Haines His Way

Just checking in for a while. Busy day!
Thank you so much Jose. Appreciate the list. I find such information fascinating. The "men" songs are more traditional it seems!

Interesting observation.  I think part of "it" is that men tend to be a bit more "lazy" when it comes to finding new material.  Another part of "it" is that most of the songs from the major shows written in the past few years for men just aren't as "showy" as the women's songs that have been written recently.  Most of the "exciting" stuff for men has come from more pop and rock oriented shows, and they're written primarily for tenors or at least very-high baritones.

*I still remember sitting in the hall with a friend of mine during the first set of auditions for Miss Saigon in New York.  After everyone had been lined up and given numbers, someone came out of the audition room and announced, "If you do not have a high-G, you may leave now."  WHAT?!??!  And this was at an agent's submission call!  There was/is no true, real bass part in Miss Saigon.  The "basses" were required to sing a high-G.  -The tenor parts had high-C's and D's!

Yes, JRB has written quite a few songs for men, but, again, they're more in a pop vein and not really suitable for traditional auditions.

Basically, as I've seen on a t-shirt, "Belter's Rule!"

*I'd go into more detail, but I'd most likely go on and on and on (ah, a Baby reference)... and we musn't have that now, mustn't we.

Once again - thank you Jose. Interesting comments.

I can't look at today's title and not think of the Maltby & Shire song.

Which reminds me that Maltby & Shire songs make for great auditions.

Yes, there's Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life
but, for a woman who wants to show extreme range, comedy and acting, there's
A Little Bit Off
Similar virtues, but more showy vocally, is
Miss Byrd
I once arranged a solo version of the splendid female ensemble,
The Ladies Singing Their Song
and I've seen clever people carve out bits of
It's Never That Easy/I've Been Hear Before

Men can take a crack at
Coffee Black
for an up-tempo, or encompass two speeds with
What Am I Doing?
For patter, there's always the wonderful counterpoint
One Step
There are several funny sections of
The Fatherhood Blues
And, to make hearts melt, one can act the waltz,
Fathers of Fathers

Ten songs that would serve you better than the Greatest Hits DR Jose mentioned.  And, in all likelihood,
I'll Get Up Tomorrow Morning
and think of more!

Great list.  And I love playing Maltby & Shire at auditions!  I keep "What Am I Doing?" and "Miss Byrd" in my "practice book".

I've even played "I Want It All" as a solo, and I like the twist when two men sing, "It's Never That Easy/I've Been Here Before".

Now if they could just publish some of the Starting Here, Starting Now songs in more piano-accompaniment appropriate arrangements.  I've written out a full piano part of "I Don't Remember Christmas" for someone to use at auditions - when I'm not playing - for someone who doesn't know the song to be able to play it "correctly".  I will say that "I Think I May Want To Remember" is one song that always makes me nervous - it's basically an etude!

RE: A Christmas Carol: The Musical

I liked it a lot.  And I thought they did a nice job of expanding the show from the Madison Square Garden stage to the small screen.  -Although, I think it's safe to say that MSG is a lot larger than most sound stages.

However, the original MSG Scrooge, Walter Charles will always be my favorite in this version.  The star and stunt casting in the subsequent years just seemed like, well, stunts, to me.

And, yes.. I cried.  Twice.  Well, maybe three times.

BTW, has anyone looked at the map or the member list lately?  I’ve migrated from somewhere off the West coast of Africa to the East coast of Africa but I’m still in the water.  Dan (the Man) is there with me so at least I’m not alone.  I feel like a dolphin or a whale with a tracking device on my back.  

DR Danise, I just tried to correct my position on the map and I lost my pin completely!  You are now on your own somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but at least you know where you are.

DR MATTH - put your tree up NOW!  Enjoy it as long as you can!  

I put it up this afternoon while I listened to THE ANDY WILLIAMS CHRISTMAS ALBUM. When it finished, I put on HOLIDAY IN PLAID.

Had our tech rehearsal tonight, and it was my first time in the father's robes. I kept catching my rosary on furniture. I have some repair work to do on it before tomorrow night's run.

QUICKLY ? please I need an immediate answer.  How long do I microwave a turkey dog?  I guess it is the same time for a regular hot dog.

The only thing I know about microwaving hot dogs is that they will explode after ten minutes and ten seconds in the microwave. I didn't do it and it wasn't my idea, but I was there when it happened.

I'm just about done with Keats and I have now moved on to Shelley. Both of those guys needed Prozac majorly.

I'm not exactly crazy about tonight's A Christmas Carol.  I thought that most of the cast was superb, the direction very nice, and the production values excellent.  But the material--oy!  Did there have to be a song every three minutes?  The songs (not many of which grabbed me) came at such a pace that I barely had time to get to know and care for Scrooge, Tiny Tim et al.  

I enjoyed Jane Krakowski but why did they decide to costume her in such a sexy fashion? (Perhaps so she could perform the pole dance she did on Scrooge's bed posts?)  And Jesse L Martin was the least jolly Ghost of Christmas Present I've ever seen,  In fact, at the end of his time as the Ghost, he was downright scarey looking with that eye makeup.  And I think that Geraldine Chaplin was wasted as the Ghost of Christmas Future.

I will disagree, of course, about the direction - I am so bored of "directors" who have no idea where to put a camera in a musical number (in fact, they put them everywhere, hoping they can "make" the number in the cutting room - but that is not how you direct a musical number for the camera).  Not that the camera choices are much better in what few scenes there are.  

LOL Dan!  I was just thinking the exact same thing!  There is something distinctly Higgins-esque about his Scrooge performance.  Perhaps it's his tendency to talk-sing almost everything..  anyway, I think you're very right.  

This year mom decided that she wanted us to celebrate Festivus instead of Christmas.  Here's a pic of our Festivus Pole.  

What happened to all the denizens - we were having such a wonderul posting frenzy and now, all of a sudden, no posts in an hour.  

...the sky was awash with stars, a sight you don't normally see in LA.

I'm cold. A feeling you don't usually feel in LA.

I watched A Christmas Carol on and off. The cable went near the end, then came back. I think I'll stick to Alastair Sim