Topic: THIS WAY MADNESS LIES (Read 23945 times)

bk · « **Reply #30 on:** June 02, 2004, 06:45:51 AM »

What no questions today? Surely there must be questions. Or, maybe there won't be questions. Or trumpets.

Jason · « **Reply #31 on:** June 02, 2004, 06:49:53 AM »

I'm late for work. I don't really care. Oh, well. Yesterday was my last day having to be there at nine, so I'll just mosey on in when I choose to today.

Has anyone noticed that I'm teetering on the brink of diety? Well, I am.

Tomato(e)s: No, thanks. My family seems to be able to just bite into one and be happy. I like tomato-based sauces (marinara, carbonara, pizza, etc.), but I hate actual tomatoes themselves. Don't like the texture, and as I've said before, I'm a texture-eater. I think that's why I don't like meat that's not well-done. If it's too squishy I don't want it. But that's getting into meat and poultry, and that wasn't DR Joey's question, so I'll not go there.

Perhaps I should get some breakfast before I go into work? Nah, I'll order some toast and juice when I get there. I'm not at the front desk this morning, so I won't have access to a computer until about 2:00 EST. Try not to miss me too much...

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #32 on:** June 02, 2004, 06:54:53 AM »

Quote from: Matt H. on June 02, 2004, 06:29:14 AM

As for the tomoto question, my favorite food with tomatoes is ketchup. No, I don't eat it raw, but I have loved it ever since I was tiny whereas I wouldn't eat a raw tomato when I was growing up to save my life.

Has anyone ever attempted making home-made ketchup? I never have and I've never liked any that I've tasted--either too bitter or too salty. Pass me the bottle of Heinz, please.

When I was in high school, I played football and baseball. I wasn't a total jock--it was more along the lines of my playing the chameleon--a method I used in those days in order to fit in with everyone.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #33 on:** June 02, 2004, 06:55:28 AM »

DRPANNI - you have a CD of special music on the way to your mailbox.

Hope you enjoy it!

Jrand73 · « **Reply #34 on:** June 02, 2004, 06:57:54 AM »

MR BK is up early!

My question for ASK BK day - did you ever encounter a project early on - previews or readings - that you knew instantly would be a hit? What made you think so? And did you ever encounter another project that you knew would NEVER make it, even though others were enthusiastic?

bk · « **Reply #35 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:04:39 AM »

Quote from: JRand53 on June 02, 2004, 06:57:54 AM

MR BK is up early!

My question for ASK BK day - did you ever encounter a project early on - previews or readings - that you knew instantly would be a hit? What made you think so? And did you ever encounter another project that you knew would NEVER make it, even though others were enthusiastic?

A Chorus Line in previews at the Shubert in NY - knew instantly that it would run forever. It just touched a chord and you could feel it in the theater - electric. Jane Eyre had its rather vocal enthusiasts - I was asked to record it, but I knew it had no chance and I passed. I've seen a lot of workshops and readings of new musicals and I'd say the bulk of them have enthusiastic watchers even though it's clear that the material is just plain bad. Latest example: Masada. Been doing workshops and readings and concerts since 1998, I believe. Six years later, it still doesn't work. At the last reading the producer bragged about their first production in Chicago, but since they were trying to raise money at the reading I knew it would never open there. When I expressed that to some folks they said, "No way - it's booked." I'm sure the deal was that it was booked if it was a fully-funded production. Of course, the news has just hit that the Chicago production of Masada has been cancelled.

Matt H. · « **Reply #36 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:06:21 AM »

Quote from: Dan (the Man) on June 02, 2004, 06:54:53 AM

Has anyone ever attempted making home-made ketchup? I never have and I've never liked any that I've tasted--either too bitter or too salty. Pass me the bottle of Heinz, please.

I agree. Heinz is my bottled ketchup of choice by far.

Remember at the beginning of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, they are bottling their own ketchup, and it looks like water, and then Grandpa comes in and says IT'S TOO THICK! Argh!

Matt H. · « **Reply #37 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:09:08 AM »

I have a question for you, bk:

Which cast album that you've heard and not thought much of do you dearly wish you had had a chance to produce?

MBarnum · « **Reply #38 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:22:00 AM »

Welcome to new DR Joey!

Tomatoes...I love em sliced with Best Foods Mayo on them. I also love, love, love stuffed tomatoes!! MMmmm!

Never liked team sports when I was in school. Individual sports were Ok, such as track, but I didn't not really indulge much.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #39 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:57:10 AM »

There is really only ONE catsup. And it is immortalized in the world's largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville, Illinois!

mrkdl73 · « **Reply #40 on:** June 02, 2004, 07:58:19 AM »

Tomatoes, Mamma Mia, school athletics - I love the diversity of HHW! I haven't been online very much in the past couple of days and I'm trying to catch up on everything!

bk · « **Reply #41 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:00:19 AM »

Quote from: Matt H. on June 02, 2004, 07:09:08 AM

I have a question for you, bk:

Which cast album that you've heard and not thought much of do you dearly wish you had had a chance to produce?

I don't like to talk about other producers' work, but I could have done a really good job with Bat Boy (a really bad-sounding CD - the cast sounds like they're in a tiny closet with no air). I don't think Bat Boy is a great show or anything, but the album could have been really good. And for many reasons I would love to have done the original Pippin album - it just doesn't sound like a Broadway album, and doesn't really show that score off the way it should. I was thinking about doing the Papermill Pippin until I saw it. I really love that score and someday would love to do a proper musical theater album of it.

Matt H. · « **Reply #42 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:06:14 AM »

I agree that the PIPPIN cast album goes out of its way to try to sound like a pop record rather than a show music score. Hopefully you or someone will record and present it properly one day.

mrkdl73 · « **Reply #43 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:06:56 AM »

I love just eating a fresh tomato with a little bit of salt on it. Prefer garden grown as opposed to greenhouse.

Enjoyed Mamma Mia much more (a salute to alliteration) than I thought I would when I saw it and I just take it as the entertainment it is supposed to be and realize that it really isn't earth shattering.

Once played on a baseball team in 3rd grade. Hated it. I think I was only on the team for the benefit of going for ice cream after winning a game. But we hardly won, so that it was all kind of futile. I remember I used to play the field behind first base (is that right or left?) and I spent my time out there picking dandelions and dancing around. Maybe I was responsible for my team's losing streak.

I also played soccer for a season and my teammates used to yell at me because any time I accidentally kicked another player, I would say "I'm sorry" and one day someone said to me "You don't apologize in soccer." Geesh! Who knew?

The only sport I really ever enjoyed was swimming, but I gave it up when I started having "play practice" which as we all know is called "play rehearsal" when you're not in middle school any more.

Must get off line for the day, a roomie needs to check her mail.

Later.

Matt H. · « **Reply #44 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:07:31 AM »

A few days ago we were talking about RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE and BOMBA, and lo and behold Warners is coming out with the TARZAN COLLECTION next Tuesday. These were the highly quality MGM TARZAN pictures, and I can't wait to see them all again in (hopefully) pristine prints.

Matt H. · « **Reply #45 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:09:45 AM »

My dad coached a Little League baseball team, and my brother was one of the star players. In his never ending quest to find a sport I could play, he made me be on the team, too. Did not enjoy playing at all and eventually became the scorekeeper for the team.

I did eventually find that sport: swimming. I did backstroke and freestyle for my town's team.

Dan-in-Toronto · « **Reply #46 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:10:36 AM »

Welcome aboard Joey.

As for Mamma Mia, I saw it in Toronto and have to agree that the sets are truly ugly. The costumes are also uglier than they needed to be. I did not get caught up in the exuberance, and predicted that it would never fly in New York. On the other hand, I was certain that the Boy from Oz (also with ugly sets), another show built around existing songs, was going to get very good reviews.

JMK · « **Reply #47 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:22:08 AM »

Re: tomatoes. There is a super-yummy pizza place here in Portland that has a bleu-cheese and roma tomato pizza that is scrumptious.

Re: Pippin. Well, I kind of liked the pop-aspect of it all when I first got it (I was but a kid). But I was very surprised when I saw the show in NYC a couple of months later at how different the score actually was in the show.

Re: Ask BK. I'm just getting around to watching Star! and agree with you about its brownness (which seems to be a specialty of "color" by Deluxe), but I'm curious--why do you think the Entr'acte and Exit Music got left off? Just sloppiness? Or some deeply convoluted plot to get us to buy the Special Edition with the omitted music which will no doubt be released next year?

Noel · « **Reply #48 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:25:18 AM »

Thus sprach BK:

Quote

I keep thinking it's Tuesday and yet it's Wednesday even though it feels like Tuesday. Wait, I'm getting confused. It should feel like it's Wednesday because it's not Tuesday anymore, yet it feels like Tuesday even though, in reality, it's Wednesday. Wait, I'm getting confused. You see, these are complex matters that I speak of, this confusion of days. If it's Wednesday it can't be Tuesday, just the same as if it's Tuesday it can't be Wednesday. But, and here's the rub - even though it's Wednesday is it still possible to be Tuesday because it feels like Tuesday? No matter - Tuesday, Wednesday

It feels like Belgium.

BK query:
I know you once lived on W. 96th Street (my neck of the woods), but now that you don't reside here:
Where do you stay when you're in New York?

JMK · « **Reply #49 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:29:03 AM »

Darn it, I liked BK's quote with all the gibberish in it. That way madness lay!

Noel · « **Reply #50 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:30:57 AM »

Nothing beats a New Jersey tomato.

The Sopranos takes place in New Jersey.

Coincidence?

Or Chariots of the Gods?

Dan-in-Toronto · « **Reply #51 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:38:27 AM »

In Seinfeld, it was nothing beats a Hampton tomato. I guess local tomatoes in season are all good. I had a hydroponic tomato this winter and you could have asked, "What is it, fish?" I later learned that fishmeal is in fact used in growing compounds.

Dan-in-Toronto · « **Reply #52 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:41:52 AM »

Gord loves tomato aspic. I gag on it. On the other hand, he gags on kasha, which I really like. Question of the day: guess our upbringings?

Noel · « **Reply #53 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:44:51 AM »

I'll let you in on one of the little frustrations of my life, and, in passing, you'll learn how I feel about Mamma Mia.

I love the ASCAP workshop, in which new musicals are gone over with a fine-tooth comb. We musical theatre writers spend a great deal of time and energy making sure every number is motivated, that the words and music used sounds right coming out of the character who's singing it, that, dramaturgically speaking, it makes sense for characters to break out of dialogue and into song just at the moments they do. (The show at ASCAP last night was particularly good, by the way, set in prejudice-filled Staten Island in the 1950s.)

So, how is one to feel when a show comes along and does none of those things we've been repeatedly told a musical should do? The songs DON'T fit the characters... They don't speak the same way in lyrics as they do in the book, and the musical style is frequently wrong for them (a lot of disco for a show set in the present). The breaking-in-to-song thing is frequently ludicrous, and, unlike Urinetown, no mention is made of how ridiculous it is.

The plot concerns a reluctant young mother-of-a-bride who is forced to play hostess to three men she slept with roughly nine months before her only child's birth. Sound smarmy? It is. Something like a sex farce except all the jokes aren't funny. Or, maybe that's true of sex farces; I wouldn't know. But there's none of the energy of farce, which should tick faster and faster like a speeding clock. It's all on one dull level.

A person sings to a person he's just met "Knowing me, knowing you." Huh?

Then, they wrap it up with a wonderfully energetic curtain call. And it gets people dancing in the aisles. My feeling is, this post-show dance-a-thon is SO fun, people forget how they felt about all that went before it.

Now, I'm going to return to writing a scene that has to natufally lead in to a ballad that may be a tad too modern for my early 1950s setting. It has to make sense for the character to be singing it in response to the character she shares the stage with. The audience has to understand she's singing about three men. And, if I can't succeed at all this, I'm cutting the song.

Dan-in-Toronto · « **Reply #54 on:** June 02, 2004, 08:57:11 AM »

A woman in my building disliked first-rate productions of Oliver, Chicago and The Producers. When I suggested that maybe she didn't care for musicals, she replied, "Not at all. I adored Mamma Mia."

Panni · « **Reply #55 on:** June 02, 2004, 09:11:17 AM »

Welcome, Joey!

I like all sorts of tomato dishes. Many Hungarian recipes call for tomatoes (and green pepper and onion).
Bruschetta. Yum. Not Hungarian. The actor John Vernon makes the best bruschetta I've ever had - tomatoes fresh from his garden. Yum again.

Emily · « **Reply #56 on:** June 02, 2004, 09:11:25 AM »

Quote from: JRand53 on June 02, 2004, 06:31:58 AM

I have my fingers crossed for the Calgary Flames over the TB Lightning in the Stanley Cup playoffs - it's a toss up right now. And my Pacers got eliminated from the NBA playoffs last night. I enjoy watching Hockey on television, and sometimes tennis, but other than that....but in the morning...NO. (A Cole Porter reference.)

Funny story about the playoffs:

I walked into my first lecture for my second month-long summer course on Monday morning and there was a row of five guys who were all wearing Calgary jerseys. I spoke with them and asked whether they had planned it that way or if it was just a coincidence. It turns out that all five of them are roomates and that they were all from Calagary. Wanting to check out Montreal during the summer and attend the Jazz and Comedy festivals, they decided not to go home for the first time in three years from May to August and to take a couple of elective classes to appease their parents.

Wouldn't you know it but it would be the year they decided NOT to be in Calgary during May and June that the Flames make the playoffs?

So they have decided to import a little of Calgary in Montreal and on game-days they only wear their jerseys, they make a huge barbecue (full of Alberta beef products) and then the watch the game together very, very loudly and, if the Flames win, they parade up and down their street in celebration.

I thought that was a cute story and wanted to share.

Of course, I am forced into cheering for Calgary (it is the first time since Vancouver in '94 that a Canadian team made the final) out of nationalistic pride. DR Jrand you aren't alone! I just hope you aren't watching the games on ABC (the announcers there suck big time) if you have access to Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC.

Note: Vincent Lecavalier's sister goes to McGill...

George · « **Reply #57 on:** June 02, 2004, 09:13:20 AM »

Welcome New D(ear) R(eader) Joey!

Sports? Avoided playing them like the plague...still do. Except that I've been forced (several times) to take my niece to some Seattle Storm women's basketball games (in Seattle, of course) and they're pretty fun to watch. The fans are much more polite than men's basketball fans.

Tomatoes? I agree with Jason, completely. I don't like them by themselves. I love ketchup (Heinz all the way!) and I like them sliced on burgers and sandwiches. I also love Italian and Mexican foods, which have a lot of tomato sauces.

S. Woody White · « **Reply #58 on:** June 02, 2004, 09:13:47 AM »

Quote from: Dan-in-Toronto on June 02, 2004, 06:16:29 AM

A few months ago a friend got me started on a weight-lifting program. I'm enjoying it, but the only drawback is that (TOO-MUCH-INFORMATION ALERT) I seem to be growing breasts.

Like the song says,
Tits and ass can change your life!
(See yesterday's thread)

S. Woody White · « **Reply #59 on:** June 02, 2004, 09:18:26 AM »

Quote from: bk on June 02, 2004, 06:29:50 AM

...It's not unenjoyable, though, but it does boast one of the ugliest sets I've ever seen, right up there with Aspects of Love in that regard...

The Aspects of Love set wouldn't have been so bad, if they hadn't been so Day-Glo.

News:

Author Topic: THIS WAY MADNESS LIES (Read 23945 times)

MBarnum