The other day when writing about going to the Muppet organization's Puppet Up! improv event, I forgot to mention my favorite ad lib --
 
One of the Muppets that they use is a hot dog.  (In fact, they sell it in the courtyard beforehand.)  There was one improv sketch with four of these hot dog Muppets – one was a maid, another a doctor, one a cowboy, and the last just like this hot dog below.  At one point in the sketch when things were getting loopy, this fourth hot dog started looking around at the other three, seeming to be a bit lost, and then suddenly jumped in, “Hey, I didn’t realize we were supposed to wear costumes.”

And hey, as long as we have Puppet Up! on the table, here's another video from the folks.  This is a less-intimate environment than at their home studio, but takes place at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.  (As such, it's a well-produced video, so you get a good sense of the experience, seeing the performers in action, but also the results on the big monitor.)  It's all enjoyable -- and that's Brian Henson, Jim Henson's son, in the first sketch, performing as the warthog -- but the second improv sketch that begins about at the 3:10 mark is particularly fun, especially for this very appreciative Aussie audience.

On Saturday, I went to the Puppet Up! - Uncensored event that those of you who read Mark Evanier's site have seen him rave about for a while.  It's put on by the Jim Henson organization (or more properly their Henson Alternatives division) and takes place once or twice a year at their Hollywood studio.  This is an old facility that in its early incarnation was Charlie Chaplin's studio.  It seems to seat about 250, and though general admission they assign tables when you arrive.  So after visiting in the courtyard for a while, I headed off to my table front-and-center, and Mark and his group went off to theirs.

It's a bit difficult to describe well, since it's unique.  Basically it's improv with Muppets.  Though they also have some prepared material and re-create a couple of classic Muppet sketches from the past.  (For our show, it was "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face" and "Java.")  It's all done out in the open, so you can see the work being done by the actors, but there are monitors, as well, in case you want to watch like on television.  They begin the evening with a very funny film about the history of puppetry.  And there's even some digital puppetry tossed in there, as well.

(You can read more about it and check out some behind-the-scenes videos here on their website.  And also probably get on their mailing list to let you know when they're dong their next show.)

It's awfully entertaining and very well done.  There's no video (at least yet) of last night's who, but I've found a couple videos where they do the same premise as two sketches on Saturday, just with totally different results.  Though the show has "Uncensored" in the title, and there is definitely off-color material, it's not a raunchy night, were the actors do their best to be as dirty as possible.  Rather, they go for fun and creativity, but being "uncensored" frees them up if that's where they scene most-properly goes.

This first is introduced by host and the evening's director Patrick Bristow (who is an actor, and you may recognize him from the Ellen show when she had a sitcom).  It's an improv Film Noir, where the audience shouts out suggestions for what the various foundations will be.  We had a Film Noir, as well, so clearly that's one of their go-to premises.

As host Bristow says (and the audience shouts with him) when calling the next group of actors waiting off the the side to perform, "Puppet up!!"

This was probably my favorite premise of the night.  Not that some other sketches weren't funnier, but I like the idea behind this the most, and it was nothing I'd seen at an improve night.  Host Bristow explains the premise, but the video misses some of the opening, and so it might not be fully clear.  Bristow has gone into the audience to find a couple -- most likely married.  He then asks them questions about how they met and their first date, and then the Muppet actors have to improv that first date.  Making it particularly fun is a nice twist, where the two real-life subjects get to ring a bell or hit a buzzer when the improv actor get something "right" or "wrong" about the date.  My only quibble here is that on Saturday the sketch went much longer and was a long hoot.  This is more of a short hoot...

​Puppet Up!

I'm planning a trip to back Chicago in next month, so I wanted to check what theater is going on in the city, since it's usually so vibrant.  There are some interesting productions, including the Lyric Opera putting on a My Fair Lady (which is probably a wonderful stage, though I thought it was an odd choice when they announced it last year), and the Court Theatre putting on Harvey, one of my favorites.  And two of their companies that have won Tony Awards for Best Regional Theaters have interesting productions -- the Goodman Theatre has Pamplona with Stacy Keach as Ernest Hemingway and the Lookingglass Theatre is putting on Moby Dick.  (This must be their year for doing adventure shows about the ocean, since later in the season they have a stage version of, of all things, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  No word yet if they will be providing the audience scuba gear.)

But it's another of the city's Tony winners for Best Regional Theatre, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater which has a play that most intrigues me.  Not just for what it is, but that it's an ideal venue for it.  A stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning film, Shakespeare in Love.  This isn't a premiere -- it opened in the West End of London, and played at the Ontario Shakespeare Festival in 2014.  But as far as I know it's the first production in the U.S.  The stage version was adapted by Lee Hall, whose many works include the films War Horse and Billy Elliot, which he adapted for the stage musical.

I don't know if I'll be able to make it to any of these shows -- or elsewhere -- since my schedule isn't all worked out yet.  But here's a trailer of sorts of Shakespeare in Love, which got a very nice review by the Chicago Tribune's , critic who had also seen the show in Canada and hadn't liked the staging there but found this version much more lively.  

Back in October, 2013, I saw an offbeat production at the Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois which was one of their rare shows brought in from an outside company.  It was from The PigPen Theatre Co. called, The Old Man and the Old Moon, and I thought it was wildly inventive, joyously clever and wonderful, writing a long review of the show.  (Several months back, I also wrote here about PigPen's newest show, The Hunter and the Bear, which they put on at the Writers Theatre new venue, and it was a joy, as well.  Not as much as The Old Man and the Old Moon, but still a total pleasure.)

The good news for people in Southern California is that The PigPen Theatre Co. is bringing The Old Man and the Old Moon to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.  In fact, it opened a few days ago, on May 13 and runs until June 18.  It's a bit of a drive or train trip from Los Angeles, though people do it all the time, about 2-1/2 hours.  And this isn't a play that you're likely to see other people do.  It's probably PigPen or nobody

Here's the preview trailer for the Old Globe's production, which uses live action, shadow puppetry, offbeat stagecraft and music.  You can get ticket information here.

And here again is that original article I wrote about the show back in 2013 (before the Writers Theatre had built its new, impressive theater center with two stages and an auxiliary arena).

Oddly, it seemed like about 15-20% of the audience left at intermission.  As I said, I enjoyed the second act more (so they missed that), but it wasn’t like the first act was “bad” – it wasn’t remotely, it’s enjoyable, though it’s Stoppard at his most theoretical with word play, so it takes a bit to settle in.
 
You might enjoy this amusing video.  They showed it before the play began – it’s Radcliffe and his co-star McGuire taking the audience on a tour of the Old Vic theatre in London and talking about the play.

Last evening, the phone rang around 8 PM.  It was my pal Mark Evanier calling to say that he had an extra ticket for an Audra McDonald concert in Beverly Hills and wanted to know if I'd like to join him and a couple friends at 9:30.  

The evening was a different sort of thing -- half-singing and half sit-down chatting with Seth Rudetsky (who also accompanied her).  I’m not a fan of his, I find him too snarky and self-absorbed, though he's an extremely good pianist.  Happily, he was reasonably low-key for him, and since he's known McDonald for decades (he was one of her first accompanists, as far back -- if I understood what was said correctly -- as when she was still in college at Julliard), he therefore knew a lot of stories to throw at her unexpectedly, and even picked random songs for her to sing, several of which she hadn't done in so long that occasionally she'd have to turn to him to prompt a line.  (One song was something she had done as a strange, very funny "encore" when in the fourth grade playing the Witch in Hansel & Gretel.  I'd have preferred more singing, but the conversation was breezy and enjoyable.  So it was all quite good.  

One quibble.  It took us longer to get out of the theater than ideal, walking all the way up the aisle, because when Mark bought the tickets he unfortunately made the decision to get them in the second row.  Okay, as far as quibbles go that doesn't register much...  Yes, they were great seats.

One of the songs she performed was an early cabaret number written by Jason Robert Brown, who subsequently went on to win two Tony Awards for Best Musical Score, for the shows Parade and Bridges of Madison County.  This was a piece called "Stars and the Moon," and I thought it was wonderfully written and sung.

Here's a video of her singing it elsewhere.

As I've written a bit here lately, a new production of Hello, Dolly! recently opened on Broadway with Bette Midler.  To help promote the upcoming release of the Original Cast Album, the selections of that very album has been posted for a limited time online.

As readers of these pages know, I've done a lengthy analysis of four different versions of the show -- the original production with Carol Channing, the "new" cast recording with Pearl Bailey, the London cast version with Mary Martin, and songs from the production that closed the original run with Ethel Merman.  So, far beyond this being Bette Midler's return to Broadway, I was intrigued to hear how Jerry Herman's classic score is handled.

My sense is that this revival's recording is perfectly nice, and Bette Midler does a solid job.  But she’s oddly mellow, surprisingly without the edge you’d think she’d bring to the role.  Maybe that’s more a function of making a recording rather than performing live.  The only number she has sparks with, I think, is “So Long, Dearie,” which is intended as a snarky, sarcastic number as Dolly chides Horace Vandergelder, ostensibly telling him off which trying to attract his interest.  Midler also does a pretty good job on "Before the Parade Passes By."  Everything else strikes as fine and pleasant, though not stand-out.
 
Interesting, I thought the supporting characters actually do the best job, notably Gavin Creel who plays Cornelius Hackl, and most especially Kate Baldwin who I’m a big fan of, as Irene Malloy.  David Hyde Pierce does a personable job as Horace Vandergelder, though I think he's a little miscast.  (The character is an aggressive, blustering almost-bully, and Pierce's persona tends to be the opposite.)  He does get a bonus here, though -- a song that had been cut from the original production, "Penny in My Pocket," which is fun to hear, though only just fair.

The arrangements are mellow, as well.  Affectionate in part, and personable, though never as brassy as the original (which I think brings out the best of the score).  Still, not all arrangements have to be that way, brash and lively -- they're not for the British cast album with Mary Martin, and are more warm and playful, and work very well, fitting the character of its star.   There are only two arrangements of this new album I'm not really much a fan of is the overture -- the first is the selection of songs is different than the original, and not as effective to me, but also quite muted.  And the second is the "Waiter's Gallop" which is an exciting and funny dance number than builds and builds in anticipation of Dolly returning to the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant, which is the "Hello, Dolly!" number, and the arrangement here seems to have changed the music, but that may be because it has little drive and humor to it.  It should have enthusiasm, and it's just a fine dance number.

I was trying to figure out what song to post here, and then I realized -- well, that's a foolish thing to have to decide.  Of course I know what song to post.  And you know, too.

Here it is.

I'll provide a link for the full score, but figure that not everyone will want to go and listen to the whole thing.  So, instead, I post a couple other numbers to give more of a sense of the highlights and a quicker way to get into such things.  

​Here, for example, is that number I mention that I think Bette Midler does quite well, and comes across as a lot of fun, "So Long, Dearlie."

Here, too, are the two supporting performers who I was taken by -- Gavin Creel and my fave Kate Baldwin singing, "It Only Takes a Moment."  (It's mainly Cornellius's song, but Irene comes in towards the end.  More notable for Baldwin is the song, "Ribbons Down My Back," which I've never been a big fan of, finding it a bit bland, but in the right hands -- such as Baldwin's here -- it's gorgeous.)
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And finally, here's a taste of David Hyde Piece.  I almost decided to post the new song, but since it's only fair, I figured I'd go with Horace's traditional and fun song, "It Takes a Woman."
​

Anyway, that's a taste of the show.  If you want to hear the entire score, just click here and either listen to the whole thing, or select individual songs.  Keep in mind that this link will only be posted for a limited time.  For all I know, these embedded songs here will, as well, but at least you have them at your fingertips right now.  But if you plan to wait to go to this site, don't wait too long.  Because Hello will no doubt soon be saying goodbye...

Today is the 93rd birthday of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, whose works include Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello!, She Loves Me, the Apple Tree and much more.

Several years back, I interviewed him for my radio program at Northwestern University, when he returned to the school to be Grand Marshal for homecoming.  I turned the interview into a half-hour radio documentary and wanted to get him a copy of the tape, but didn't know how.  When I move out to Los Angeles for graduate school, I brought the tape with me, figuring I might meet someone someday who would know Sheldon, and know how to get the tape to him.

About 15-20 years passed, and I actually became friends with someone, the lovely Treva Silverman (herself a two-time Emmy-winner) who knew "dear Sheldon," as she referred to him and had his address.  Finally!  Persistence paid off!

That weekend, calling home to Chicago, I brought up the story to my mother and told her that I had finally found someone who knew Sheldon Harnick.  "Oh," my mother said, "you mean Aunt Joan?"

What???!!!

It turned out that my Aunt and Sheldon and grown up together in Chicago, were very close, and even went to Northwestern together.  In fact, a famous family story (which I had never heard) was that when he had made his decision to move to New York to try and have a life there, my Aunt's mother said, "Oh, Sheldon, do you think one can have a career in the theater?"

I wrote him -- from the address Treva gave him -- sent along the radio documentary after all those years, finally, and also mentioned who my aunt was,  When he wrote a letter back, the very first line was, "Joan Sered!  Oh, my God!"

We didn't stay in communication, those years later, thanks to a Huffington Post article I wrote about Fiorello!, we did get back in touch and became email buddies of a sort, and even met up back in Glencoe where I grew up and the wonderful Writers Theatre was putting on a production of his She Loves Me.  (Side note: it starred Jessie Mueller, who went on to win the Tony Award, playing Carole King in the musical Beautiful a few years ago.)  And I coordinated schedules so that my Aunt could come to the same performance, where she and Sheldon had a chance to meet and have a joy visit for the first time in decades.

Anyway, in his honor, here's an interview he did a few years back when he was 86 on the New York cable show. Theater Talk, and he performs one of his songs (wonderfully...-- he has occasionally performed a little cabaret act of his material) with Kate Baldwin.  (Side note: Baldwin put out a CD of her singing Sheldon Harnick songs, and a couple of years ago appeared in the New York Encores! production of his Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning ​Fiorello!)
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And as a bonus, here is Zero Mostel, recreating his role as Tevye on the 1971 Tony Awards, six years after opening in Fiddler on the Roof, and singing "If I Were a Rich Man.
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​My pal and fellow board-member of Elisberg Industries, Rabbi Jack Moline -- who in his spare time is president of the Interfaith Alliance -- sent me this.  It's not only quite funny, but particularly timely, thanks to dear Sean Spicer with his chain of Holocaust Centers.  And since it fits well into today's theme, it seems a fine time to post it.

This is a musical number from the TV series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.  I've never seen the show, but checking some details out, it seems as if they do a lot of musical sequences on the show.

There are a couple of small tidbits worth nothing.  In addition to two-time Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone – who's very good in the scene, but particularly funny for not being Jewish, though playing a rabbi's wife here – the other “mother” in the scene (who joins her at the :39 mark singing and dancing about the Holocaust is Tovah Feldshuh, who's a semi-regular on the show (as the mother of the main character) and also has a very long Broadway career, with three Tony nominations, and among for many credits starred as “Yentl” in a short-lived stage adaptation of the story.  And most recently she was in the current revival of Pippin.  So, the TV show got some pretty good names for the sequence.

This video from 1955 is a rare bit of theatrical history on a couple of levels.  It's an eight-minute medley with two significant Broadway legends together, Mary Martin and Noel Coward.  Making it all the more notable is that neither performer has a lot of video footage on them, most especially Noel Coward.

What I also love here is something SO totally showbiz and front that era -- a wonderfully-entertaining, if somewhat bizarre 45-second choreographed exit of bows.