Topic: LIFE IS A CABARET (Read 21236 times)

bk · « **on:** March 31, 2009, 12:19:16 AM »

Well, you've read the notes, the notes were a cabaret unto themselves, and now it is time for you to post until the cabaret cows come home. They used to have a girlfriend known as Elsie (the cow).

bk · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2009, 12:20:40 AM »

And the word of the day is: TETCHY!

bk · « **Reply #2 on:** March 31, 2009, 12:24:08 AM »

And a happy haineshisway.com birthday to SteveO.

Mark · « **Reply #3 on:** March 31, 2009, 01:13:24 AM »

If life is a cabaret, then Professor BK should be your life coach.

This was quite obvious after two hours in the presence of said prof, who last night at Los Angeles City College imparted wise words for performers dreaming of one day staging their own nightery act.

Here, in no particular order, are six cabaret sins:

--Don’t be smarmy, slick or oily. Professor BK, and the audience, will hate you.
--Don’t take a drink of water between the set-up of a joke and your punchline.
--Don’t bring up your affliction. “The audience,” Professor BK warns, “does not want to know about your polio.”
--Do not attempt to wow the crowd with trivia like, “This song was arranged by Peter Matz.” Instead, draw the audience in by telling them what the song means to you.
--For god’s sake, don’t point. Professor BK just might cut off the offending finger.
--Do not, under any circumstances, hire a musical director who smells.

DAW · « **Reply #4 on:** March 31, 2009, 02:49:15 AM »

bk, congratulations on a successful presentation!

I am also very pleased about your ambitious plans for Kritzerland!

DAW · « **Reply #5 on:** March 31, 2009, 02:50:17 AM »

Michael · « **Reply #6 on:** March 31, 2009, 04:35:28 AM »

TOD

The only one in recent memory would be Gordon Joseph Weiss going on for Bronson Pinchot in the revival of Sly Fox. I was disappointed but GJW was very good in it and at the end of evening it was Bronson Who?

Not really but I was trying to imagine him in the role and found it difficult to do so.
Mr. Weiss was nominated for a Tony Award for an earlier performance in Ghetto.

Michael · « **Reply #7 on:** March 31, 2009, 04:36:36 AM »

ArnoldMBrockman · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2009, 05:20:07 AM »

Quote from: bk on March 31, 2009, 12:20:40 AM

And the word of the day is: TETCHY!

And The Song Of The Day Is: A HYMN TO HIM

ArnoldMBrockman · « **Reply #9 on:** March 31, 2009, 05:21:13 AM »

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN

td · « **Reply #10 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:03:36 AM »

HAPPY NATAL DAY DR ANN!

Jrand73 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:06:43 AM »

Happy Birthday DR ANN.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:07:45 AM »

Most distressed to hear about the quality of these Warner Bros DVD's. I hadn't ordered any yet, but was thinking about it. I guess it's a way for them to get 19.99 a title, and not have to worry about doing any clean up on them.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:08:47 AM »

Looking forward to photos from the Cabaret workshop of course. And such good news about Kritzerland. Yes, when I order on the inner web, I very rarely travel to a site and get just the ONE thing I wanted, I usually look around and find something else, too.

Laura · « **Reply #14 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:11:56 AM »

Happy Happy Birthday, DR Ann!

I KNOW you'll have cake! And we want photos of it!

Jrand73 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:21:36 AM »

TOD:

Many times for touring companies I have seen the standby or understudy go on - and I am sure they are fine. I don't notice anything, although I watch those characters to see how excited the new guy is.....it could be his FIRST time!!

Several years ago.....my friend Kurt asked me to go see AIDA - the Tim Rice/Elton John/David Henry Hwang version. I said okay.....he had an extra ticket and it only cost me $20. We had a nice lunch and went to the matinee at the Murat.

A big sign and a paper in the program told us that understudy Felicia Boswell would be playing the title role instead of Paulette Ivory. Okay.

Well....I really liked the show....the costumes were beautiful, the lighting was spectacular, and the story was interesting. AND Mickey Dolenz played the father of Radames....sort of. I just really liked it more than I ever thought I would. And Boswell was wonderful. All of the leads were. They included Jeremy (RENT) Kushnier and Lisa Brescia.

After the show we went to a bar and had some drinks and talked about the show....a couple of hours later, we were walking back to the car. We stopped on this traffic island in the middle of the street near the theatre and were still talking about the show. Kurt asked this older couple who were also standing there if they were going to see the show and they said yes. We both told them it was great and they would love it....we couldn't say enough about it.

Turns out they had two GREAT mezzanine seats that were going to waste and they handed them over if we wanted to see the show again. So of course we DID!!!

That night we saw Paulette Ivory. She had some kind of Caribbean accent and AIDA had lost all of the charm that Felicia Boswell brought to the show. Ivory landed NONE of the jokes that Boswell had brought the house down with, and her singing was a kind of crazy American Idol/Minnie Ripperton/Mariah Carey wail and howl that made the songs unintelligible. The audience response that night was tepid even for the curtain call....and the afternoon show with Boswell had been a standing ovation!

What a difference. I hope Felicia Boswell gets to Broadway....if she hasn't already. She is the real deal.

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #16 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:46:01 AM »

! ! ! ! ! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DR ANN OF THE BEGUILING EYES ! ! ! ! !

elmore3003 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:49:34 AM »

Good morning, all! I am still recovering from last week's ordeal and I'm veery tired. I slept in for an extra hour but I still am quite groggy.

Today, BABES IN TOYLAND continues. I also want to drag out my vocal score to Kurt Weill's KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY and follow the score with a recording of a peformance from February 2009 at Toronto Operetta Theatre. Wish I had known about it so I could have made the trip to Toronto. The libretto is wonderful and, it seems to me, very timely: at this moment in the recording, governor Peter Stuyvesant has just told our leading man "the government can do no wrong" as his new order appropriates all rights of the New Amsterdam councillors, a corrupt and stupid group guilty of at least three crimes: selling whiskey and firearms to the Indians and copulation with the same Native American group. If the governor or the councillors succeed in hanging the rebelious leading man, how can he become the First American and marry Tina Tienhoven, who's engaged to Stuyvesant. We haven't even got to the Act Two Indian attack from "The Algonquins from Harlem" (that's the name of the number!).

elmore3003 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:51:04 AM »

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday to Our DR Ann !!!!!!!!!!!!

William F. Orr · « **Reply #19 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:51:31 AM »

TOD: When I saw the 25th revival of West Side Story, both Riff and Tony were out that night, and I saw the understudies, who I thought were fabulous. I didn't realize until I was going through my Playbills a few years ago that the Tony I saw was Brent Barrett, also known hereabouts as the Sexiest Man Alive, and the Riff was Jerry Kolker, also known hereabouts as What ever happened to Jerry Kolker?

So you see, some of us do read the notes, BK, so you needn't get all tetchy.

Jennifer · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2009, 06:56:23 AM »

Happy Birthday to DR Ann!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #21 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:00:18 AM »

TOD:

Hmmm... The only understudy/standby I can recall at the mo' would be Donna Murphy going on for Betty Buckley in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. I took a liking to her immediately and much preferred her stronger and shaded performance over Buckley's (I had seen the show right after it opened--ah, the days when I would go see a show twice...)

Jrand73 · « **Reply #22 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:03:35 AM »

This is one of the reasons I save my Playbills, etc. I would have never remembered Felicia Boswell's name......

William F. Orr · « **Reply #23 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:07:30 AM »

Quote from: elmore3003 on March 31, 2009, 06:49:34 AM

I also want to drag out my vocal score to Kurt Weill's KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY and follow the score with a recording of a peformance from February 2009 at Toronto Operetta Theatre. .

Am I the only one who remembers the series of readings of musicals done at Town Hall in the 1970s? It was something like a precursor to Encores, but as I recall very sparsely attended. I remember seeing Madeleine Khan as Amalia and Rita Moreno as Ilona in a reading of She Love Me and, yes, I was coming to that, Richard Kiley as Stuyvesant in Knickerbocker Holiday.

Ben · « **Reply #24 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:08:30 AM »

Happy Birthday to Mother of Toby, our own Dear Ann (greetings all the way from Wisconsin).

I leave for Newark tonight at 6:15pm.

Ben · « **Reply #25 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:09:08 AM »

Quote from: William F. Orr on March 31, 2009, 07:07:30 AM

Quote from: elmore3003 on March 31, 2009, 06:49:34 AM
I also want to drag out my vocal score to Kurt Weill's KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY and follow the score with a recording of a peformance from February 2009 at Toronto Operetta Theatre. .

Am I the only one who remembers the series of readings of musicals done at Town Hall in the 1970s? It was something like a precursor to Encores, but as I recall very sparsely attended. I remember seeing Madeleine Khan as Amalia and Rita Moreno as Ilona in a reading of She Love Me and, yes, I was coming to that, Richard Kiley as Stuyvesant in Knickerbocker Holiday.

I wasn't in New York in the 70s, although I would love to have been.

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #26 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:09:10 AM »

I also remember being blown away by Lenora Nemetz as Velma in the original CHICAGO, but I'm not sure right now if she was on as an understudy or as a replacement.

William F. Orr · « **Reply #27 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:09:11 AM »

Why ask, when there is Google?

From http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=OPERA-L;sxAFFg;19950828225033-0400E

Quote

During the mid-late 70s, there was a series of musicals in concert
at Town Hall in NYC. This was a venture ahead of its time, preceding
the Bill Tynes/New Amsterdam series, or John McGlinn's Carnegie/Weill
Hall concerts. The first was SHE LOVES ME, with Madeline Kahn,
Barry Bostwick, Rita Moreno, Laurence Guittard, George Rose. It
was a semi-staged concert performance and ran three weeks. The
producers of the series over-estimated the audience for these
presentations, which in later years would run one to six performances
at the most.

Next was KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY, which closed early, after only
two weeks. Richard Kiley was Peter Stuyvesant, singing "September Song"
brilliantly.

The series was to have a third presentation: THE GOLDEN APPLE.
Appararently the middling success (box-office-wise, not artistically)
caused the cancellation of this project and even though posters
were already up, GOLDEN APPLE never came on.

Ginny · « **Reply #28 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:16:51 AM »

Tuesday morning greetings! Another trip to the optician's today for my aunt...

TOD - When many of us gathered in NYC for Jewish Thighs on Broadway, my niece Laura and I went to the Saturday matinee of La Cage aux Folles and saw Bryan Batt go on in Gary Beach's place. He was fine, but I was disappointed not to see Beach and was looking forward to seeing him as Threnardier when Richard and I saw Les Miz in 2007. Alas, Chip Zien went on that night and I guess I am just not destined to see Gary Beach on Broadway.

Also, for Christmas 2005, DR Jose helped me procure tickets for the touring Wicked as a gift for our niece Lauren. At the performance we attended, Maria Eberline took Julia Murney's place as Elphaba and, at the end of "The Wizard and I" Lauren looked at me and said, "She's the SUB?"

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #29 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:17:41 AM »

Quote from: William F. Orr on March 31, 2009, 07:09:11 AM

Why ask, when there is Google?

From http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=OPERA-L;sxAFFg;19950828225033-0400E
Quote
During the mid-late 70s, there was a series of musicals in concert
at Town Hall in NYC. This was a venture ahead of its time, preceding
the Bill Tynes/New Amsterdam series, or John McGlinn's Carnegie/Weill
Hall concerts. The first was SHE LOVES ME, with Madeline Kahn,
Barry Bostwick, Rita Moreno, Laurence Guittard, George Rose. It
was a semi-staged concert performance and ran three weeks. The
producers of the series over-estimated the audience for these
presentations, which in later years would run one to six performances
at the most.

Next was KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY, which closed early, after only
two weeks. Richard Kiley was Peter Stuyvesant, singing "September Song"
brilliantly.

The series was to have a third presentation: THE GOLDEN APPLE.
Appararently the middling success (box-office-wise, not artistically)
caused the cancellation of this project and even though posters
were already up, GOLDEN APPLE never came on.

That definitely rings more than a bell. I can recall a NY Times article with pictures of Kahn and Moreno and Kiley. And I remember being very excited about these concert musicals because I thought they were mini-tryouts for upcoming full productions. (I don't remember being disappointed that they didn't but maybe that's for the good...)

News:

Author Topic: LIFE IS A CABARET (Read 21236 times)

DAW

DAW

Ben

Ben