As I've mentioned, the specific reason I came to Chicago at this time was because of a fundraiser/reunion that Northwestern University is holding for its School of Communication on the 140th anniversary. (Back then, it was originally known as the School of Elocution.) I don't particularly care for reunions, but they were holding a special gala hosted by Stephen Colbert, with 30-40 alumni from the Broadway theater, movies and TV performing. That was hard to miss. The event, which they called "A Starry Night," was last night, held at the new Ryan Fieldhouse, which was opened earlier this month. It was mainly built to be an indoor practice facility for the football team, with other sports applications, but the facility can be converted for other kinds of events and seat up to 2,800 people. Because a few areas were blocked off for the reception afterwards, there were probably about 1,800-2,000 in attendance. (This is after the event, which needless-to-say explains the lack of many people there...) Among the many performers participating were -- Stephanie D'Abruzzo (C93) Nancy Dussault (BSM57) Gregg Edelman (C80) Craig Bierko (S 86) Ana Gasteyer (C89) Kathryn Hahn (C95) Heather Headley (C97) Marg Helgenberger C82) Laura Innes (C79) Brian D'Arcy James (C90) Richard Kind (C78) Gary Kroeger (C81) Stephanie March (C96) Seth Meyers (C96, H16) -- on video Dermot Mulroney (C85) Tony Roberts (C61) Kimberly Williams-Paisley (C93) There were a few other performers who I didn't recognize by name, but when I saw them knew who they immediately. And not everyone did a musical number or sketch, but rather introduced others and told stories to tie things together. (And I must add here, too, that the Head Writer for the event was my pal, the occasionally-mentioned here Shelly Goldstein. It was a terrific evening, and hats off to the Lady Shellington, who also performed in one of the sketches.) Fun, too, was that had a chance to finally meet my email buddy, Morty Schapiro, who is the president of Northwstern. And I had a nice talk, too, with Pat Fitzgerald, the football coach and former All-American linebacker on the team. (I told him that I knew my dad -- who had season tickets for 51 years! -- would want him to know how important Northwestern football was to him.) Both fellows were extremely nice. And finally (!), something I didn't think would ever happen, but the elves back in Los Angeles taking care of the homestead were jealous, something I didn't think in their DNA. So, back to the show. Seth Meyers wasn't able to attend in person, though the show evening with a very funny video of him and Stephen Colbert, sitting at the elegant, fictitious Northwestern Lounge in New York. They reminisced about both having majored in "Talk Show Hosting" while at NU, with minors in Quips, Chit Chat, and Pretending to Listen to a Boring Guest. The opening number was a funny duet performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo, who got a Tony nomination for her role in Avenue Q which won the Tony as Best Musical, and Ana Gasteyer, best-known for her years on Saturday Night Live. One of my few quibbles of the night is that, being such a big admirer of D'Abruzzo, I'd have loved to have seen her get a solo number, but with such a line-up, I understand the limitations... Colbert didn't have a great deal to do throughout the show, although he did introduce several performers and told his connections to them from his time at school -- including a story of his classmate Harry Lennix, who plays the FBI Director on The Blacklist, being the first person to come up to him on the dais after Colbert's controversial speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner (basically, it had to do with George W. Bush and others on the dais being totally silent after a somewhat-concerned Colbert finished, and Lennix saying to his friend, after looking the panelists over, "Fuck all these people"), and he also stuck around to close the evening. But in addition to the very funny opening film Colbert delivered a 10-minute monologue that was wonderful. (When he mentioned that he takes on the president every night on his show, there was applause through the room. He laughed and ad-libbed, "I don't know if you people are applauding because you like what I say, or if you are supporting the president. I don't think I want to know.") There was a great trio of sorts with Broadway performers Gregg Edelman -- who had been in the musical City of Angels, and sang a song from the show -- Brian D'Arcy James and Richard Kind. Terrific as they all were, it was D'Arcy James who had one of the highlights of the evening. He starred in the Broadway musical version of Shrek, as well as Something Rotten, and was in the Tony-winning musical Titanic. But as it happens, he was also the original 'King George' in the initial off-Broadway version of Hamilton (returning to the role after the show moved to Broadway, rejoining the cast later in the run), and he performed his show-stopping number from Hamilton, "You'll Be Back." And it was the best rendition of the song I'd seen. Most versions play 'King George' as a bit foppish, and make the song comic, though with a dark underpinning. D'Arcy James however sang it more as a very angry father, controlling his fury while leaving his love on the surface, and it was funny but far more malevolent -- and he brought the house down, getting everyone to join in on the "La-dee-dah-dut-dahhhhs" at the end. Another highlight was Craig Bierko, who in 2000 took on the risky job of following in Robert Preston's footsteps, and starred as 'Prof. Harold Hill' in the Broadway revival of The Music Man, getting a Tony nomination (as well as winning other awards for it) in the process. He enthusiastically and superbly recreated two songs from the show -- "Trouble" and "76 Trombones." (One of my other quibbles is that the number was oddly staged at the end -- they made it fun, bringing out some of the Northwestern marching band, but it was done in a way that didn't allow the audience to really applaud, and you could tell they were ready to explode.) End-staging aside, here's Bierko performing the number in full during an appearance with the Boston Pops, under the direction of Keith Lockhart, There was another fascinating Broadway tidibit worth noting. Adam Kantor is currently appearing in The Band's Visit on Broadway, but he took the night off from the show just to appear in the gala. He sang a song with the same a capella group he had been a part of when at the school (though they didn't do it a capella). There was a lovely filmed-tribute to Garry Marshall (creator of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, and director of Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries, Beaches and more), who had a love affair with the school and always tended to have some homage to Northwestern somewhere in his works, lectured regularly at on campus, and donated funds to several buildings. And he gave Head Writer Shelly Goldstein her start in Hollywood, having seen her work at school and offering a a contract. But then, he helped other NU grads, as well. Richard Kind, who co-starred in the series Spin City, starred in a revival of Larry Gelbart's play Sly Fox on Broadway, and sang "The Inquisition" for Mel Brooks' Kennedy Center Honor, and returned later in last night's show to sing the title song from Bounce, a Stephen Sondheim musical he had starred in, though which never made it to Broadway. It's not from last night's production, but so that you can get an idea of the evening, here's a video of Kind, along with Howard McGillin -- based on a true life story of two con artist brothers in the early 20th century during the Klondike gold rush up through the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s -- performing the song during the run at the Kennedy Center. The video is mediocre, but he's the one in the smoking jacket.) It was fun to see veterans Nancy Dussault do solo numbers. (She played 'Maria' on Broadway in The Sound of Music, got a Tony nomination in Do-Re-Mi opposite Phil Silvers, joined the cast of Into the Woods during its Broadway run, and is best-known as the mother on the series Too Close for Comfort. Tony Roberts co-starred in six Woody Allen movies, along with the Broadway stage version of Allen's Play It Again, Sam, and starred in the musical How Now, Dow Jones?) They both recreated -- I assume -- songs they had performed over 50 years earlier in the famous student musical, the Waa-Mu show, now in its 87th year. (They also performed a few sketches and songs from the Mee-Ow show, an alternative production that was a bit more "cutting edge" to use a term, and more fully student-run. I mention this because I wrote for the very first Mee-Ow show...) One of the nice touches of the production is that the show included a lot of student participation, mostly as background singers and chorus. But one of the current students, Lucy Godinez (class of 2018), won some local awards for appearing in the Chicago company of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights, and was given a solo turn, getting to recreate her number "Breathe" from that show. She was great, by the way. With quite a future. Okay, you can see for yourself. I was able to find a video of her performing the song at a cabaret. (Keep in mind as you watch, she's a college student when singing this) -- And the show closed with the luminous Heather Headley, who deservedly had two numbers in the show. The earlier was during a film montage honoring many alumni of the School of Communication. If you don't know her work, I'll rectify that in coming days. She was in the original cast of The Lion King, then starred in the lead role of Elton John's Broadway version of Aida, played the Whitney Houston role in a musical version of The Bodyguard on the West End in London and recently returned to Broadway as 'Shug Avery' in The Color Purple. (I should also note for regular readers of these pages that Heather Headley’s first song was a tender ballad performed while a montage was shown of special people they wanted to honor from the School of Communication. One of whom was Newton Minow, father of the oft-mentioned here Nell.) This isn't from the event last night, but five years ago, and it's not a great video, but this is the song that Heather Headley ended the night with, "Home" for The Wiz. Not shockingly, she brought the crowd to their feet. And with Stephen Colbert returned for some brief comments, and the wonderful evening ended.
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From the archives. This week, the contestant is Mike Miller from New York, NY. I got the hidden song, though only from one passage where it was clear to me. The composer style is in a genre that's always tough for me, and it could have been between four or so. And I took a stab at one. I was wrong, but came pretty close -- I got the right country, period and style, and probably should have gotten it for all my limitations in that area. But alas didn't.
Though the "big gala" is tonight, one of the few smaller events I attended during the fundraiser/reunion weekend of the School of Communication at Northwestern was a presentation this afternoon by its acclaimed American Music Theater Project program, which was begun by Dominic Missimi in 2005. Its center is to train students not just in singing or just in acting or just in dance, but as a combined disciplined, with a focus, as well, in writing. (One of the alums of that project is the wonderful Heather Headley -- who starred in Elton John's Broadway musical, Aida -- who will appearing at tonight's gala.) It's a fascinating program that has branched out in numerous projects. At its core, they invite professional composer-writers in to have workshop productions of their works-in-progress. But three other projects stand out -- one is in conjunction with the American Theatre Wing (who oversee the Tony Awards), where among the prizes that the winner of the Jonathan Larson Award for young songwriters gets is a production of their show at Northwestern's AMTP. Also, they have a program in conjunction with the Royal Conservatoire in Scotland, taking a dozen students to work with 20 students at the Royal Conservatoire and put on two musicals (one each written by someone from each group) which they then perform at the Edinburgh Festival for a month. And the third is The Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project -- a weeklong competition for young songrwriters from around the world, the top 12 of which spend a week in residence working in the AMTP program. (Unrelated side note: the program is now overseen by David Bell, who directed the world premiere of the musical Peggy Sue Got Married. I mention this because the show was written by my friends Arlene Sarner and Jerry Leichtling -- who had also written the film's screenplay -- with music by Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons. And as whimsy would have it, I attended that world premiere just outside Chicago, when I was home visiting my folks. But I digress) At the "reunion" event, they had students performing songs from shows that had all had their premieres at Northwestern, developing as part of the AMTP. The songs were all terrific, and so were pretty much all the students. One stood out, a recent graduate, Meghan McCandless. I found some videos of her, and this one was quite good. It's not her alone, but singing the lead with an a capella group. There were a couple of songs I especially liked that I believed were initiated at the AMTP, but I couldn't find video of them performed there. However, I tracked down other videos for them. This first had been performed by Meghan McCandless who was absolutely with it. It's called, "I Need More," from a show called Fly By Night. Here's it's sung by Ashley Moniz, who does a nice job with it. Finally, here's a song, "Live Like You're Going to Die," from a show, Michael Collins, based on the life of the Irish revolutionary, that premiered at the AMTP. The musical was written by Ryan Cunningham (who is now an Associate Director of the project and was at the event this afternoon) and Joshua Salzman. The young man (whose name I didn't catch, alas) who had starred in that initial production sang it at the showcase. But I was able to track down another recording and wanted to include it here as a further example of the work being done. Here is that later version -- The reason that I'm in Chicago right now is specifically because there is a fundraiser/reunion of sorts for the School of Communication at the beloved Northwestern University. I'm not big on reunions, tending to avoid them at all costs, but there is a fundraising event tonight which was near-impossible to miss. More on that later -- I probably won't be back in time tonight and won't write about it until tomorrow. And besides, I'm staying with relatives who live walking distance from the school, so that makes commuting to it Really Easy.
I don't expect to go to many of the reunion events, though as long as I'm here anyway, I've gone to a few. Last night, there was a Welcome Reception which I attended. There was good food -- always a plus, though I only knew one person there. That was my pal Wally Podrazik, who I've mentioned here, the curator of the Museum of Broadcast Communication, among his many other hats. However, I ran into a few "Facebook friends," who I do know through that social media service. One of the very recent grads I spoke with (I think from 2016) was a young woman named Dana Balkin, who was a hoot. An explosive, but deeply-warm personality who I have a feeling could have talked until next Tuesday if it became important to -- "I know that I have a shy personality and am much too laid back." -- yet was equally happy to listen to the conversation and even ask questions, a rare and impressive combination for a professional talker. She acknowledged that she never plays poker because her face is too expressive about everything. "When I text someone, my roommate can tell what I'm writing just by looking at me." And yes, not shockingly, she's an aspiring actress. I only mention her name here because I sense she'll do well. Plus, she gets a lot of bonus points for her favorite TV series being Columbo, which speaks a lot about her personality, as well... There were also two reunion-group gatherings I went to. This wasn't a reunion by class year, but for the whole School of Communication (known as the School of Speech, when I was there). Most of the events they're holding are general lectures or presentation. The "reunions" are being handled by activity. So, one that I attended was for the radio station, WNUR. And again, I only knew one person there -- his name was Wally Podrazik. It was nice though to see their new set-up, which is very impressive, and it's not all digital. Bizarre, but wonderful to see is that they've retained the LP collection, and it's huge. And alongside everything are two turntables for the albums. One of the DJs there at the time was pulling out albums for her shift, noting that she particularly loves music from the '60s, and especially the Beach Boys. (Wally particularly liked hearing of her appreciation of that era's music, since he is a major Beatles expert and lectures on them across the country. However, I noted to the girl, Tuuli, that "Wouldn't It Be Nice" if he liked the Beach Boys as much, and "God Only Knows" why he didn't. Fortunately, I got a big enough laugh that I wasn't looked at like a blithering idiot. Actually, I had as much fun talking with the current students as I did seeking out any "reunion" folk. Also, there was happily even more good food there. After that, I went to a small reunion for the Mee-Ow Show. That is a student-run stage show that was created my senior year as an alternative to the long-established and high-regarded Waa-Mu show that, while it's a student show, has more faculty involvement. (The "Mee-Ow" name is not just a twist on "Waa-Mu," of course, but refers to the school's nickname being the Wildcats.) I wrote for that first-year show, having one song in it that I wrote both the music and lyrics for. Actually, I had two songs, but I went to a rehearsal one night and saw that bizarrely they had edited out about 30 seconds from the middle of the song, making it sort of stupid. When I asked the producer why, he said the show was running long, and they had to shorten it. I noted that they'd stand more success at that trimming the interminable 11-minute sketch that preceded it, rather than by cutting the middle of the song. My argument did not win the day, and I was given two options: leave the song as is, with the cut, or take the song out of the show. I chose the latter. I didn't know anyone at this event (Wally Podrazik was apparently not involved with it...), though there were two actors I knew of, and spoke with -- Richard Kind and Craig Bierko. Richard and I spoke a bit about Larry Gelbart, since he had been a speaker at the wonderful, but unfortunate memorial for Larry a few years ago. Also, I asked him a few questions about a Stephen Sondheim musical he was in, Bounce (among other names it went by, including Gold), but which never made it to Broadway. (Though he did star there in a revival of Larry Gelbart's play, Sly Fox.) Craig Bierko notably got a Tony nomination for playing 'Harold Hill,' in the Broadway revival of The Music Man -- of which I've posted several videos here -- but I mentioned that I was going to praise a movie he starred in that he probably didn't hear a lot, Sour Grapes, which Larry David wrote and directed. He laughed, saying that no, he didn't hear about that much. It's a very funny movie, but deeply mean-spirited as two best friends keep one-upping the other with practical jokes to get back at the other, as an argument between them gets out of control. Normally I don't like mean-spirited at all, but this was very clever. Craig noted that he thought that Larry seemed to have put in all the nasty things that were probably took dark for Seinfeld. As reunion events, none of them struck my fancy, since I'm not a big reunion guy, though I enjoyed the few conversations I had, and liked talking with the students at all of them. But mainly, I'm here for the even tonight. More on that upcoming. I'll just say that it's a gala with about 30-40 alumni from Broadway theater, film and TV (no doubt why Kind and Bierko were around), which is being hosted by fellow-alum Stephen Colbert. I figured that as long as I was planning a trip into Chicago around now, this was the time to make the trip... I went to downtown Chicago today for a concert, but first wandered through the Loop a bit. It was a Day of Art since the city has a wonderful tradition of outdoor artwork from renowned artists. It began in 1967 when Pablo Picasso designed a terrific, fascinating, albeit odd sculpture when Richard J. Daley was mayor, and it resides in what is now Daley Plaza. When I walked by today, it was in a setting unlike any I had every seen. Because it was the early part of lunch hour, the plaza (and, in turn, the sculpture) was ringed by food trucks. I had two reactions: the first was what a shame to have such a magnificent piece of hour off-set by this mass of half-a-dozen big vehicles. The second though was to note how accepted this great work is as a daily part of the city (no pun intended), and there was something almost charming to have it blend in to it all Continuing my walk, I passed by what is probably my favorite of the outdoor "world-class" artwork. Much as I really like The Picasso (as it's known in town), I love the piece designed by Marc Chagall for the city in 1977. I believe it's called "The Four Seasons," and is a gorgeous, joyful mosaic that presents each season on a side of a large rectangular block. It's pretty in photographs, but they don't come close to doing it justice, because only up close can you see that it's not a painting, focus on the tens of thousands of little colored stones that make up the work, and walk around all four sides. The work sits on the east side of what was originally the First National Bank of Chicago Plaza, but is now called Exelon Plaza. There's a good deal of other outdoor art by world-famous artists throughout the downtown, including another one I particular like that's of a 53-foot tall flamingo by Alexander Calder. However, I didn't pass by it on this trip. But it was one other piece of art that was really the destination of my walk, and why I took the El in early. For as much as I love the Chagall and Picasso (and Calder), this one sculpture stands out tall above them all. It's the second of the three fiberglass horses that my cousin Diana Leviton Gondek designed for the city. I wrote about one yesterday, down the block from Wrigley Field, and this one sits outside the Office of the Mayor in City Hall. That's two horses down, one to go. After taking a picture of the horse, I set about writing about it for a posting on Facebook. I'm not the fastest typist on a mobile phone, so it took a while. During all this, a few people came out of Mayor Emmanuel's office (I made sure to get the sign in my photo) and noticed me there, taking pictures and doing something on my phone that was taking forever. They politely, but warily asked what I was doing. "I am the cousin of the artiste!" I explained. (Okay, I didn't say "artiste," but that was the subtext.) They took that well, since they all like the horse. As well they should The end of my Day of Art took me took Symphony Hall for a concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I had lunch first with one of the executives of the CSO on the top floor of Symphony Hall, which was a treat -- it's a very old building with great architecture. And the concert was great. Their music director Riccardo Muti was in town, so he conducted. A couple of pieces by Debussy and two by Tchaikowsky. And it sounded as rich and vibrant and meticulous as I've heard them. But the horse. That was the treat... I've been running around the last few days, so Ii haven't had much time to catch up in detail on all the news. As best I can tell, there is a lot of meltdown and angst around TrumpWorld and in the GOP. The most galling story, yet one which hasn't received much press attention, is that Trump's Inspector General has sent his findings -- that former acting FBI-director Andrew McCabe was "less than candid" with the FBI -- to the Department of Justice for possible criminal charges. From what little I've read, it seems unlikely that criminal charges will actually be filed. But -- 1) they could be, 2) what a chilling effect it must have on the entire department, and 3) what a fascist thing to do, try to undermine other voices of authority.
I also saw that Trump was dancing little jigs about the release of the FBI's Comey memos -- despite the reality that the memos pretty clearly support Comey and show Trump to be a pathetic sleazeball. All that without even getting into the fact that the memos should never have been released because they were evidence in an ongoing FBI investigation, but several top Republicans in the complicit House put on their fascist hats and were whining and bellowing for the documents. And more, and more. But what stood out to me among them all was, in most ways, a lesser story. But one that is utterly fascinating and especially telling about Trump. It was a long, detailed and very readable article in the Washington Post by Jonathan Greenberg. He is a reporter who back in the 1980s worked for Forbes magazine and was involved with putting together the initial "Forbes 400" lists of the wealthiest Americans. And the title of the article says it all -- "Trump lied to me about his wealth to get onto the Forbes 400. Here are the tapes." What's so notable about the article is that many of the relentless specifics come from off-the-record conversations that Greenberg had, many with Trump himself posing under one of his pseudonyms of "John Barron," as well as conversations with Trump's lawyer and mentor, the disgraced Roy Cohn. However, Greenberg feels comfortable revealing this conversations because, as he writes -- "Although Trump, posing as Barron, asked Forbes to conduct the conversation off the record, I am publishing it here. I believe an intent to deceive — both with the made-up persona and the content of the call — released me from my good-faith pledge." But the most notable thing about the article is, as the headline of the piece notes -- the tapes. Greenberg recorded many of the conversations with both Trump and Cohn, and has embedded them here. So, you can now hear Trump as "John Barron" clear as day, and lying through every orifice and body part. And it's blatantly Trump. Even from the distance of time, and him putting on a thicker New York accent, it's Trump. Clear as a glass window. Even if you don't read the whole article, at least listen to the tapes. And in the end, what this article does is demonstrate -- in text and audio -- the beginnings of Trump's public flim-flam to try to con the American public about himself. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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