I've written a few times about the wonderful (and Tony-winning) British actor James Cordern who's going to be talking over The Late, Late Show when Craig Ferguson leaves. If you don't know him, he's going to be a guest on David's Letterman's show tonight. Crank up the DVR.
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While rambling through the Internet thing the other day, I came across some videos from a musical that opened last year which I'd never heard of, and quite enjoyed a bunch of the songs. It's called, First Date, and starred Zachary Levi (from the TV series, Chuck) and Krysta Rodriguez (who originated the role of Wednesday Addams in the Broadway musical The Addams Family, and played Katherine McPhee's roommate in the second season of Smash). The show didn't do well, but had a respectable run for a flop, 174 performances. Having said that I enjoyed the few songs I saw, there's a certain sameness to them, and I have no idea how the book was. So, maybe the whole show didn't work as well as some of the songs. But clearly a run of 174 performances suggests there was enough word of mouth to keep it going for that long. And perhaps it was just a case of not being a premise that fit enough audience's idea of what they wanted to see. The score is by By Alan Zachary and Michel Weiner. I don't know their work, but if you've ever taken a Disney cruise, they wrote the show Twice Charmed that's performed there. The book of First Date is by Austin Winsberg, who wrote for Gossip Girl, and did the adaptation for last year's live The Sound of Music on NBC. From what I can tell, the story pretty covers what the title says -- following these two characters on their first date, involving their friends and memories of past dating disasters. (I posted a video with Zachary Levi a while back where he sang in a joint-venture between the National Park Service and the Muppets, and he's quite a good musical performer. If you missed it and are interested, you can see it here.) This is the second number in the show, "First Impressions," made from the recording session. Mike Nichols passed away on Thursday at the age of 83. I grew up listening to recording of him and Elaine May on radio station WFMT in Chicago, during their weekly Midnight Special program on Saturday nights. Though a premiere classical music station, that one night a week they devoted three hours to "Folk music and farce. Showtunes and Satire. Madness and escape." I suspect that many people first were introduced to Nichols and May on such a program, but it was particularly appropriate to make the connection on that program, specifically, That's because as a young man, Mike Nichols was a radio host on WFMT. Actually, no, that's not exactly right. The reason it was so appropriate hearing Nichols and May for the first time and repeatedly on WFMT's Midnight Special is because years early, in 1953, Mike Nichols created the program, The Midnight Special. That's Nichols with Rita Jacobs, who owned the station with her husband Bernie. Here's what The Midnight Special's website has to say about it's history -- Bernie and Rita Jacobs began what could be claimed as the first alternative radio station in America. In the conservative 1950s, at the height of the Joseph McCarthy hysteria, WFMT played not only classical music, but political discussion, theater, and folk music. Mike Nichols and Norm Pellegrini formed the nucleus of station personnel. It wasn't just the classic Nichols and May sketches that the station regularly played on The Midnight Special, comedy classics that so many fans now know. But when he worked at the station, Nichols had free access to the studios and recording equipment, so periodically he would bring his friend Elaine May in, and they'd record sketches that they were working on. And so WFMT had this treasure trove of hidden early gems that they would occasionally bring out and play. (Nichols and May originally teamed up with a group called The Compass Players, that largely got its start at the University of Chicago. This eventually morphed into Second City.) Side Note: Watching an NBA game tonight on TNT, I learned something I had never known. If you watch ESPN, you know of one their reporters, Rachel Nichols. It turns out that she was Mike Nichols' daughter-in-law.) I should note, as well, that The Midnight Special that Mike Nichols created is still going strong on WFMT, 61 years later. That is quite a remarkable long run. The host is now Rich Warren, and in addition to the regular "madness and escape" they often have live folk acts in-studio. If you're interested in such things, or simply what to hear What Mike Hath Wrought, it's syndicated around the country, though in a slighted edited-down form, I believe. Here's a list of local station that carry it. You can likely listen to most of them online -- or just listen the the show online from its home here at WFMT, broadcast Saturday nights from 9 PM to midnight, Chicago time. Adjust your clocks accordingly.. While most of the tributes to Mike Nichols have understandably been about his multi-award-winning direction on Broadway and in the movies, touching on his comedy career before all that with Elaine May, it's his comedy with her that I always think of first. There are so many great Nichols and May sketches to choose from, so I can only dip my hand in and pick one here, for the moment. Here's one of their many Mother and Son sketches. Christian Boer is a Dutch designer who has dyslexia. As a result of his own situation, he’s developed a font called Dyslexie that is said to make it easier for those with dyslexia to read. The typeface looks fairly normal, but each character is more distinctly separate from each other. "When reading a text in the dyslexia font,” Boer says, “people with dyslexia have a lot less trouble and fewer errors are made." The font can be downloaded for home use for free on his website here.
Mark Evanier has a piece on his website about the upcoming live production of Peter Pan on NBC, December 4. He links to an article, courtesy of our good friend Shelly Goldstein, in Entertainment Weekly about changes they’re making to the show, most notably with songs being cut and added.. Normally I’m not big on changes to existing works, but understand sometimes they’re necessary. (Hey, productions edit Shakespeare. If it's good enough to do to Will, you have to allow for some leeway with other mere mortals...) There seem to be quite a few alterations here in this NBC Peter Pan, and I withhold judgment -- but whether or not the changes are good, I at least like the way they’re going about them. You can read the very-detailed article here. What they’re doing with the new songs is something very uncommon when such a thing is done for a Broadway” revisiting.” Usually, new composers are brought in to try to emulate the original style (which I find painful because the new numbers leap out as not remotely as good) or use well-known songs by the original composers or far worse, by others of the era (which stand out awkwardly because they don’t fit, meant for something else entirely). But here, they're using existing though lesser-known songs written by the original composers from other shows but then having the daughter (Amanda Green) of one of the original lyricists (Adolph Green) write new words to fit Peter Pan. (It’s not just “all in the family” -- she's a lyricist herself of several musicals, and even has a Tony nomination.) Moreover, they also are bringing back a song cut during 1954 tryout of the original show, written by Carolyn Leigh and Moose Charlap.. (Historical note: Peter Pan has two sets of writing teams. The original team was Leigh and Charlap, whose songs included "I Gotta Crow," "I'm Flying" and "I Won't Grow Up." But when the original producers got concerned about the show, they brought in the more experienced Betty Comden-Adolph Green and Jule Styne, among whose songs were "Never Never Land," "Distant Melody," and "Captain Hook's Waltz.") They are also cutting one song, which is justifiable, because it was really only written to take advantage of Mary Martin's coloratura voice, "Mysterious Lady." And rewriting the most obvious song to deal with, the problematic and today very awkward "Ugg-a-Wugg," giving it new words by Ms. Green, to be called "True Blood Brothers," which is a line in the original song. More on the songs in a moment. But first, there are some changes I’ve read of that are another matter. The main changes I don’t like – which the article doesn’t address -- have nothing to do with songs. As you may know (or not), the actor who plays Captain Hook traditionally also plays the father, Mr. Darling (even dating back to the original J.M. Barrie play), but they’re not doing that here. Now, it's pretty clear that the original intent has an actual dramatic point to it (as well as being fun), and it seems unfortunate to change that. It's not essential to me, but walking on very thin ice. But worse, for my taste, is that they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, and the actor who plays Mr. Darling (the terrific Christian Borle) will also play Hook’s assistant, Smee. That strikes me as idiotic. Maybe it will work – but in concept, and until proven otherwise, I think it’s terrible. Very misguided. (The only saving grace is that if anyone can bring it off, it might be Borle, who most recently was the rival barber, Pirelli, in the PBS production of Sweeney Todd and played Max Detweiler in last year's live version of The Sound of Music on NBC. Oddly enough, he also won a Tony Award for Peter and the Starcatcher, a wonderful play that's a sort of prequel to, of all things, Peter Pan, He's probably most recognized for playing the composer on the NBC series Smash. He'll probably be very good as both the father and Smee -- but the same actor shouldn't be playing them.) They're also giving a new song to Mrs. Darling, in large part because they producers say that since they have Kelli O'Hara in the role, how could they not find a song for someone that good. I love Kelli O'Hara -- she's great. But that's no reason to add a song. If the song fits the moment...then terrific, I look forward to seeing Kelli O'Hara perform it. But Mrs. Darling has a pretty small focus in the show, and I hope it's kept in proper perspective, to deepen the character perhaps but not imbalance things. All that aside, what they’re doing with the song, could be interesting, and as I said, at least they’re doing it sort of right. We’ll see… But that brings us to the main reason I set out to write this -- not just to give some thoughts in advance on the changes, but since the Entertainment Weekly article names the three Comden-Green- Styne songs from other shows that are being used, I thought it would be nice to let you hear the original songs. A sort of semi-preview, as it were. One song being used is "Ambition" from Do Re Mi. This was originally sung by the show's star Phil Silvers, to the young protege he's discovered and is trying to connive, played by Nancy Dussault (who some may recall as the mother on the series, Too Close for Comfort). It's being adapted to a song called, "Vengeance," now to be sung by Captain Hook. Another of the adapted songs is "I Know About Love," also from Do Re Mi, where it was performed by John Reardon. In the upcoming Peter Pan, will be called "Only Pretend", to be sung by Wendy about her feelings for Peter. And the third song -- well, actually, this third song is the one that got me thinking about writing this piece in the first place, so that I could have an excuse to post it. It's hardly a great song by Broadway standards, but it's always been one of my favorites since I was a little kid, and my parents had the album, which they'd bought after seeing the show on a trip to New York. Though hardly great, it's one of those songs that hit you just right as a kidling, and stayed with me. It's just so tuneful and rousing and about rivers, which I've always loved, too. Yet there's a wistfulness to it, as well, that added a texture I found so appealing. The song is "Something's Always Happening on the River," from a little-known show, Say, Darling. It's sung here by David Wayne. And in the upcoming TV production of Peter Pan, the song will be adapted to be sung by both Peter and Captain Hook, as "A Wonderful World Without Peter." Thanks to Valerie Alexander, who writes about happiness and success and other things that fill her mind at SpeakHappiness.com, for coming upon this video. It's is a thoughtful, funny, entertaining graduation speech given in 2013 by comedian/musician Tim Minchin at Western Australia University, of which he's a graduate.. He gives 10 pieces of advice, most of them counter-intuitive to what's usually said on such occasions. Though rather than just leaving them be as jokes, he goes into explanations why these ideas are, in fact, worthwhile, starting with -- "You don't have to have a dream." (He's not against having dreams, but makes the point that one should be "micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you." Adding, "Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery, which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won''t see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye.") I also liked that this video came thanks of the Queen of Speak Happiness, since Mr. Minchin also advises -- "Don't seek happiness." (In fact, the point he makes isn't too far from what Valerie often writes, that we don't have to be happy and cheery all the time. Instead, what he says:."Keep busy and aim to make someone else happy, and you might find you get some as a side effect.") And how could I -- and my expert cohort on the subject, Nell Minow -- not be thrilled with a graduation speech that offers the advice: "Send thank you notes." What I also like is when he offers -- "Respect people with less power than you." And then explains why. There's a good deal more. This is slightly edited down, cutting from his opening comments directly to his advice, and runs about 11 enjoyable minutes. |
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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