Haines His Way

But, bk, tell us what you REALLY think of the guy at ON THE HOUSE.
Memorable opening nights... One that comes to mind right away is the opening of the Burton Hamlet in Toronto in 1964 (I think). I was pretty young and went with my mother. It was at the height of the Burton/Taylor affair and La Liz was in attendance. (Although I tried to be very sophisticated and refused to go and gawk with the rest of the audience.) And I saw John Gielgud in the lobby at intermission. (Huge very red nose.)
I'm too tired to go into more detail -- but it was exciting. More tomorrow perhaps on other opening nights.

Good Evening!  Good Morning!

-As soon as I got back from the theatre tonight, it was time for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", and then I somehow got sucked into "Things I Hate About You" on Bravo.  They had a gay male couple from Long Island on tonight.  It was a fun, brainless way to spend an hour in front of the TV.

-And for some unknown reason, I was in a total junk food mode after the show.  So, I had a small bowl of "Flamin' Hot Cheetos con Limon" and a Drumstick Vanilla Fudge Ice Cream Sundae Cone.  -Well, at least I'll know what the source of my bad dreams are tonight if I end up having bad/weird dreams.  Thankfully, my stomach doesn't seem to be rebelling right now.  Whew!

I felt generally good about the final dress rehearsal/preview/show tonight.  The piano got tuned this afternoon, and that actually kind of threw me tonight.  I could tell that it had been tuned, and certain voicings I had become used to - and even some certain "out of tunenesses" I had "accepted" - were no longer there.  I also sensed that tuner had re-voiced some of the octaves too.  It just seemed like a different instrument tonight - and, consequently, I felt like I was underplaying and overplaying at different points in the evening.  Thankfully(?), BK didn't hear too many of my "clams" tonight, even though I felt like - in my own words - I "sucked ***" tonight.  -Sorry for the graphic, albeit edited for family consumption language.

I'm hoping to get to the theatre early tomorrow, and as long as I can get about five or ten minutes of "quiet time with the piano", I should be fine.  Well, I WILL be fine.

I also have to say, the small (but appreciative) audience also threw me somewhat.  But the cast really did put on a "full show" tonight regardless.  Heck, small audiences happen.

Tomorrow/today, I'm hoping to have a somewhat slightly busy morning - maybe a nice walk, get my hair cut, run to the post office - and then spend the afternoon in "me land".  This is my usual routine for "big show" days.  The busy morning helps to keep my adrenaline in check, and the lazy afternoon just helps me to relax before the big evening.

Now, if the publicist's list is correct, there will actually be some celebrities in attendance with whom I have worked with before.  And it will be "fun" to see who actually remembers working with me.  One actress, in particular, thought my parents named me wrong - and even told my parents so on opening night of the show she was in (and that I was in the pit for).  -I shall disclose those names after the fact tomorrow night.

However, the one person I am most nervous about "meeting" tomorrow is Billy Barnes since we are doing two of his songs in the show.  And since I had to transcribe those two songs from the recordings of those songs...  I'm about 95% sure of my transcriptions, and I've even checked them again a few times over the past week.  However... When I called Mr. Barnes a few weeks ago asking if he could send me the charts for the two songs, he "admitted" that even he wasn't sure what the chords were for the one section I was not too sure about.  *And since he had just changed offices, he wasn't sure where any of his charts were at the time anyway.  In any case, I'm looking forward to meeting him, and if he does happen to have a correction or two for me, then I will be more than happy to take them.

*This sort of reminds me when I played a few chords from the Letter Quintet in Sweeney Todd for Mr. Sondheim.  They were notated differently in the piano/conductor's score and the rental materials, and I just wanted to know which one was correct.  Well... He wasn't sure either.

OK - This is turning into a ramble, and I really should get ready for bed...

Safe Weather Wishes for our DRs in Florida!

My opening night other than the opening nights I was involved in would have to be Sunday In the Park With George with tickets courtesy of the composer of the piece. And many famous faces were there.

To the Cast & Crew & Staff of What If!!  

Two memorable opening nights. I'll post about the second one shortly.

The first was my high school French class's production of Dr. Knock. I was the narrator - and had an all-important opening speech. But as the play was about to start, I realized that my parents - punctuality personified - were not in the audience. My French teacher (the director) held the curtain until my folks - who had been stuck on the subway - arrived.

I think it would be prudent (oh! yes! p-r-u-d-e-n-t) for one of us to keep an eye on the sky.

One never knows when a house might come flying by...for whatever reasons.

Sadly, there are no longer any "official" wicked witches to tell the tale.

One memorable opening night comes to mind. We were volunteering for Broadway Cares at the annual Gift Basket project and free tickets came available for Waiting in the Wings (this was in 1999, Coward's Centennial year) at the Walter Kerr Theatre (although I love going to opening nights, it's kind of sad that opening nights on Broadway still need to be papered). We went home and "gussied up" (where did that term come from, why Gussie, why not Charlied up or Franklin Sheparded up) and went to see Rosemary Harris and Lauren Bacall. The show was OK, not great, not terrible (although Miss Bacall seemed extraordinarily nervous and had some vocal and line problems) but the intermission was where the excitement happened. The balcony (it is not a mezzanine) of the Kerr is VERY narrow. An older gentleman was returning to his seat at the end of intermission and took a spill (a person in good health and very nimble would have a hard time in the Kerr balcony aisles). He fell almost the entire length of the stairs stopping at the balcony wall. His companion screamed for help and the intermission then took another half hour while EMS was called. They arrived and then had to figure out how to manuver the poor gentleman onto the gurney/board without tipping him over the edge of the balcony onto the glitterati below in the orchestra. (it's that narrow). They finally got him onto the gurney and had to carry him out very gingerly, stepping over patrons in the front row. Once he was removed, the show resumed without further incident. Even though it was a major opening directed by Michael Langham with such cast names as the aforementioned Rosemary Harris and  Lauren Bacall, and Barnard Hughes, Rosemary Murphy, Simon Jones, Bette Henritze, Patricia Conolly, Dana Ivey and Elizabeth Wilson , I don't remember a huge group of celebrities, perhaps due to the date (mid-December). It was still fun to be there.

I was at the Chicago opening night of Merman in GYPSY.  Since I have often heard that Ms. Merman was her brilliant self only at openings I was in luck because she was wonderful.  This was the only time to that point where she toured in a show so she had never played Chicago before, and her entrance down the aisle with Chowsie stopped the show.  Being Chicago, there were no celebrities to spot.

***

When I lived in LA in the early 80s I was a member of "On the House" and never had any problems with them.  I saw various shows  of various quality free from them.  I'm sure, BK, that it was the one bad apple you dealt with and not the whole group.

***

I finally saw DE-LOVELY last night.  I've tried to not read comments posted here and elsewhere as I wanted to judge for myself.  Well it's not quite as good/bad as SHOWGIRLS or CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC, but it comes close.  There is so much that is so unintentionally bad I couldn't stop laughing.  To begin with, factually there are so many errors I don't know where to begin.  So many songs are sung years before they were written or in wrong situations that by the time they got to KISS ME KATE it was more annoying.  As for the KATE scenes, for example, Lili does not do the solo on "Another Openin' " as shown and "So In Love" is sung in the dressing room, not as part of the SHREW scenes.  Errors like this were abundant, but they were only the tip of the iceberg.  Cole had written for Broadway before he moved to France, and I hardly think Irving Berlin flew to France, heard Cole's songs and told him it was time he became a professional songwritter.  Linda was frigid and married Cole because he was gay and would give her the social life without the sex, so why would they try to have a baby that she then lost?  Musicals of the era depicted would never have had an inter-racial chorus as depicted.

The sets looked phony, the old-age make-up was the worst I've seen since Midler and Cann in FOR THE BOYS.  The songs were a mixed bag with some well done and some not, but Kevin Kline is too good a singer to have to purposely sing bad.

When this film bombs at the box office, producers will point to it and say "people don't want to see musicals".  Wrong: we want to see good musicals.  I think this may be the last musical that will begin with the MGM lion.

2 questions for DRs: Does anyone know who that couple with all the children who were so close to Cole and Linda was supposed to be?  And does anyone know the real-life connection between Cole and Monty Wooley who was depicted in both this and the earlier, superior Porter biopic NIGHT AND DAY?

Added note: They showed the PHANTOM trailer.  It looks as over-produced as the stage version except real dancers were used instead of stage-filling dummies.  Phantomphiles should love it and Phantomphobes should hate it.

Good morning everyone!  

BK, I cannot believe that a person whose ONLY JOB is to get people to come see a show FOR FREE can possibly screw up.  How can you screw up that job?  HOW?  I can imagine how frustrated you must be.

I have been to two openings on Broadway:  Kiss Me Kate and LaChiusa's Wild Party.  I got to go to the KMK party at Tavern on the Green, but not the WP party.  I hear it was wild, though.  Other than the stars of the show, I also glimpsed Taye Diggs (drooool) and Donna Murphy, and had a long conversation with Faith Prince.  

I'm off to file a brief with the court.  Hi-diddle-dee-dee, an actor's life for me.

DR Jenny, by the way, did an admirable job tackling a very complicated and mature song in the Circle summer cabaret.  She was one of the highlights of the evening.  Kudos to Jenny for her ambitiousness!

I've never been to a Broadway opening, but I was here in Charlotte for the regional premiere of both parts of ANGELS IN AMERICA. Those of you who live in sophisticated climates cannot ever imagine the firestorm that descended on Charlotte Rep for mouting these two productions. COunty commissioners withdrew funding from the Rep because the show was "immoral," and there were demonstrations and angry words for weeks and weeks on end.

To their credit, the Charlotte arts community began fund drives to replace the funding withdrawn from Charlotte Rep by the Arts and Science Council in the city with the result that the show went on with tens of thousands of dollars to spare. Naturally, all performances of the shows (they ran in rolling rep a month) were sold out well in advance due to all the publicity, and Tony Kuschner attended the opening night gala where I got to meet him and talk with him for quite a nice period. He had lost an incredible amount of weight from his Tony wins to when the Rep did the show, and I hardly recognized him.

Anyway, what a memorable night: seeing a great play, sticking a big fat middle finger up at the county commissioners for their cowardice and homophobia, and meeting the man who made it all possible.

I am back from being E&T.  Have not yet caught up with all the notes and postings from my E&T days, but I will do so in due course.

Opening nights:  Been to several, including several that were papered as well.  (I too am dismayed at the practice, DR Ben.)  One of my most memorable was also with Richard Burton, but it was the Burton/Taylor PRIVATE LIVES.  Ther performance was, at best, perfunctory, but during intermission, I happened to spy none other than Miss  Mary Tyler Moore Levine at the bar in the fabulously roccoco lounge at the Lunt-Fontanne.  She and Dr. Levine were chatting with another couple, and at one point she (MTML) leaned over to help adjust the other woman's earring which had fallen loose.  It was SUCH a "Mary Richards" gesture to make, that I just fell in love with her all over again.  

Other openings, other celebs, but this one is still the one that stands out in my mind.

I've only been to two professional opening nights, but Whoopi Goldberg was at both of them!  I saw her at both the opening night of "Master Harold And The Boys" and the opening night of Alvin Ailey's most recent season.  She always wears dark glasses and has an enormous crowd of people surrounding her, and she has a tendency to sit about three rows in front of me!

Whoopi does this on purpose.  She told me she always sits three rows in front of you to FREAK YOU OUT.  

I've been to many opening nights here in LA, as I'm on the "list" at the Ahmanson and Taper.  On Broadway, I think I've only been to two - the revival of She Loves Me and the Dutch Cyrano - oh, yes, and this last revival of Dolly for obvious reasons.  The most memorable of those was Cyrano because it was just like the scene in the film of The Producers - the audience was sitting their with mouths agape, not believing what they were seeing and hearing - and when those singing nuns came out, well, I began to laugh uncontrollably.  Also, on the opening night of She Loves Me, the leading lady fell off the stage just before the curtain call.

DE-LOVELY played only two theaters in the county, neither of them within thirty minutes of driving, so even if I had been tempted (I wasn't), the drive alone would have probably been enough to make me wait for it to show up on pay cable.

Yep, the thing I hate the most about DE-LOVELY is that it's another strike against film musicals. Folks will look at its feeble box-office gross (which is actually pretty good considering it's had such a limited release - about $7 million total thus far) and assume musicals can't make a profit. All the good will and optimism of CHICAGO's triumph will go for nothing.

I absolutely HATE that the long range hopes for future film musicals rest on the shoulders of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

DRs Joy/Noel/Jenny (any one can answer). Is the song I'm Breaking Down the one from March of the Falsettos (which is not on the cast album)? If so, bravo (as Joy said) for tackling a very complicated and mature song.

 Also, on the opening night of She Loves Me, the leading lady fell off the stage just before the curtain call.

Oh yeah? On the opening night of THE DYBBUK at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, a lovely young actress playing a supporting role and understudying the lead, ran onto the very raked and very dark  stage at the top of Act Two and fell right into the pit. That would have been ME!