Haines His Way

As promised, photographic proof of the Tammy mess, being cleaned up as I was taking said photographic proof.

I am totally certain Miss Minoff thoroughly appreciated your documenting the scenario.

I was at the Hollywood Bowl Thursday night for a rare performance of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.  Miss Marin Alsop led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Mr. Jubilant Sykes (what a splendid name!) took the part of the Celebrant.

Simply said, Mass is something of a period piece.  And quite a pastiche, musically, as well.  Mr. Stephen Schwartz revised some of the lyrics for this performance but, truth be told, much of what's sung veers into the dreadfully banal.  (Of course, I am not referring to the words of the Latin Mass.)  But Mass does have some wonderful moments, too, that warrant its being mounted.  The setting of The Lord's Prayer is particularly beautiful.

Large forces are required for Mass and there were hundreds of people--musicians, dancers and singers--on stage.  Despite limited rehearsal time for Bowl concerts, the performance came off as very well polished.  Although Mr. Sykes was somewhat miscast vocally, he nonetheless was quite impressive in a very demanding role.

Well, it's about a quarter to one (almost a 42nd Street reference) and I have nothing in my CD player, nothing in my DVD player, nothing in my record player, nothing in my VCR, and nothing in my CD burner...yet. We'll see.

Anyway, later in the morning (after I've slept and woken up) I'll report on what's going to be in these apparati.  One of them has a connection to where I'm going tomorrow!!  Cryptic, ain't it??

Welcome seven GUESTS!  We're talkin' about what's in our players.

Oh.. and now Brahms' Second Piano Concerto... I'm not sure which pianist/recording they're playing right now, but I'm liking it.  -My favorite recording has to be Emil Gilels with Jochum conducting - which has been reissued a few times already on CD in various editions.  And if you listen closely - and really know the piece - he actually has some finger slips.  Very minor ones, but still some inaccuracies as it were.  But I digress...

After reading what I just posted, I started thinking about how rare it is has been for me to play a real, live, 88-key piano in a pit over the past few years.  I think the last two shows I've played a real piano were Godspell and Always, Patsy Cline - both at New Harmony Theatre in Indiana.

I've either been playing a keyboard part on an electronic keyboard/synth, or due to space and/or money limitations I've played on an electronic piano.  A piano can take up a lot of precious "real estate" in an orchestra pit.  *I remember for the Sondheim Celebration shows, we used the concert grands from the Opera House - talk about taking up space!!!  And the cost of piano tunings can add up really fast.

Arena Stage uses a real piano sometimes in the Kreeger, which is their proscenium space, but in the Fichlander, in the round, getting a real piano - grand or upright - into that pit area is basically impossible.  They would have to lower it in there before the set gets built on top and around it.  And having a set build on top and around a piano... hmmm...

I even remember "Marry Me A Little" many years ago at the Olney Theatre in Maryland.  The two pianists were positioned upstage - in two "apartment" windows.  Since they were elevated above the stage floor, they had to use electronic grands - or they would have had to do some serious reinforcing of the set.  Well, the set designer ended up building two fake cases for the electric keyboards so that it looked like there were indeed two baby grands on stage, up there in the windows.  It was a very effective facade.  And they actually got some pretty decent electric pianos for the production, and even some musicians in the audience were doing double takes: Was it Steinway or was it Kurzweil?

Yep!  I'm still up and I'm still posting... And the Brahms' is still playing... What a beautiful slow movement... The cello solo.. the quote from "Immer leiser wird mein schlummer"...

Before heading to the theatre yesterday afternoon, I Metro'd and bussed myself over to Hollywood Sheet Music to pick up some sheet music, and to finally meet Rick Starr in person.  Rick was a great help in trying to locate some of the songs that are a part of - and were considered for - What If?

He's a very nice guy - and he will be coming to see the show tonight.  I was also able to pass on a copy of the "Jeepers Creepers" CD that BK had promised him - and they started playing it in the store while I was browsing.  *And Rick says, "Thank You for the CD!" Bruce.  And what a store!  And with only a staff of three!  And they all know there stuff, and know where certain songs may be "hiding" in books and collections.

Well, since it was still about two hours before I had to be at the theatre, I decided to walk down Sunset Blvd to check out that part of it.  A few doors down was the Samuel French Bookstore which I avoided since I knew that if I went in there I would have dropped some cash on scripts that most likely would gather dust for a few weeks - if not months.

Then came In-N-Out Burger.  So... Suppertime!  And what a burger!  Very reasonably priced too!   And pretty decent fries - just fresh cut potatoes fried in peanut oil (I think).  Next time I'll have to try them topped with chili and their special sauce (at least I think that's what it looked like).

While I was there, there was some excitement at the outside tables.  Some wacko gentleman was pestering some young woman and her friends for no apparent reason.  The young woman eventually made her way inside, and asked the manager come out there right now to tell the man to go away, and to call the police.  However, I think by the time the manager had made his way outside, the pesterer had already left on his own accord.

But I'm glad I finally had my first - and probably not my last - In-N-Out burger!

The rest of the walk down Sunset was nice - it was a gorgeous afternoon, nice breeze blowing.  I ended up stopping in a neat little Russian bakery and picked up some small pastries filled with either poppy seeds, cherries or apples - one of each.  And each one was rather tasty!  I picked up two of the poppy seed ones, and all four were only $1.00!  They made a nice dessert - and a post show snack.

I eventually found myself on Highland, so I just walked the rest of the way to the theatre, and happened to run into BK who was on his way to Aron's to check things out there.

*I did find it very "funny" that Guitar Center and Sam Ash have opened across the street from each other.  These are two big music store chains, and when they opened stores in Richmond, they happened to open up in storefronts which are next door to each other.  I guess that makes for less travelling for the bargain hunters and price-comparers.  I know each chain has their brand "exclusives", but I have to wonder about the tactic of opening two very similar stores so near each other.  -And, of course, each store guarantees to have the "Lowest Prices on Sunset".  So, I guess each store's sale flyers must look the same too.  

And now this frenzy must come to an end...

I have a feeling I'll finally be succumbing to the sale at Macy's tomorrow/today.  There were already some pretty decent deals and clearances going on when I was there on Monday and Tuesday, and now that the Clearance stuff has been further marked down...  Jojo needs some new shirts!  We shall see...

Boy is it late/early!  And I need to rest up for my shopping!

Goodnight.

Well... I was going to bed, and then I remembered that Dracula, The Musical opened last night...

The New York Times review was actually kind of fair - and fun.  Albeit, still an out and out pan.

And I liked this phrase from the New York Post:

"Wildhorn's score remains at his usual level of bombastic mediocrity, with the best songs allotted to Errico, who performs them beautifully. Even while she's singing, though, one imagines the ice-skating routines that will eventually be performed to them."

And The Washington Post called it a "snoozical".

Who knew there were so many creative phrases and euphemisms for the words "bad" and "boring".

... And, now, again, Goodnight.

DVD Player

The Babylon 5 Movies
ALF Season 1
Freaks
Duel
The Naughty Earl Years of Benny Hill Complete and Unadulterated. (These are the ful length episodes from 1969-1971 including three "rare" ones filmed in B & W)

I'm ODing on Nancy LaMott today. I have 5 of the 6 CDs here at work (I should have brought the Christmas CD, just for fun). I also have the 2 CD Patti LuPone Live in which she runs the gamut (IMHO-in my humble opinion) between wonderful and head-shakingly bad.

I saw Dracula on Wednesday. I read many reviews today. I agree with all of them. As Jose mentioned, the Times review was cute. I won't bash Wildhorn, that's not why I mention seeing Dracula. I will say that the entire production has problems, it's not just the music. It certainly wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen. It's not even in the top five worst things I've ever seen and I've seen some real garbage over the past 24 years. As the Times said, the real problem with the show is that it's boring. There is good talent involved, Tom Hewitt and Melissa Errico to name two, but they are wasted. For all the talk of special effects, there was little to impress. For all the talk of sexual and sensual, again, it seemed pretty dry and asexual to me. That's probably the biggest problem. Dracula should be dripping sensuality, sexual tension, eroticism. There isn't a drop of it in the entire show. The nudity is not integral at all. It's there but if it wasn't, you wouldn't say "Oh, she should be naked here" or "she should bare her breast" (I only saw one and it was more n****e than anything else). There are design elements that really "suck" (sorry, I had to do it, I'm talking about Dracula after all) from an audience point of view. Do directors no longer sit in many different vantage points throughout the house to see what the audience might (or might not) see? This was also a problem for me in the late, lamented Assassins. Overall, it's a misfire. It's not a Dance of the Vampires but it has a fairly pedestrian book and silly lyrics (sorry Don Black and Christopher Hampton) and overamplified sound (sound problems seem to be a problem on both coasts). I'll go back to the Times and my initial reaction as I left the theatre. It's boring. That's probably the worst thing you can say about a show.

I do want to say something else, after all this negative talk. I WANTED to like the show. I did go in with an open mind. There are some good people involved and I was hoping for something to like. I always want to at least LIKE a show. I try not to go in with preconcieved notions based on gossip. I really think I gave Dracula a fair chance. It just didn't work for me. Perhaps I have a different outlook on things, since much of the audience I was with adored the show and jumped up at the end cheering and applauding wildly. I don't do that normally. As I've mentioned in the past, I need to be blown away to stand up and cheer, but then I can be an old crank sometimes  

I'm approaching the gold standard of post length here (Jose has set that standard, BTW or by the way ) so I will move on to Miss LaMott and off to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Later, folks.

Media Check

VCR- Ray Charles In Concert (taped for a friend)
Car Cassette: Lost In Boston II (by BK), Flirtations
CD Player: Seventh Heaven (OBC), Anyone Can Whistle (OBC)

My, my, my. 21 posts so early on a Friday. Perhaps it will be a hot day (even beyond the temperature here in NYC).

That's a sure jinx. An hour without a post.

Thanks for the Dracula review (thanks DRs for both the East and West coast reviews). In fact, I just read the other Ben's review, and found yours more enlightening. (One question, and I hope I'm not embarrassing myself too much: What's n****e?.)

Not much mediawise. I finally acquired WICKED, and enjoyed listening to it earlier in the a.m.

D-I-T LOL, it's not a nickle. Just add pp after the i and before the l and you'll have the word (this is a family site after all ;-)

As promised, photographic proof of the Tammy mess, being cleaned up as I was taking said photographic proof.

I hope that it was a light chocolate shake that spilt on a dark brown table top and not a dark chocolate shake on a white table top, cause that would have really been a mess.