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[John G.]

Five!

[John G.]

Hey,Fred, how's Skip?

[Jane]

Yes, how is Skip?

[bk]

Five minutes, but I'm gonna have to post here first.

[bk]

So, here's the commentary and link to video one:

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the first Kritzerland on Facebook show.  We’ve been doing a monthly cabaret show since 2010, and so tonight should have been show 105, but obviously that isn’t happening.  No, we’re all in our homes, self-isolating, wearing masks – I’m wearing my mask right now – it looks just like my actual face.  Anyway, I think I’m live here on Facebook Live and we’ve pulled together a fun retrospective of videos from our shows.  We couldn’t obviously feature all the great singers who’ve done our shows – we were limited to what videos we had and what would make a good program for tonight.  Our shows have always been structured, so do try to watch the videos in order.  As always with Kritzerland shows, you’ll hear some very rare songs, you’ll hear some classics, and you’ll hear some originals.  So, here’s how this will work.  After I introduce the song live, I’ll post the video link, you click on it, you’ll be whisked to YouTube.  You watch, then come back here and I’ll live introduce the next number and I’ll post that link.  Now, you may to refresh the page, but even I, a complete luddite can do that.  I hope that will work for everyone.  So, let’s get this show on the road.  To open our Kritzerland on Facebook retrospective, here’s an Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse song sung by one of my favorite people – Kay Cole. https://youtu.be/ddsGn3KHGTI 

[John G.]

Brava, Kay!

[ChasSmith]

Off to a good start here!

[bk]

Well, what would a Kritzerland be without a What If?  We did this one about six years ago.  What if Frank Loesser, instead of writing Guys and Dolls, had written Sweeney Todd.  And it goes something like this.  Here’s Robert Yacko. https://youtu.be/jLRXJSePw08

[bk]

We’ve had so many great kids in our shows over the years.  This one’s gone onto a lot of success in country and western music, but she was also a theater kid.  Here doing Stephen Sondheim’s gorgeous Not While I’m Around is the wonderful Brennley Brown. https://youtu.be/nISO_I0wvsQ

[John G.]

Love it. I'm glad to be able to hear that What If after having read the lyrics. 

[KevinH]

Enjoying the show!

[bk]

Next up is Getting Married Today, also by my close personal friend Stephen Sondheim, sung by the amazingly talented Jane Noseworthy – she did tons of our shows and we’re always hopeful she’ll come back. https://youtu.be/-fS28TK9mzc

[ChasSmith]

Damn, that song is beautiful. (Not While I'm Around)

[ChasSmith]

Who's the pianist accompanying Yacko? Didn't recognize him.

EDIT:  Got it! It's on the YouTube page. Lloyd Cooper. I do remember you mentioning him.

[bk]

Now we have a song called Three Friends – we’ve done it a couple of times at Kritzerland.  When I was searching for a song I’d written for a show called Yearbook, a show written specifically for high schools to do back in the early 1990s, I couldn’t find the one I wrote on YouTube, and the only thing from the show on YouTube was a snippet from some song called Three Friends.  I was very taken with it, called the company that licenses the show so I could get a script and score to see how my song, which was called Nerd, was ultimately used.  They sent it to me with a recording of the show.  I looked in the back of the script at the song credits and saw my credit for Nerd and found Three Friends to see who’d written it.  Me.  I had no idea, no memory of it at all.  It’s in my book of lyrics that’s coming out soon, and I actually found my hand-written lyric sheet for it and that’s in the book, too.  So, story over and here’s Alexa Giraudon, Mackenzie Wrap, and Carly Shukiar. https://youtu.be/_k-QzunKBT4

[John G.]

Now we have a song called Three Friends – we’ve done it a couple of times at Kritzerland.  When I was searching for a song I’d written for a show called Yearbook, a show written specifically for high schools to do back in the early 1990s, I couldn’t find the one I wrote on YouTube, and the only thing from the show on YouTube was a snippet from some song called Three Friends.  I was very taken with it, called the company that licenses the show so I could get a script and score to see how my song, which was called Nerd, was ultimately used.  They sent it to me with a recording of the show.  I looked in the back of the script at the song credits and saw my credit for Nerd and found Three Friends to see who’d written it.  Me.  I had no idea, no memory of it at all.  It’s in my book of lyrics that’s coming out soon, and I actually found my hand-written lyric sheet for it and that’s in the book, too.  So, story over and here’s Alexa Giraudon, Mackenzie Wrap, and Carly Shukiar. https://youtu.be/_k-QzunKBT4

Beautiful song. Did any memories of writing it ever come back?

[John G.]

Damn, that song is beautiful. (Not While I'm Around)

Indeed.

This is fun.

[bk]

Here’s very tall Laura Wolfe singing the Randy Newman classic, Short People. https://youtu.be/zbXigXLPclc

[John G.]

Nice cameo from Peyton.

[bk]

Six years ago, I directed a production of Li’l Abner – a bucket list show for me.  The production came out really well, we were nominated for a lot of awards that year, and it was a blast.  The week after we closed, I had our two leads, the wonderful Maddie Claire Parks and Even Buckley Harris come to Kritzerland to do Namely You from the show.  Music by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer. https://youtu.be/DuSSg819w88

[bk]

Here’s a medley from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music with all kinds of great singers and the terrific Keri Safran. https://youtu.be/KuzgMbBI8ck

[John G.]

Her Billie Holliday was a real treat and the Melanie Griffith I'm sure was spot on. They were all funny.

[John G.]

That Gene de Paul wrote earworms. That song is stuck in my brain, even after all that R&H.

[bk]

Next up is Adrienne Stiefel singing the beautiful Billy Barnes song, Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair.  We love Adrienne. https://youtu.be/AwyR8lYGIrA

[bk]

Here’s another one of our talented kids – She was ten when she did this.  I wrote the specialty lyrics to the music of Marvin Hamlisch.  Here’s Hadley Belle Miller being completely inappropriate.  https://youtu.be/UV0K9qzHhcw

[Jrand74]

Loving the show.   I can't choose a favorite.

I am watching some BK live as well.

[ChasSmith]

I realized I'd missed a couple of the live segments so I'm trying to catch all of those now.

[John G.]

I once saw a summer stock production of A Chorus Line where they used "this and that" because they were afraid of their geriatric audience. And they cut almost all of the profanity. It was a very strange experience.

[bk]

All right, this is from the show we did just one month ago, our tribute to the late, great Jerry Herman.  We had the irrepressible Jason Graae with us and the day before our stumble-through, two days before the show, I just threw out there that maybe he and I should do Bosom Buddies together.  He thought it was a great idea but we both thought it wouldn’t really work unless we personalized the lyrics.  I wrote some specialty lyrics that night, sent them to him, he wrote a few things, we did it sans rehearsal at our stumble-through and then without any further runs of it we performed it at the show.  Here it is.
https://youtu.be/e2tDeX-C6A4

[bk]

We’ve been using this next extraordinary young girl for Kritzerland shows for over a year now.  She also co-starred in the musical Doug Haverty and I wrote, Doug did the book, I did the music and lyrics, A Carol Christmas and she just starred in Doug’s play, In My Mind’s Eye, both of which I directed over at the Group Rep.  The wonderful thing about Peyton Kirkner is that she’s not only wildly talented, but she’s never a showoff.  https://youtu.be/xrqmnVe_M2w