2011-07-30 Pancake Hollow Primer by Laurence Carr

My friend Larry Carr just published a novel called Pancake Hollow Primer: a Hudson Valley Story. Larry is a prolific writer, dramatist and teacher. Bill and I love to visit Larry and his wife Kay in October each year on Pancake Hollow Road in Highland, New York. The area is very picturesque and we enjoy apple picking down the road at Wilklow Orchards. On our last visit, I took a few pictures around their wonderful home. Larry asked me to specifically take some photographs of an old red barn on their property. To my surprise, he asked if he could use one of the photos on the cover of his novel, to which I said yes. He has credited me on the back cover of the book for the cover photo. I love the way he wrapped the picture around the cover of the book. When I last saw him a week ago, he told me that the book is selling very well in the Hudson Valley and that it is in its third printing. The book was published at Codhill Press for any one interested. I am totally thrilled that one of my photographs is now in print on the cover of his book.

Happy Birthday, Jerry Herman!

Today is Jerry Herman's 80th birthday. I have been a fan of Jerry's music almost all of my life. I saw Carol Channing perform Hello Dolly on the last tour she did in 1995 in Houston, Texas. On that same tour in New York, I went to Tower Records and met most of the cast including Jerry Herman himself, again on his birthday when they presented him with a cake. I also met him on the street in New York after a Jerry Herman tribute at Town Hall. I have seen La Cage in all it's incarnations in New York.  I saw Mack and Mabel in Ohio and London. I saw Mame with Angela Lansbury in the last New York Production, and in Washington with Christine Baranski. I loved the Grand Tour with Joel Grey on Broadway. Saw A Day in Hollywood also in New York,. I even did a set design for Dear World, which is still one of my favorite scores.  I own all of his CD's of all of his shows. He writes amazing songs, and has the ability to capture the spirit of everything he writes. He is an American treasure. Happy Birthday, Jerry!

7/9/2011 The Adams Family

We finally saw the Addams Family musical last night. Both Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth are long gone, but Roger Rees and Brooke Shields are holding forth as Morticia and Gomez Addams. Rees is a standout. He is every bit the star of this show. His timing is impeccable and although he doesn't have a great singing voice, he is thoroughly convincing in the role. Brooke Shield comes back to Broadway after a few years and is quite adequate as Morticia. I 'm sure she will get better in the role as she goes on. The audience loved the show. It has many humorous moments in it, and has a good supporting cast in Adam Grupper, Heidi Blickenstaff (great performance), Brad Oscar (a second great performance), and Jackie Hoffman. The music is not that memorable, but serve the proceedings well. The set was great. And the puppetry of Basil Twist was a lot of fun. I can see why the show is still running because it has a real sense of humor and pays homage to Charles Addams. 

7/2/2011 The Cherry Orchard in HD

Zoe Wannamaker

We attended a screening of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard broadcast live from the Olivier Theatre in London on Thurs., June 30 at BAM Cinema. This is the latest production that they have broadcast (somewhat) live in that it is recorded at a live performance of the shows. Previously we have seen London Assurance, Fela, and A Disappearing Number. Cherry Orchard starred the wonderful Zoe Wannamaker, who we have had the privilege of seeing in London in His Girl Friday and Battle Royale, and in New York in Awake and Sing! Her performance was marvelous in all of these productions.
If you have not seen one of the high definition broadcasts presented by the National Theatre Live, it is a wonderful experience. They film the productions immaculately, provide the best of England's actors and actresses, and give us a chance to see shows that may not come here.
The next production is in Sept. and it is called The Two Guvnors. It looks to be very funny. This is a modern day take-off of the Italian writer Goldoni's play called The Servant of Two Masters. We did a production of the play when I was at Akron University, and had great fun with it. Look for the National Theatre Live showings, I don't think you will be disappointed.

6/27/2011 Getting My Act Together

Gretchen Cryer (top) Nancy Ford (bottom)

We attended the two production of I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road/Still Getting My Act Together last night at York Theatre. Getting My Act Together was one of the first shows I saw in New York when it was performed on Bleeker Street at Circle in the Square downtown starring Gretchen Cryer, who wrote the show with Nancy Ford. I was so impressed with Gretchen's performance that I waited for her to come out and greeted her. Thirty years later York revived Getting My Act Together starring Jenn Colella this time. I liked her performance, but Bill was not taken with it. In Still Getting My Act Together, Gretchen came out as the same character 30 years later, and we discover what she had been going through in those 30 years. I really enjoyed the show. It needs a little cutting here and there, but it was a lot of fun.

While waiting for Still Getting to take our seats, I spotted Karen Ziemba. I attended Akron University in the theatre department when Karen was dancing with the Ohio Ballet. I have seen most of Karen's shows here in New York and have been a fan of hers. I went over to her and told her that I was at Akron U at the same time that she was there, and she may have seen the set and lighting I did for Dames at Sea. She was extremely gracious and mentioned that she had just completed a workshop for a musical written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (two of my favorite lyricists and composers) and Susan Stroman the choreographer. The plotline was about Degas and the ballerinas he painted. She said it was a wonderful experience. I then congratulated her on all her success. In the theatre, she was sitting across from me, and when a joke was made about moving back to Ohio, she glanced over at me and smiled. We both knew that we would never do that in a million years!

So it turned out to be an interesting evening, finally getting to say hello to Karen after all these years, and seeing Gretchen Cryer perform again on stage.

6/15/2011 Follies to Broadway

I am totally thrilled that the announcement was made today that the Kennedy Center production of Follies is going to move to the Minskoff Theatre in New York. I loved this production and look forward to seeing it a second time. One can only hope that Bernadette Peters,  Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, and Ron Raines repeat their roles. It appears that Linda Lavin will be out of the show. No word on Elaine Paige or others that may be recast. I was hoping that this would happen since I felt this was the most satisfying production of the show that I have seen.

(The photo collage is a compilation of photos from the Kennedy Center production from their website.)

6/15/2011 Javier Colon

I just saw the most amazing performance I have seen in a long time. Javier Colon on The Voice just stole the whole show with his rendition of Angel. If he doesn't win the whole thing I will be very surprised. All I can say is WOW!

And the winner is ... Javier Colon. (posted after the results of the shows finale!)  Yet another prediction that was right on!