Last night's Krizterland show was fabulous! I know I haven't written about a show in a very long time and I'm sorry about that, but I'm always in a rush to get to work the next morning. But today is Labor Day, so I'm going to have a very relaxing day and maybe just do some yard work, which is desperately needed.
The accidental gift that Bruce referred to in his notes was that his voice went up kind of high unexpectedly and his inner Don Knots came out. And, as he said, he went with it and did several very funny Don Knots impersonations.
Often Bruce likes to ask "Who has been here before?" and "Who has never missed a show?" To the second question, there's only one person who can applaud and that's Adryan Russ, so there's really no point in asking the question because if there's someone who's been to every show and they're absent that night, then they've now missed a show, so... . It is always amusing though to hear Adryan clapping by herself, and I guess that's the point. :-)
The "What If" was very funny. I think it was longer than most, but wasn't too long at all. And you really didn't have to be all that familiar with "Pacific Overtures" or "Peter Pan" to enjoy it. You only needed to know what Bruce explained at the beginning about the plot of "Pacific Overtures". And if anyone in the audience doesn't know the plot of "Peter Pan"...well...then...you know. The funny thing was that I told Mark we should be listening to "Pacific Overtures" in the car on the way to the show, but we didn't have time to look for it. Instead, we had the "Stages/Together Again" CD in the car and we listened to that, which was also very good because we were familiar with those songs by the time we heard them in the show. Anyway, I am more impressed with Jenna Lea Rosen every time I see and hear her. Being Sondheim, the melody seemed complex and difficult, and she was so great with it. I'd like to see her in a show of her own sometime.
"The Dressing Song" has always been one of Mark's and my favorites from Michelle Nicastro's CDs. I couldn't imagine someone so young being able to pull off all those lyrics, but Hadley Miller was amazing. I walked past her after the show and told her how great she was and said "what a lot of words!" to which she rolled her eyes and exhaustingly said "Yes!"
Sharon McNight's "Haiku" was laugh-out-loud funny and Bruce mentioned that she picked the song herself, which was interesting. Jason Graae's "Mimi" was also hysterical.
"The Man I Love" is almost always done unbearably slowly, but this jazzed up version was soooo much more enjoyable. It's the first time I've ever really liked the song.
And everyone seemed to really enjoy "Note to Boys". Or at least Mark and I really like that song and the sign language goes so nicely with it. Bruce doesn't usually do a lot of his own material in a show, but with this song and the songs from "Stages", this Kritzerland show probably had more of Bruce's material than any other, which was fine by us. I really like quite a few songs from "Together Again" (now that I've finally heard it) and it would be nice to hear some of those songs in future shows as well. Note to Bruce.
