguing) or Subways are for Sleeping. Your turn.

Replies: 37 Unseemly Comments

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Drat the Cat
Saratoga
Encores only has three shows, but if it added a forth
Plain and Fancy
Posted by Kenneth Loging @ 09/10/2002 09:15 AM PST

House of Flowers
Goodtime Charley
Dear World
and Allegro (again), if they could get it recorded
Posted by Pam @ 09/10/2002 09:35 AM PST

Drat the Cat!
City of Angels
Woman of the Year
Kismet
Mack & Mabel
Posted by Craig @ 09/10/2002 09:47 AM PST

Erwin Drake's What Makes Sammy Run?
Harold Rome's I Can Get it For You Wholesale
Irving Berlin's Miss Liberty
R&H's Pipe Dream
Richard Adler's Kwamina
Cole Porter's Silk Stockings
To Michael Shayne: I found my The Happy Time one-sheeter and a Playbill dated the week of its opening. I think I saw it for the second time somewhat into the run and I must have just picked up the Playbill I found after the show opened. I couldn't find my Playbill from later in the run. Anyway, there is a song called Being Alive listed both in my Playbill and the one-sheeter I got at the preview. There were other changes and deletions in the songs between the preview and the opening.
Posted by steveg @ 09/10/2002 09:49 AM PST

My Encores picks:
Love Life
Pipe Dream
Jumbo
The Happy Time
Posted by Philip Crosby @ 09/10/2002 09:55 AM PST

She Loves Me
Grand Hotel
No, No Nanette
The Cradle Will Rock
Posted by Jay @ 09/10/2002 09:56 AM PST

First of all, the aforementioned Florida Frebus is even better known for playing Dobie Gillis' mother for several years.
Encores is allegedly doing HOUSE OF FLOWERS this season and if either NO STRINGS or NEW MOON falls through they might be doing A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN as well. These are the titles I've seen in several places. Frankly, I don't know why they won't do NO STRINGS if Vanessa Williams is not available. She would be good, but there are many other performers who would be just as good. Encores is supposed to revive shows, not be a showcase for stars.
As for shows I'd like to see:
FLAHOOLEY
MINNIE'S BOYS
MAKE A WISH
and if they did four shows instead of three
NEW FACES OF 1952
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 09/10/2002 09:58 AM PST

Yesterday's topic and posts triggered a lot of memories. To wit ...
THE HAPPY TIME - I played the mother in two separate community theater productions of the play. Although the productions were good, I felt that neither sufficiently captured the charm and innocence of the play's time period adequately. It was only recently that I found out it was adapted into a musical.
THE NEW ZOO REVUE - I worked with Doug Momary before he "hit it big" with this children's show. I met him in a class at a local community college. The theater department produced one of his children's musicals which he directed and where I was enlisted as choreographer and also worked on costumes. I remember how we all sat around a small table in a restaurant one day and sketched out the costumes for the opening number. At that time, everybody did everything. He even came over the house to help sew costumes. I remember teaching him how to make a knot in the thread. Way back then, he had a band and invited a bunch of us to come over his house to listen to a rehearsal. I also appeared in some one-act plays of his. He could, and still does, do it all. He was not only a composer, lyricist and playwright but a wonderful set designer and artist as well. A true rennaisance man. Here's a link to an update on where he is now http://www.hollywoodinvestigator.com/newzoorevue.htm.
STAGE AND SCREEN - I've been a long time member of this book club. Here's a link to their website http://www.stagenscreen.com.
Note: The September calendar for Cabaret West is now up and running. Check out the Musicals section. Click my name to go to the site.
Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 09/10/2002 11:36 AM PST

Oh my! Two Unseemly Trivia wins in four weeks! The handy-dandy electronic hat is my new favorite piece of headwear, let me tell you. Now if only a sparkling prize or two would arrive...
Posted by Jed @ 09/10/2002 11:47 AM PST

LOVE LIFE
THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (but only with the original full orchestrations)
DRAT! THE CAT!
Incidentally, Hofstra Univerity will be doing a concert version of the revised version of WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? next March.
In reference to yesterday's topic, I grew up in Los Angeles and actually appeared as a guest ventriloquist on Skipper Frank's show. I was 11 and Frank Herman suggested a good ventriloquism teacher with whom I studied for a while. I also appeared on the Uncle Johnny Coons show and in the audience of Jeepers Creepers. Other favorites were Tom Hatten and Billy Barty.
Posted by Robert Armin @ 09/10/2002 11:59 AM PST

Donnybrook!
Greenwillow
Take Me Along
Regina (call it an opera if you like--it's roots are firmly in the musical theatre--I saw a terrific small performance of it 25 years ago in NYC)
Posted by William F. Orr @ 09/10/2002 12:01 PM PST

Congratulations, Bruce, on all your good news. Can't wait for the rest.
Not knowing all that Encores has already done, My list would be:
Tenderloin
The Apple Tree
Golden Apple
and basing it on four shows,
Here's Love
I'll have to work on the casting.
Posted by Kerry @ 09/10/2002 12:40 PM PST

REGINA was done last year as part of the York's Musicals In Mufti series. This series may not have an orchestra like Encores but at least they don't cut the books to shreds. They have not yet announced this year's season, but in the past they have done every thing from 70 GIRLS 70 to THE HUMAN COMEDY to BILLION DOLLAR BABY to CARMEN JONES and they have as many big stars as Encores: Helen Gallagher, Karen Ziemba, B. D. Wong, Kristin Chenowith, etc.
Also in New York there is a group called Musicals Tonight that does the same thing. This year among others they will be doing Rodgers and Hart's musical about castration CHEE CHEE. Last year they proved that the producers of CRAZY FOR YOU were totally wrong when they said the original GIRL CRAZY was unplayable.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 09/10/2002 12:40 PM PST

Kerry, Encores did TENDERLOIN (with Debbie Gravitte) a couple of years ago and it was recorded by DRG. They have not yet done the others on your list.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 09/10/2002 12:42 PM PST

Somebody's actually gonna produce Chee Chee??? Never thought I'd see the day.
Thank god Lorenz Hart wrote better lyrics in his career than for that show...
"When you were a little crescent,
Your manners were as soft as wool.
Now you're getting effervescent-
But maybe that's because you're full."
Oy.
Posted by Jed @ 09/10/2002 01:05 PM PST

You know what I can't get over?
The fact that "Alan Sues" -- of all people -- played John Kerr's "butch" roommate in "Tea and Sympathy."
It's mindboggling!
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 09/10/2002 03:05 PM PST

I Do! I Do! – John Lithgow & Glenn Close
Dear World – Bernadette Peters
Fiorello! – Nathan Lane
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 09/10/2002 03:21 PM PST

So glad to hear about the good news! Can't wait to hear the rest of the announcements.
Posted by Laura @ 09/10/2002 03:27 PM PST

The very first show Encores did was FIORELLO! with Jerry Zacks. Nathan Lane did the Phil Silvers role in Encore's DO RE ME.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 09/10/2002 04:06 PM PST

Encore:
Love Life (This has always been on the top of my list)
Paint Your Wagon (with someone like Marc Anthony playing Julio and maybe some Country/Western singers filling in the other roles.)
1600 Pennsylvannia Ave (Maybe performed as The White House Cantana. Instead of one pair of actors playing the president and first lady and Seena and Lud you can have different perfomers for each sequence.)
My choices from the Kimmlet roster.
Ten Square Miles: Gregory Jbarra
(Washington) Lee Wilkof, Sal Viviano,Walter Willison, Greg Edelman, Jonathan Freeman,Davis Gaines, Sean McDermott, Christopher Durang, Gary Beach, Bryan Batt, Danny Burstein, David Engel.

If I Was a Dove: (Little Lud and Chorus)
Welcome Home Miz Adams (Chorus)
Take Care of This House: Rebecca Luker (Abigail Adams) & little Lud
*
President Jefferson Luncheon March: Michael Rupert (Jefferson) & Chorus
*
Seena: Norma Lewis
Sonatina: Guy Haines (Admiral Cockburn) & Lud & Chorus (Perhaps the gentlemen of 10 Square Miles?)
*
Lud's Wedding: La Chanze & Gerry McIntyre
The Monrovaid: Jason Graae & Liz Callaway (The Monroes)
This Time: Obba Babatunde & Melba Joyce

We Must Have a Ball:Brent Barrett (Buchanan)

Bight and Black
Henry, Little Lud, Seena, Lud & Chorus
*
Duet For One: Judy Kaye (I know she recorded this already but she did such a great job)(Grant and Hayes)
***
The Minstrel Show: Chours
To Make Us Proud: Ron Raines
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 09/10/2002 04:12 PM PST

That's strange that certain lines became bold. I didn't do the etc.
I just noticed that all my choices had lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner but with different composers;
Love Life: Kurt Weill
Paint Your Wagon: Frederick Loewe
1600 Pennsylvannia Ave: Leonard Bernstein
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 09/10/2002 04:15 PM PST

I would like to see one of my "guilty pleasures" as an Encore show
How Now, Dow Jones
It's one of the first OBCs I remember checking out of the library. It's terribly dated and the score isn't great, but it's fun, at least for me.
I would also love to see No Strings, with or without Vanessa Williams
It's hard to pick the 3rd show. Flahooley would be great, as would The Cradle Will Rock (played Dauber in that show too many years ago). Dear World would also scratch an itch (Kiss Her Now is one of my favorite songs) but I think maybe I'll go with The Apple Tree.
Posted by Ben @ 09/10/2002 04:28 PM PST

It probably bears mentioning that I don't know what Encores is and what their policies are.
Is there no chance they might do an encore presentation of something they'd already done?
Does Encores travel?
What's the story, morning glory?
What's the word, hummingbird?
: )
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 09/10/2002 04:46 PM PST

Encores is a theatrical group in New York whose mission, ostensibly, is to mount rarely (if ever) revived musicals as means to keep them alive. They do very limited runs (two weeks, I think) in a semi-staged fashion. Thanks to the limited runs and rehearsal times, they oftentimes are able to snare top drawer talent to fill the shows' roles.
I've never been to an Encores show, but I can tell you that here in sunny southern California, there's a very similar (copycat?) group called Reprise! (The exclamation point is Reprise!'s, not mine, and I hate it.) I subscribe to Reprise!, and although the sets are spare, I have to say that the shows are 3/4, and not semi-, staged.
This year Reprise! is doing ANYTHING GOES (kicking off in a couple of weeks, with Brent Barrett and Rachel York, and our favorite Kimlet, Jason Graae as Moonface Martin), ON THE 20TH CENTURY and KISMET.
There's another group in Southern California called the Musical Theatre Guild with a similar missionm. They do one night only performances at the Pasadena Playhouse, making do with whatever set happens to be on stage at the time. At MTG, it's more like 1/4 staged, and they are on book for a good deal of the time.
MTG's lineup this year includes the early Sondheim SATURDAY NIGHT, ALLEGRO, GRAND HOTEL, LUCKY STIFF and JUBILEE.
Reprise apparently is getting into the one night only reading business, too, as they've just announced a night of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG on September 23.
This is the same night that MTG is doing SATURDAY NIGHT.
Is that unfair or what?
Posted by Jay @ 09/10/2002 05:09 PM PST

Many, many congratulations to Bruce. How many years has it been since your last movie?
Encores: The Cradle Will Rock (I heard some of the score in the movie, and it sounds marvelous.)
The Golden Apple (Just to hear why everyone thinks it's so fantastic.)
Johnny Johnson (What a wonderful, bizarre, neglected score!)
I would like if they did an American Kurt Weill each year. I believe that they've already done Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus, but Knickerbocker Holiday, The Firebrand of Florence, Love Life, Street Scene, and particularly Lost in the Stars are fascinating scores, and none of them are produced frequently. (OK, Street Scene is done in opera houses, sometimes, but that isn't very frequently, and it isn't done as a musical.
And I love most of the other suggestions too.
Posted by Hapgood @ 09/10/2002 07:13 PM PST

Oh, I feel a fool, but a very lucky
fool. On this day when I made
unseemly mention of not yet
having received a sparkling
prize from a trivia contest past,
what should appear in my
mailbox, but said sparkling
prize! Thank you kindly, Bruce.
I'm not familiar with Linda
Purl's work, but having just
now listened to the CD, I think
I'm going to rather enjoy it.
Posted by Jed @ 09/10/2002 07:43 PM PST

Okay, well, I've spent the day getting a DSL line installed.
But, I really, really need to see:
PAINT YOUR WAGON
NO STRINGS
110 IN THE SHADE
CONNECTICUT YANKEE would be nice, too.
Posted by td @ 09/10/2002 08:13 PM PST

Dream Encores! +1:
The following are my selections on Tuesday 10 September 2002 at 23:21 E.T.; any time thereafter likely my choices would be different:
Applause
Mack & Mabel
On the Twentieth Century
Funny Girl
Posted by freedunit @ 09/10/2002 08:22 PM PST

Encores recently did A CONNECTICUT YANKEE mixing the 20s version with the 40s version and Musicals in Mufti did JOHNNY JOHNSON with Perry Laylon Ojedia.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 09/10/2002 08:39 PM PST

My top three choices would be
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Plain and Fance
Rags
with either Take Me Along or Miss Liberty as my bonus Encores.
Posted by jb @ 09/10/2002 08:46 PM PST

I meant Plain and Fancy of course.
And by the way, today I finally finished reading every day's notes on this site and have only one thing to say,
You are all crazy.
Posted by jb @ 09/10/2002 08:48 PM PST

Ah, but JD that is why you love us!
Posted by Kerry @ 09/10/2002 09:21 PM PST

My congrats to you Bruce on your newest endeavors. Looking forward to seeing them come to fruition.
Favorite Encores:
DRAT THE CAT
LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE
THE GRAND TOUR
Posted by Dennis Clancy @ 09/10/2002 09:31 PM PST

If my Encores wish could be something that's not yet been done (on Broadway, at least), I'd vote for the stage version of Menken and Schwartz's HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. I have the German (and so far only) cast recording and, even though I don't understand German, I love the more complete score. A friend (who speaks German fluently) told me that they went back to the original ending of the book with Quasimodo and Esmeralda dying (or something like that--I never read the book). I wonder if the reason that it hasn't yet come to Broadway is because the powers-that-be at Disney don't want it to interfere with the profit/sequel/franchise potential of the direct-to-video HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME II or III or IV or.... How could there be a sequel if the main characters died at the end of the first show??
Posted by George @ 09/10/2002 11:08 PM PST

I also love ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 110 IN THE SHADE and RAGS (which is going to be presented next summer by a children's theatre program here). They did CHILDREN OF EDEN last month and it was pretty darn good.
Posted by George @ 09/10/2002 11:11 PM PST

JAY - The Musical Theater Guild is a member of Cabaret West and Reprise! is, indrectly, as their musical director Peter Matz (who just passed away) was a CabWest member. Another group who do rarely done Broadway shows is 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco. This year, they're doing a whole season of Richard Rodgers shows in honor of his 100th birthday. There was also a group that started up in Seattle a few years ago, but disbanded after one or two shows. The details about the MTG and Reprise! shows are on our website.
Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 09/11/2002 01:40 AM PST

Three for Encores:
- The Apple Tree (an old time favorite)
- Mack & Mabel (a great score in needs of a book)
- The Me Nobody Knows (every list needs a longshot.....)
Posted by Phil @ 09/11/2002 06:45 AM PST

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