Good morning, all! I wanted to sleep late but my mind kept telling my body, drag yourself outa that bed and do the laundry. And so I have.
Last night I saw YANK!, which is a wonderful new musical about gay men and women in WW2. I think a lot of the background may be based on a book or documentary called COMING OUT UNDER FIRE, but David Zellnik has written a very tight libretto and lyrics about an 18 year-old soldier who grows up during the war, falls in love, keeps a journal which leads to disaster, and has a strong influence on an 18 year-old boy 60 years later. Some of his scenes are really wonderful. The music and orchestrations for the 5-piece ensemble are by his brother Joseph. I like the score and I think he gets a lot of sound from the five players.
I think the show is in much better shape than it was when I saw it at the Gallery Players in Brooklyn two years ago, but it stll retains the three wnderful leads: Jeffrey Denman, who also choreographs, Nancy Anderson, playing every woman in the show, and Bobby Steggert, who's perfection as the young soldier and a young man 60 years later. The rest of the cast is equally wonderful, with good direction by Igor Goldin. I wish it much success.
At the York, I got to visit with my friend Jim Morgan, the director of the company, who introduced me to one of the show's producers, to Marc Kudisch who was seeing the show, and to the musical director John Baxindine. I saw my friend Bridie, who's on tour with GREASE at the moment; she and her date were there to support a friend in the cast. My friend Chris, whose health problems seem to be over and I thank the HHW Vibes for a lot of his improvement, bought a YANK! T-shirt. Then we went to the Brooklyn Diner: he had Chilean sea bass and I had the lasagna; it was either that or the mac & cheese for a pasta craving.
Today, I'm copyng out a cello part for a rehearsal tomorrow, a bass part for one of Kevin Spirtas' numbers for this Bocca Raton gig, and having lunch with my friend Joseph Rubin. And laundry.
I may be mostly E&T tonight; I've lost all faith in the Oscars, I've seen next to none of the nominations, and I wll probably avoid the broadcast. I hope everyone watching has a fantastic time.
