Time after Ohio

Spend two days in Ohio (one night with Jeff Saver and the other in a Motel in Pittsburgh) and did some work on Time after Time after a 17 month hiatius. I know that the time spent on the show with Jeff did him good and there is no doubt that time away from the show gave me a perspective and a freedom to work on what was not up to par and to still love what is. I think we had some good talks and that we can make the show a lot better. It was a good trip...sad, exhilarating, sad, depressing, uplifting...Came back and recorded a couple of songs from Qatar to submit for the York Theater's NEO concert. Will submit two from that show and one from Time after Time. Nothing exciting moneywise has come up for SNAG and that's distressing, but not shocking. Right now Qatar is my best front burner bet. It's new, it's hip, it's really good and it's new. Did I mention it's new?

Why oh Why oh Why oh?

Why am I going to Ohio? Well, it's where Jeff Saver is and we are going to spend two whole days reviving our work on Time after Time. I am going to remind Jeff what is great about it and what we can make better. He is going to come back to composing in a small but important way. Even if he doesn't actually write music this week it will remind him who he is and that his life is important. His art and his collaboration with me. I am nervous about it, but I will surely have a good time. Also had lunch today with Thomas Z. Shepard, famous record producer and very nice man. We are talking about me possibly working on his book with him. Another ghost is born? Perhaps. He has had a great career and I think a great title would be Off the Record by Thomas Z. Shepard with Stephen Cole (same type please). More to come.

Blame It On My Youth

While I was out walking today I started to sing the beautiful Oscar Levant song Blame It On My Youth (Edward Heyman lyric) and before I knew it I realized that this could be the title of the play (musical? play? memoir?) I have been toying with. In fact using the song at the top of the show might be my way in. Maybe by using a real song that mean something ironic as a title and a device is my way into this play. Treating a play the way I treat a musical might get me into it. It's a memory play for sure and the lyric has a certain irony.

IF I EXPECTED LOVE WHEN FIRST WE KISSED
BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH,
IF ONLY JUST FOR YOU I DID EXIST
BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH
I BELIEVED IN EVERYTHING
LIKE A CHILD OF THREE
YOU MEANT MORE THAN ANYTHING
ALL THE WORLD TO ME

Already it feels right. A way to talk about the first kiss and how naive a 16 year old boy (no matter how sophisticated he thinks he is) can be. How this 40 year old woman wove a web of magic and romance and pulled him into it.

IF YOU WERE ONE MY MIND BOTH NIGHT AND DAY
BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH
IF I FORGOT TO EAT AND SLEEP AND PRAY
BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH

This boy gave up everything for this woman, for the chance to be adult, to be cared for, to be nurtured and understood.

AND IF I CRIED A LITTLE BIT
WHEN FIRST I LEARNED THE TRUTH

And eventually truth came crashing around his ears. The truth of obsessive love. Of adult emotions that he was not ready for. Of a love so intense he had no way of dealing with it. Neither did she for that matter, except to do all the wrong things.

DON'T BLAME IT ON MY HEART
BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH

But what could SHE blame it on? Her heart, her needs, her narcissistic need for the boy.

There IS something here. To intersperse her singing with his recollection and then let play with time. How I would love to keep this a two character piece, but for some reason I have already added another actor in this first scene. Well, it could all change tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow...Having lunch with Thomas Z. Shepard about the possibility of working on a book with him. Could be good. I will report back.

The Love of an Older Woman

I think because I am so excited and happy with The Road to Qatar! I am looking for another project. For some reason I feel that having gone to the well of reality and my life once and come up with gold, maybe I could do it again. The older woman in my life keeps coming back to haunt me. She yells "write me, write me!" as if she were the chorus in the opening number of Colette which closed on the road. She is gone now and maybe it's time to come to terms with the interesting story of a 16 year old boy and a woman twice his age who fell in love with his talent and then him and rushed him into her bed despite his natural proclivities and then betrayed him out of love, jealousy and passion. And the boy forgave her and they remained friends until her death. There IS a story here...Probably not a musical, but maybe my first play? I don't know yet, but something is pushing me to tell this story. It's connected to all the older women in my life. They all see something in me and either go too far or not far enough. This first one was very important. Wow, she would sure be shocked and possibly thrilled to become a part of my work. Can't wait to see where my brain takes me.

Never Look a Gift Arab in the Mouth

This afternoon David Krane and I sang the score of the Road to Qatar! for a potential director and it went very well. We were great. It's not easy playing all five parts, but the very fact of having to do three different Middle Eastern character voices at least distinguishes them from the two main character, which are easy as they are based on us! The potential director loved it all and now we shall see what we shall see...next step is probably to do this same dog and camel show for producers who might give us a reading. Maybe we will figure out a way to do a cut version...act I only perhaps. This time we did all the musical segments which is a lot! But in any case today went as well as it could and I am happy and tired.

Superfluous Duets

It's amazing how you can (or I can) actually feel what the structural problems of a show are by just singing thru the score. I felt really good last night singing The Road to Qatar, but I just knew that one reprise of the title song was just one too many. Original the song was in the spot where the reprise was last night, but in the total rewrite the song wound up being the second song in the show instead of the 11 o'clock number. It works much better there, but the delightful and delicious counter melody did not work at the top of the show, as it was specifically a lyric for the later part of the show. I thought I could have my cake and eat it by keeping the countermelody as a surprise for the reprise, but it turns out that I just didn't want to hear that number in that spot...it stopped the action for something great musically, but not great dramatically...So I decided today to just lift it out and see how it read...of course it read better without the reprise. So a wonderful countermelody bites the dust (for now...you never know) but a better show grows from the ashes.

Behind Every Story

For those of you who might have missed these articles by the great Peter Filicia. Here is the true story that inspired the musical work in progress I keep talking about here...The Road to Qatar! This will give you some background on what an amazing tale it is.
Something To Aspire To
By: Peter Filichia


"We want you to write musical. How much?" That was the cryptic e-mail that bookwriter-lyricist Stephen Cole received last February. It was followed by an instruction to call a number in -- of all places -- Dubai. Cole assumed it was "just one of those e-mails," but he wrote back, saying he wouldn't call Dubai and that the sender would just have to call him. "A second later," Cole says, "the phone rang and a broken-English voice asked if I'd write a musical for the Emir of Qatar."
Although Cole has written musicals produced regionally (Casper) and off-Broadway (After the Fair), he hasn't yet reached Broadway, so he was surprised to be summoned. The Dubainians told him that his website had gotten them interested in him. So, would he write an original musical? Says Cole, "I'd read how rich this country was, so I told my agent to ask for a lot of money. They came back with an offer of only a work-for-hire contract but with enough money to make me say, 'Take it!' " But Cole would have to accept their choice of composer. "I suggested ones I'd worked with, but they nixed them all," he relates. "None, you see, had a website. They told me David Krane would compose, and while I'd only barely met him, I knew I'd be dealing with someone who knew musicals."
Indeed, Krane -- who was equally stunned when he got his e-mail from Dubai -- has been writing Broadway dance music and/or arrangements since Carmelina in 1979. "Even though I haven't written a musical for Broadway," he says, "they were sold when they saw on my website that I worked on the Chicago movie." (Moral of the story, writers: Get a good website!) "They didn't offer enough money for a Rolls-Royce, but enough for a mini one," says Krane. "So I said yes."
Fine. But now he and Cole were told they had to deliver the show in eight weeks. The collaborators asked "What's the show about?" and were told they'd learn more after they flew to Dubai. After a 14-hour business-class flight, they met their producers. The first surprise was that the musical would be performed in English "because most of the audience would be foreign dignitaries," says Krane. "And the Emir spoke English, too."
Artistic director Nasser Abdullah Abdul Reda told them that the show would deal with a boy whose father would not let him go to a sports academy. Says Krane, "The show would open Qatar's newest sports arena -- the world's largest soccer stadium -- at the Aspire Sports Academy." Cole decided that he had his title: Aspire. "I was told, though," he says, "that the show had to include such Qatarian icons as the sea, ancient Greece, ancient Qatar, a pearl diving expedition and -- oh, yes -- Carl Lewis, the Olympic runner, and Zinedine Zidane, a French soccer star. I came to the conclusion that they had to be included because the Emir hoped they'd actually show up for the premiere. What's worse, I was expected to have an outline by the end of that first day! They even had set designers there from England, so they could get started working from my outline." (Those designers would eventually quit.)
By the second day, Cole had decided that the show's theme should be what one needed besides strength to be a good sportsman. "So," he says, "I landed on a sultan's son who goes on a tantrum in his room and learns a lesson when a star comes to life. The producers wanted a narrator, but I sold them on the star being personified as a Bette Midler-type. She teaches the boy wisdom, compassion, and courage. The Wizard of Oz always works," Cole adds with a knowing smile. Krane was able to hire crackerjack orchestrator Larry Blank and a music copyist. Cole and Krane then flew to Doha -- Qatar's capital -- to see the still-under-construction stadium, in which the show would premiere on November 19. "Then they took us on a wild SUV ride through the pitch black desert at what had to be 100 miles an hour," says Krane. "We arrived in an encampment where there was a belly dancer, and then we went on camel rides. We felt like we were in The Road to Morocco."

They got their advance. Krane also got a tape of Qatarian folk tunes, some of which would have to be assimilated into the show. ("People would expect to hear them," he was told.) Then Krane and Cole returned home to write, although the contract now said six weeks, not eight. The shortened time frame particularly worried Cole because he'd been working on Marni Nixon's memoir -- fetchingly titled Audrey Hepburn Dubbed My Face -- and it was soon due at the publishers. But Krane and Cole proved the adage that work takes as long as the time you have to do it. They finished Aspire, including the dance music and underscoring, in five weeks.
In July, they went to London to perform it for their producers. "Luckily," says Krane, "Stephen has a fabulous voice. He's the love child of Stephen Douglass and Ethel Merman." Be that as it may, once Cole finished singing and Krane ceased playing, the stone-faced Arabs didn't applaud. Says Cole, "Though I'd spent 90 minutes singing my heart out, I decided that the check's clearing was my applause."
Actually, Reda and his people were thinking where the collaborators had erred culturally. For example, it turned out that one of the Qatarian folk tunes used by Krane can only be played at Ramadan. Out it went. But the show got a green light. This meant that Krane quickly had to go to Bratislava, of all places, to oversee the pre-recording of the music by a a 70 piece-orchestra. "I had put in a chime but was told to take it out because it sounded so much like the bell that tells Muslims it's time to pray," he says.
Krane and Cole were astonished when they were told that they "wouldn't be needed" at casting sessions or rehearsals. They returned to America and waited until they were summoned to Qatar. We'll learn of that trip in my next column.
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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/7577

Peter Filichia's Diary Feb 1, 2006


We Open in Doha
By: Peter Filichia


When we last left bookwriter-lyricist Stephen Cole and composer David Krane, they'd been commissioned to write an original musical for the Emir of Qatar. As I related on Monday, they were given six weeks to do it and miraculously accomplished the task in five. Their show, Aspire, was to open a new soccer stadium in Doha, Qatar's capital, on November 19, 2005.
Much has been made of Elton John not being on the scene to work on his musicals. Well, much to the surprise of Cole and Krane, they weren't weren't invited to stay in Qatar for casting or rehearsals. But they were summoned to the Middle Eastern country two days before the opening, so they could watch the final rehearsals on Friday and Saturday. What they saw was a bit of chaos. An LED screen on which projections were to be shown didn't work. (It had been shipped to Quatar at a cost of $95,000!) At each of the final rehearsals, the show never progressed past the third number. So Aspire, with its 175-member cast, would have to open without a full run-through or even a tech rehearsal.
Opening night! It's opening night! It's those Americans' latest show; will it flop or will it go? Before Krane and Cole started dressing for the occasion, they were told that they should take curtain calls, but they wondered, "What if the audience doesn't like it?" The show's stakes had been raised, for what had been conceived as a one-night-only performance had turned into a one-week run. Krane and Cole wondered if there'd be enough interest in Aspire for it to play out the week. Granted, the Emir was charging no admission for his subjects to see the show, but maybe it would be such a disaster no one would want to attend.
As the clock reached show time, something else was missing: The Emir. "Of course," says Krane, "we couldn't start before he got there." The collaborators killed time by chatting with the French and Korean ambassadors. They also scanned the crowd for Carl Lewis and Zinedine Zidane, the sports stars whom they were told to reference in their show. They weren't in attendance, as had been assumed; but Mark Spitz, another former Olympic champion, was.
Finally, a full hour late, in walked the corpulent Emir with his trophy wife. They took front row seats, and it was Magic Time. "It really was," says Cole. "I'd expected abstract sets, but oh, were these realistic. They'd been made in China and were bigger than you'd ever dream. The inside of tombs! King Tut's palace! Three enormous ships! And the cast! There were fire eaters, Croatian acrobats, Russian dancers, and jugglers who juggled things the size of houses. Funny, whenever we asked about the budget, they never told us what it was. They'd always say, 'Less than you think.' But this show sure looked expensive to us. It was like Jumbo, but bigger."




To their delight, the authors saw that the show itself worked. They sat back and enjoyed their tale of Mansour, the son of a Sultan. Since the death of the lad's mother, the Sultan won't let his 12-year-old leave the palace. Mansour is spoiled by his father's lackeys. When they say, "Your wish is our command," he snarkily decides, "I want that star in the sky to come down." Of course, they can't do that, but a Star does come down -- think Bette Midler -- to tell him off for being such a brat. Then she says, "Close your eyes and wish." Soon, Mansour is crossing the sea. He arrives in Greece, where he meets Odysseus, Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon -- and a Cyclops, whom the Greeks want to kill. Mansour asks them to spare the monster and invites him to dinner. The charmed Cyclops says that he could never eat them now that they're all friends. The Greeks learn, "A man can win a battle by using his heart."
Mansour then takes off on a flying carpet, arrives in Egypt, and meets a nine-year-old named Tut who's been thrust, not unlike Chulalongkorn in The King and I, onto the throne after his father dies. The boy king is scared and runs away, which thrills General Horemheb and henchman Ay, who expect to take over Egypt. The country's laws demand a 30-day waiting period before power changes hands; Mansour spends the time encouraging Tut to reclaim the throne and planning a ruse to quash the villains. It works, and Tut is forever grateful. Mansour then meets the aforementioned Olympic champ Carl Lewis and soccer legend Zinedine Zidane, both of whom encourage him to take a camel ride. He winds up in 1920, where a pearl diving expedition is about to take place.
Then came a showstopper -- "though not the kind you'd want," says Cole. "Right then and there was a sword dance, and then 25 minutes of Arabian music with nothing happening dramatically. We just had to sit and wait it out." (The Emir's emissaries had insisted on all this, and Cole and Krane couldn't fight City Hall, so to speak.) Eventually, the story resumed with Mansour meeting Saad, a 15-year-old who gets stuck in a small underwater crevice. Only the diminutive Mansour can get into the space to help release him. In doing so, he helps Saad to become a man.
Once the Sultan sees how Mansour has matured, he allows him to leave the palace and become a man. But Krane and Cole didn't see the end of the show. They had to get ready for their curtain calls and, considering that the stadium was so large, they needed 10 minutes to go from their seats to the backstage area. When they bowed, the Emir stood up and cheered -- and, needless to say, so did everyone else. David Krane and Stephen Cole felt just like Mansour, whose name is Arabic for "victorious."
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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]

Tuesday Night in Qatar!

What a roller coaster a career in the theatre can be! Last night I was riding high after doing the backer's audition of Saturday Night at Grossinger's. The only fly in the ointment seemed to be that my agent didn't show up. This got me upset to say the least. Just when you need an agent to be schmoozing it up, you are alone. Then the shit hit the fan this AM via email that my agent was no longer my agent. Now, this has been coming for a while, at least via my ignored intuition. After all, communication has been at a bare minimal since...before December! Other big events were either not attended or attended half way (and by that I mean leaving after an hour of a hugely successful performance of one of my shows). This was getting to be unacceptable and to give the agent its due, the agent agreed that I was being neglected and deserved better. Still, this did not take the sting out of the realization that I have to move on and find someone new, especially since I chose this one over my last one and burned a bridge that remains burned to this day. Sad. But you go on...and tonight David Krane and I performed (or rather let three people watch a rehearsal of) our score for The Road to Qatar! And that went really well. I am very confident about 80 percent of what we have and that's pretty damned good for draft number two. We are rehearsing again tomorrow and performing for a director on Thurs. Not sure if this director is right for the piece but then the reaction will tell me a lot. I know we have a hilariously amazing small show here, based totally on truth, for whatever that means...what's important is the story and the characters and it really works. So far. I am proud proud proud of Qatar! Stay tuned for the director's reactions.

Monday Night at Grossinger's

The question is this: is a backer's audition successful unless you know if you got backing? Well, we did a great presentation in a great living room for a very nice crowd who seemed to really appreciate what we did. I sang and acted well. The others were their marvelous selves. Everyone seemed enthusiastic, but I guess I won't know the money situation until I know it. I am thoroughly exhausted in any case. And if I am tired, can you just imagine the two wonderful leads who too the red eye from LA last night and tomorrow morning at 445am will be on the road to Kennedy? Highlights were having Larry Silverton, Doris's widower, there. Larry is a great guy and Doris was one of the Co-creators (Rita Lakin, the other, was there as well) and has gone to the big blintz stand in the sky. I am in hopes that Larry who is well off to say the least will help us get this production off the ground. But those are slim hopes. You don't get rich by putting money into shows. Even shows that your wife created and loved to death. Literally. But we shall see. He had tears in his eyes and seemed to really love it all. So did many others. It was certainly hard though to get the comic elements in a living room. The stand up schtick works best with lights and a bigger audience. But Barry Pearl did a valiant and brilliant job. I felt good singing the counterpoint duet with Lynne Halliday. Old home week for us. We worked together as director (me) and performer over 20 years ago and now we were singing a song together. What fun! Well, here's hoping this all adds up to some bucks and that we can really do the show this summer or early fall at the York. Thank you Barbara Minkus, Barry Pearl, Lynne Halliday, David Armstrong, Matthew Ward and everyone at the York. With that I say goodnight and goodluck....zzzzz

A Busy Monday Expected

Barbara Minkus and Barry Pearl arrive early in the AM. Barbara will go to rest at her daughter's apt. and Barry will catch some winks at my place. At noon we all gather at Matt Ward's studio and plow thru the presentation, putting the pieces together and blending the West Coast rehearsals with the East Coast...ain't we fancy? Then at 5pm we will convene at Bobby Cramer's apt. and run thru the presentation, timing it. Fingers crossed it's about 50 mins. 6:30 the guest arrive, drink and eat and at 7pm promptly we start our presentation which has to end at 7:55 so that Matt Ward can get in a car and be driven to Forbidden Broadway where he goes on at 8:15! Show biz!!!!!!!!!

Notes on a Saturday Night

This is the most writing I have done all week...the people at the York asked me to write a short (ha!) history of Grossinger's...this is the result.

Author's Note by Stephen Cole

When Claibe Richardson and I first started working together we didn't have a project, so we just wrote some songs to get to know each other. During this time, Claibe would play me some Jewish sounding musical numbers from a show he had been working on for some time with Ronny Graham, Rita Lakin and Doris Silverton. This show was then simply entitled Grossinger's. I would politely listen and we would go on to our work which eventually turned out to be the beginnings of our musical adaptation of The Night of the Hunter. One day, early in our process on that serious and very ambitious project, Claibe asked me to read the latest draft of the big fat Broadway bound musical (it was being written for Lainie Kazan and Karen Morrow!). It seems that Ronny Graham had come up against a brick wall. So I read it. Well, they had strayed far away from the story of Jennie and the Catskills and Ronny had written a bizarre Mel Brooks-ian treatment that defied description. He had also realized how far he strayed, threw his hands in the air dramatically and said he had had enough of Jennie, the Catskills and the show. Ronny was very dramatic! In this script, though, I saw the kernal of a story...what they had started with, the story of Jennie and her indomitable will and how, she, as woman ahead of her time, had built an empire in upstate New York. A haven for the Jews. Having spent many a childhood summer in those very Catskill mountains, I knew who she was. I knew the territory. I was Jewish! (Oddly enough neither Ronny nor Claibe were!) I knew I could write this show. If I could start all over. Claibe and I put Night of the Hunter aside (for a while we wrote both at the same time...The River Jesus playing comfortably in the background while we wrote songs about blintzes) and wrote a whole new first draft, with new plots, new songs, revised lyrics, everything. And the first place we brought it to was the York Theatre, who gave us the most wonderful reading directed by Larry Arrick starring Tovah Feldshuh as Jennie. This was still the big Broadway version of the show and it was a smash for one night only. The York was turning people away at the elevator. People (including columnist Peter Filicia who wrote about it) were standing on stage with the actors and seated in the aisles. The laughter and fun was permeating the air along with the imaginary smell of Jennie's famous rye bread. From the York we took the show to Ft. Worth, Texas. Of course! There we cast Ruta Lee and Gavin MacLeod and the "goyish" version of Grossinger's ran for over a month at the huge Casa Manana. Somehow, even in Texas, the Jews found us. And you know what? They weren't all Jews. They just loved the show. After that, there were options, and promises and suddenly it was very difficult to get such a huge show off the ground. So when a small theatre on Long Island (after doing the four character After the Fair, originally produced by the York, not so incidentally) asked to do Grossinger's I told Claibe that he wouldn't be getting that big orchestra he dreamed about, but maybe a small trio. He countered with, "why don't we make the whole show smaller?" I thought he was nuts. Jennie's huge epic saga small? Then I got the idea of the Grossinger family telling us the story as part of one of their famous Saturday Night shows. The big stars are late and Jennie in her infinite egotism and brilliance saves the day and tells the story of how she made it all happen. Along the way, her family teaches her a lesson or two about herself. Wow! A whole new book happened, more song changes and a reading out on Long Island with Claibe and me singing the score (including the last song he would write ironically entitled "Dead on Her Feet"...for sadly, Claibe did his final Grossinger rewrite and departed for heaven before the production could take place). The production on Long Island happened (starring my good friend FD) and it was attended by my good friend Jim Morgan of the York, who gave me some great artistic advice and filed the show under "the future" in his head. I took the advice, did another rewrite and the show was produced in its 6 character version at Theatre West in LA, where it proved a critical and popular hit, running for four months...In LA time that's years! It starred Barbara Minkus and Barry Pearl and they made the show so much their own that when a new production was mounted last Winter in Ft. Lauderdale, it was inevitable that they once again play their roles. And now, "the future" has finally arrive and Saturday Night at Grossinger's is coming home to roast at the York Theatre once again. What a full circle! Janet Hayes Walker, who was there at that fabled first reading would be so surprised and thrilled. Ronny, who died in 1999 would be in shock! Claibe, who sat on the board of the York for years, would be delighted. As for me, well, it's like Jennie and the entire Grossinger family sings in the opening and closing of the show..."Welcome Home!"

Winter Watch

From 70 to snow, sleet and ice. Welcome to March. Today was so ugly out that I hardly got out the door. Still fighting a remnant of Monday's stomach thing. Doing some small edits and cuts for Monday's Grossinger thing. Not enough money is coming but all we need is one big one. One fish. Maybe Piano Bar will benefit from Grossinger's on Monday. Hate to be cryptic, but it could happen. Stay tuned.

The Singing Jew

Woke up this morning to rehearse with the lovely Lynne Halliday and the lovelier Matt Ward for monday's backer's thingie of SNAG (Saturday Night at Grossinger's) and felt a little like a relapse was upon me. But then the phone rang and Matt postponed the rehearsal for an hour and that was okay with me. At noon we rehearsed and I sang my little heart out for two hours. The adrenaline must have kicked in as I did feel better after singing. The second part of the day was taken up with watching the footage from Piano Bar with my co-director and producer of that hilarious project. It was scary to see at first but then I really got into how funny it was and how amazing the audience reaction was. No sweetening needed here. They were screaming at everything. Why this show isn't running every night is beyond my comprehension. But Joe is working as hard as he can and I am sure we will get a good run out of it someday soon. Tomorrow the singing Jew continues as I rehearse The Road to Qatar! for a presentation next thursday. I guess all those singing lessons are coming in handy...not! The older I get the more I know how to just belt it out and let the chips fall where they may. The ghost of Merman possessed me and I'm off to the races. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Between Murders

The story goes that Libby Holman, the great torch singer, who stood trial and was acquitted of murdering her husband Smith Reynolds (she was pregnant with his child...shades of Chicago!), was backstage at some show when Tallulah Bankhead introduced her..."this is my friend Libby Holman...she's between murders now." That's how I feel sometimes. If you equate shows with murder. Last week I was just recovering from the Kander and Ebb ( the sad news is that there is no video, but there are many great still photos and I hope to post them one of these days) and now I am getting ready for Monday night's backer's audition of Saturday Night at Grossinger's as well as a private audition of the score of The Road to Qatar for a potential director. All next week, meaning I put on my singing and acting cap and let the writer stand aside. The week after that back to writing as I go visit Jeff Saver in Ohio and get back to revising Time after Time. In between all this I got the famous stomach virus that has been going around and yesterday was not pretty...it made me miss the Pittsburgh CLO reunion, but perhaps I didn't really want to go to that anyway. I am feeling better today and need to get back to work. No more between murders.

Blightline

Well...Marni gets booked on Nightline on Friday night and it's a great piece except for one small detail...not one fucking mention of the book! The book sits there in full view on Henry Higgin's couch right between Marni Nixon and Cynthia McFadden and no one mentions it exists. National exposure down the drain. And to add a cherry on the sundae, McFadden gets the facts wrong..."so Marni, you sang all of Audrey Hepburn's songs and she got an Oscar nomination...do you think that was right?" Marni, flustered, said she thought that was fine. But Audrey was denied a nomination literally because of all the brouhaha over the exposure of Marni's voice coming from her lips...Julie Andrews being denied the role didn't help matters either. All Cynthia had to do what look at the book on the divan! Or even mention it. Arrrrrrrrrgh! Serenity now...serenity now...

Time after Grossinger's

Last night after American Idol (my good friend FD wants me to do a parody show called American Ethel, in which all the contestants have to imitate Merman singing all these contemporary pop songs...he swears it can be fixed and I can win, but I am leery), I finally got to editing and writing the script for the upcoming backer's audition of Saturday Night at Grossinger's. It was a very good thing to do, not just because I really HAVE to do it, but because having to write concise narration for scenes that we are not playing made me make sense of the end of the show in a way that didn't make enough sense in the real playing script. This has led me to think about how I might rewrite it and say what I really want to say. The ending is tough. It's fake in a way to have Jennie come to the realization that her family should come first. The real Jennie Grossinger was a business woman and a star first. The family came last. But I want to say more than what it says. I want her father to make her realize that she somehow needs to incorporate her family, her marriage and her children in her career. To be more fulfilled. It's hard. But I feel like saying what I want to say in narration might bring me closer to what I want to say in the show itself and that I might be on to something more interesting. Today I printed the script for Time after Time and did a little rewrite on the very opening of the show. Sending it off to a director who expressed great interest and loves the songs on the CD. And the good news is that Jeff wants me to come out to Ohio for a few days and work on the show. That's great for him that he feels he can work at all after what he has been through. But work is the great cure-all and he needs to write music. The book is in suprisingly good shape and reads very well. I don't really know what I want to do to it, but I know I want every song to be as good as the very best ones are. There are a few that are not there yet. And I want John to have better material (John being Jack the Ripper) HG and Amy have the best stuff now. Picked up the pics from Monday night's big Kander and Ebb Evening and they are fabulous. I will try to post the group shot on here for anyone who is reading this to see.

My Fair Marni

Went to the 10am dress rehearsal of My Fair Lady at Avery Fisher. It was surprisingly well done...well directed by Jim Brennan, well cast...two very strong leads...took Harry Arends who really appreciated it. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Marni Nixon afterwards. She had to do publicity. I wanted her to autograph the two books Harry bought (I already autographed them, but she would make them worth more!) I am so glad I met Harry. It's rare that I connect with a colleague this well...He is smart and nice and I hope we can work together more in the future. The film stuff we have done together is so rewarding. Unlike live theatre, it's there to see again. Otherwise I relaxed today. Tomorrow I have to get back to the gym and write the script for the Grossinger backer's audition on the 19th.

Tuesday Afternoon at Grossinger's

So, after waking up feeling like I had been hit by a truck...a truck named Kander and Ebb...we all gathered (we being Barbara Minkus, Lynne Halliday...formerly Lynne Kolber...David Armstrong and Matthew Ward) to go thru the songs we are going to perform on Mar. 16th as a backer's audition for Saturday Night at Grossinger's. Minkus of course knows her stuff, but Lynne has never heard it and as for me, I may have written this and sung it forever, but I have never really sung backup or played Paul who has a new song I adore, but hey this is hard shit! I might have to actually learn the song which is a counterpoint song. I can't just get by on my good looks and loud Merman notes. That's for the star to do. Minkus goes back to LA to rehearse with Barry Pearl and Lynne and I will rehearse again next Weds with Matt...then they return to NYC the day of the evening and we rehearse a little and do it...hoping to raise 250 thousand dollars in 45 mins. Stranger things have happened. Stay tuned.

A Triumph!

What a day! I know that putting together all star tribute benefits is gruelling and that it all comes together (or not) on the day of the performance when the sound, lights, and performers all come in and do their thing during the day of the show and then show up and do the show without ever having run it through. It's vaudeville at its scariest. Today was the first time I was totally in charge as producer, director and writer of the event and for the most part it went well. There were sound issues in the hall but we solved them eventually by calling in pros (thank you Barbara Minkus) and the evening's event went extremely well. The video montage was spectacular and the talent was beyond reproach with Marin Mazzie killing with Ring them Bells, Karen Ziemba moving me with Love and Only Love, Deb Monk doing her thing with Everybody's Girl. Barbara Cook was the highlight just mesmerizing with Among My Yesterdays from the Happy Time. Liza was valiant and courageous and did her three number, but a cold held the high notes in check. Still she is a trouper and a half and she was THERE! A big big star. Kander was moved and loved it all I think. It was a triumph. The birthday cake at the end...everything. I was proud of me and now may I please collapse? No. Tomorrow I have to rehearse Saturday Night at Grossingers. Well, back to reality and my own shows.

The Day Before Kander and Ebb

Well, tomorrow is the big Kander and Ebb Tribute and I am nervous. Everything is going fine, but the strange lack of control I feel and the enormous burden of being all alone on this is leading me right to valium closet. There will be sound and light checks in the afternoon...some people are not coming in, but Liza IS. What a pro! I finished the script for Sheldon Harnick early last evening after having seen the matinee of Curtains! I am so glad I got to see the show so that I could hear the song that David Hyde Pierce is going to sing tomorrow night before tomorrow night. It's a charm song and I placed it slightly differently after hearing the gentleness of it. It's very sweet but not a drop dead show stopper. So I switched it in the program with Everybody's Girl sung by the great Deb Monk. That we know is a show stopper. So how did I like Curtains? I liked it, but am still formulating my feelings. As someone close to the show said, it's not art...although there is an art to not being art as well. There are some good songs and all the performances are top notch. I can't wait to see how the critics deal with it. The audience certainly had a good time. I did too, but I think the first fifteen minutes needs trimming and I wish there were a killer opening number. The show really starts when the detective shows up. He is the star. David Hyde Pierce. I also wish it were a more emotional show in some way. I really miss the big emotional grandeur of John Kander's Rink, Spider Woman and Visit scores. But this is an out and out musical comedy and the choices were made. It's interesting comparing it to my own Road to Qatar! I don't have much emotion in that either. It's an out and out musical comedy. Would I like my own show if I paid to see it? Good question. But content dictates form and both shows content dictated musical comedy approaches and not a lot of emotion. How did The Drowsy Chaperone do it? I was in tears at the end. They pulled off the big trick. Funny funny funny and then wham...tears. I think that's why it's a great success. Well, the next time I write here will be a report of tomorrow at the Morgan. Fingers crossed, legs broken, mirrors covered...no, not that...I'm not sitting shiva! Wish me luck anyone who is reading this!

PS on Kander and Ebb

I have dedicated Monday's evening to Daniel McDonald and Memby...

A Kander and Ebb and Qatar Week

Well, most of this week has been spent producing the Kander and Ebb Tribute coming up on Monday evening. Everything is moving along, getting sound checks together with the stars, figuring out the order of the evening, even writing the intros that Sheldon Harnick will read. Then it all comes together on Monday. Scary! I still have my big stars...Liza is still singing three songs, Barbara Cook is still on board...all the Curtains guys! It's exciting and scary. Doing this on my own is odd...producing (not really directing, but conceiving) and writing. But I can do it and it will be a great success...Also heard the rest of the changes for Road to Qatar and now it's time for David and me to rehearse the score so we can present it well. This new draft seems good to me, but we will not know till we do another reading. Comedy is hard. Next week, after Kander and Ebb is done, on to Grossinger's and rehearsing the backer's audition.

A Weekend Among Friends

Just back from Memby's viewing and funeral service in Ohio. I was lucky to get out of Pittsburgh this morning with the freezing rain conditions. Jet Blue cancelled the flight and with the help of my private, personal and very handsome travel agent, I booked on American and got in. I was overwhelmed by the numbers of people (hundreds) who lined up to view Memby's close casket and console Jeff and her incredibly large and warm family. I think all of Youngstown was there. She was so loved. The funeral the next day was SRO as well and beautifully handled with music and prayer and speech and celebration for her life. The most amazing part of this trip was meeting so many of Jeff Saver's friends from childhood and high school. They took me into their group and made me feel a part of them. They all knew our work and of course Jeff has spoken of me, but to meet them was akin to meeting his family back in 1995 when they all came to see Dodsworth at Casa Manana in Ft. Worth Texas. His whole immediate family was there (including his late parents) and they took me into their tribe and we sang them freshly minted songs from the score and cried together from the beauty of it. It's an occasion I never will forget. My family was not there. But it wasn't just that I was jealous of his closeness but that for the first time I saw that such families exist. And this weekend I saw how longlasting friendships can nurture and heal as well...Jeff is very special and has surrounded himself with special people. I am proud to part of the circle. It's going to be very hard for him now to come back to his life, but I am in hopes that Time after Time will come back to life and we will get to work again. Meanwhile I want to have Jeff a tune for the lyric I wrote about Kander and Ebb and present it to John Kander for his 80th birthday. This would be therapeutic for Jeff I think. I hope so anyway. May I just say this goodbye to Memby who was a wonderful wife to Jeff and a great mother to Mariela and Rosalia. They are her legacy.

A Lyrical Thought

I have been thinking about the new lyric I tossed off (David said I wrote it faster than the title song for Aspire, which I know took me ten minutes or as long as it took to type it) the other day and which David says is an Arabic soft shoe...In the shower I was thinking about the larger implications of the lyric...the song basically says...One More Payment, One More Check, Give 'Em What they Want, or make 'em think that you do. It's about placating them and that its ok if they say we stink as long as we get what WE want, which is the money. Does this have political implications as well? Is this just what countries do? Make nice with certain Arab nations to get what they want...ie. the oil (incidentally the title of the Opening number of the show). Is this whole insane story of two short Jews writing a musical in the Middle East and enduring zany Arabs who have power over them a parable for what the US is going thru? Or is it just the true story? I always thought that this show was bigger than what it seems and suddenly this hit me. This song is very interesting and important...as David says. But what am I really saying?

Write or Wrong?

Why does a theatre writer have to be a producer as well? Spend the afternoon meeting with the not for profit theatre that Saturday Night at Grossinger's planning our backer's audition for March 19th. How I would love to just say "see you there!" But it's a) not in my makeup and b) not possible in this day and age to just be a writer and hope that others will take your show on to success...was it ever? Either way, I am heavily involved in the planning and execution of said backer's audition including trying to get the right money people in the room. In the end, would I have it any other way? No. But I am stressed with the Kander and Ebb coming up (Liza is going to sing three songs...I am thrilled!) and having to hop a plane in the morning for Pittsburgh to get to Youngstown for Memby's funeral. I want to go of course and don't at the same time. Doesn't everyone feel that way about funerals? Meanwhile work goes on for Road to Qatar and David is very excited about the new music he has written and that makes me happy. I will hear it after Ohio and when I am back in nyc. Can't wait to report.

Charlotte Rae Day

Went to Barnes and Noble to see Charlotte Rae and she drew a huge crowd. She did a whole nightclub act and was really marvelous. 80 years old and can still do it. Her comedy is right on and she still has a lot of voice left. She is shorter than my mother and that's saying a lot. My mother is so short she can walk under a coffee table in high heels and a picture hat. Charlotte is shorter. But she did take my mind off my up and down sadness today. I would love to be Charlotte's ghost and help her write her autobiography...I will try to push that.

Sad day

Sad to report that Memby Saver has passed away. I have been guarded about talking about it, but it's been well over a year since Memby was diagnosed with colon cancer and it's been a long and valiant battle. She was in much pain and this morning she was finally taken out of it. I have known and collaborated with Jeff Saver since the early 90s and have known Memby since he met her and she has been a great booster of our work and a wonderful wife and mother. She had many great talents of her own. I will never forget going to see her perform as a Salsa singer at a club in New York. This modest thin girl turned into the sexpot of all time on the stage as she undulated and entertained in a way that I have never seen. It was a total theatrical transformation and was astounding. I will miss her. I will miss complaining about Jeff to her and knowing that she not only understood him, but was rooting for us to be wildly successful with our shows. We will be and she will know it.

Voice from the Past

Yesterday I heard a voice from the past on my answering machine. The greeting began "Hello, Genius of the Universe!" I knew that hyperbole could only belong to David Bell, my collaborator and delightful partner in crime on Casper the Musical. I had called David's cell phone last week as a favor to Jeff who found out that David was now teaching (heading the dept?) at Northwestern U and Jeff wanted an intro. I was so happy to call David who, as it turns out was in Paris doing a show, which is why it took him a week to get back to me. His message was long, effusive, complimentary and dear...everything that David Bell is. He mentioned my shows (both with Jeff) Dodsworth and Time after Time, especially the later. I assume he got the CD we made of the live concert that featured those two shows sung by Judy Blazer, Liz Callaway, Christian Borle and Walter Charles. David seemed very interested in helping us get Time after Time on and that would be just dandy for so many reasons, not least of all the fact that the long term option was uncerimoniously dropped recently and that to have the prospect of a production would be so good for the show and even better for Jeff. I hope it can happen. I hope to talk to my voice from the past and get working with him again. He also mentioned me coming to Northwestern to do some master classes...wouldn't that be a kick! I have a lot to teach and would love to do that.

Give 'Em What They Want

Working through all the new and revised Road to Qatar material inspired me to come home and write another new lyric where a reprise was not quite cutting it. I thought it was good but when your composer questions you and you don't have the right answers, you start to realize perhaps you could come up with something better. So instead of the reprise that underscored the scene, this new lyrics "Give Em What They Want" doesn't just comment on the scene but helps to propel it as one character tells the other to make the Arabs happy even though they are giving tons of notes. Cause it's all about getting that final payment. I think it's going to be a great new addition to the score. Hurry up David and write the music.

Afternoon Delight

Had a lovely lunch with the delightful Susan Jacks. Susan has played Gypsy in all of our Piano Bar incarnations and has always more than killed with her brilliant 15 minutes (she's brilliant and so am I)She makes the audience laugh and feel great and I adore working with her. Hope we get to do it again real soon. Afterwards I went to hear most of the musical changes for Road to Qatar! David did a wonderful and incredibly speedy job, rewriting, recomposing, writing new stuff, stitching, hemming, everything that was prescribed and needed. He got up to the new audition sequence and we figured out a better way for it to happen and so he is redoing some of what he already redid. This is a very important moment and needs to be a kind of mini showstopper I think. It's all based on the song Behind Every Story, which was the opening number of Aspire. There will be five counter melodies and they will all come together in a musical tour de force if we are lucky. Behind Every Story was the first song that we wrote when the commission for Aspire came through. It was a lyric I had worked on way before Aspire and then redid as soon as I realized it would work as an opening number for that show. I can recall hearing the tune for the first time and realizing that I was a very lucky boy to have been arbitrarily paired up with Mr. Krane. He was able to capture everything in that first song. The Qatarian folk themes, the grandeur of the song, the telling of the story. Now we are taking the basic song and building on it. Can't wait to see how it works out. Other news of the day is that Liza is almost definate for the Kander and Ebb. This is amazing...I dare not even hope too hard. She is the finale I needed and of course she should be there but getting a major A list star is a coup for me and for the Morgan Library. The line up is now Karen Ziemba, Deb Monk, David Hyde Pierce, Cady Huffman, Jason Danieley, Marin Mazzie, Barbara Cook, Liza with Sheldon Harnick as host! Wow!

Post Script for a Saturday Night

Jeff called and it's only a matter of days not weeks, he said. Unfair is the word...

Another Saturday Night of Winter

Finally let Act II of Road to Qatar go and sent it off to David Krane. I am very pleased with it on paper and have even changed all the names from Stephen and David to Michael and Jeffrey...why? A good friend asked me why change the names...well...I just had a feeling that I would be freer to do what needed to be done with the story if I wasn't tied to the real names. Then if it's not totally true, it's the story of Michael and Jeffrey, not Stephen and David. Actually it has become truer, if more dramatized. I also wanted to have as little to do with Title of Show, which not only used the author's names, but had the authors play themselves. Their story if not our story, but another show about musical theatre writers has got to not be like theirs...and then there's Guttenberg...wonder how that is doing or even how it IS. To me it sounds exactly like the very funny but strangely unsuccessful show of a few years ago called The Big Bang (authors played themselves in that too...I am happily retired from playing me in a fictional piece...I have enough trouble playing me in real life. Anyway, I will miss rewriting Qatar, but I have a funny feeling I will be doing so again...and soon. No news from Jeff and I am worried of course. I was oddly affected and saddened by the passing of Daniel MacDonald and I think I was thinking more about Jeff and Memby. I am so very worried.

Friday Night Wrap-up

Well, I really had hoped to write in this blog every day (although who the hell is reading it, I don't know...anyone out there?), but it seems that every few days is more likely. The backer's audition for Saturday Night at Grossinger's is all falling together. It will be on Mar. 19th and both Barbara Minkus and Barry Pearl, the stars of the LA and Florida casts will be flying themselves in to perform in an elegant living room that has been donated by a very generous friend (she is also donating the coffee, cakes and booze, wow!) Matthew Ward, my collaborator on After the Fair, Casper, Merlin's Apprentice and the recent Drama League Gala will play for us and we hope to actually get some checkbooks open. This show could be so good for the York and for all of us, if marketed correctly. Bring in the Jews please. My Jews. My people who know the Catskills and are still alive enough to buy tickets. It will happen. Still working on the act II rewrite of Road to Qatar! David has done all his revisionary work on Act I and waiting for the rest. It's getting there. Polish, polish, polish...Had a meeting this AM with Ned Ginzberg about Kiss Me Guido and the rights etc. It will take some more time to get that sorted out and I hope that I really want to do it. The lack of phyical proximity between the songwriters (us) and the book writer (in LA) makes me very nervous, and his inexperience in crafting a musical theatre libretto, which I am so good at. Well, my biggest fear is that I will wind up writing half the book (or structuring it) and getting no credit or money for it. I have to sort that out in my mind. The Kander and Ebb is coming together, but so far no Liza...hmm...thinking of either having Sheldon sing Meeskite (if he will) or getting Ruthie Henshall and the boys to do All that Jazz. If I do that I have to change the video and I don't know if he has edited yet. I will write to Harry and find out and then make a decision (if she is even available and we can get the boys...maybe too much trouble) so the juggling of projects continues.

Tuesday Night with Stephen Cole

Been busy with the continuation of Road to Qatar rewrites. Act I emailed to David Krane and today he read it and LOOOOVED it. Horray. He laughed out loud. I am excited. Act II is done but I am not happy enough to email more than half of it yet. The transition to Qatar (the last 1/4 of the Act) is not right yet and by moving the title song to Act I, I am denied the 11 o'clock number and even though I am reprising it with a new counter melody, I am not as excited about it. How to solve? Hmmm...not sure yet. Kander and Ebb continues as well. Things are falling into place musically and the only person I haven't heard from is Liza. I am concerned about certain budget items as we might have to shell out more for one of the accompanists than one would like, but the person being accompanied is worth it. Hope that works out. Had a meeting with the York people about Saturday Night at Grossinger's and it went well enough. We still have to raise a lot of money and are planning a backer's audition in March. After talking to David Armstrong today, it was agreed that it would be best to have not only Barbara Minkus do Jennie but to also have Barry Pearl come to NYC and do Sheldon's numbers and schtick for us. This will help raise more money than me doing the songs...brilliant as I am. I am not him. He is him. And David was so sweet in saying I was just too young and cute. I think he is a great director already. Barry and Barbara are both willing to come on their one buck. They know this is a great opportunity and that they will get to do the show in NYC and these are great roles for them as has been proven in LA and Florida. Now we just have to pin down dates and places...What a schmear! Onward and up as I say. We shall see what we shall see as Lucia says.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Continued working on the rewrite of Qatar. Well into Act II now and I think I have fixed the audition sequence and made it slide into Bratislava, which I had skipped in the first draft. The work is fun and I am having a good time as long as I am writing away. The Kander and Ebb saga continues. Jeff will not be coming in to play or rehearse the show after all...something I have known would happen. So I need to make sure everything is covered musically. Charlotte Rae called again today and she is still unsure about doing the evening, even though she really wants to. It's all about staying an extra week in cold, freezing NYC. Who can blame her? If she does it, it would be great. If not, we will still have enough of a show for 45mins...I am sure we will have too much in fact. Took Granny to dinner tonight for his 70th. The food was great and we laughed a lot. Came back and watched Carol Channing's 1956 Person to Person. Granny fell asleep...like old times. Channing was interesting then. Almost human (not that I don't like her as a caricature...I do.) and watching her with her then football player husband and 2 year old child is odd...no wig, not much affectation. Just a person. I like her better as a character. More work tomorrow on Qatar and talk to David Krane...oh yes, it's time to change the lead characters' names from David and Stephen to Neil and Michael...They are not us anymore but people in a show. Frees us up I think...it's all still true, but hyper-true. And we have changed our names to protect...well us.

The Best of Days, the Worst of Days

Did some very good work on Qatar today...not as much as the last couple of days, but sketched lyrics for each character that would counterpoint with Behind Every Story in the audition sequence...each character would sing their inner thoughts as the lyricist is singing the opening number of the show within a show to them. The Egyptian producer would sing about not understanding one word but that doesnt matter as long as he OWNS ever word. The Qatarian Movie star would sing about this year it's a musical and next year a movie starring me, without the songs of course, making him the Middle Eastern Tom Cruise. Nazirah, who has a crush on the American lyricist would fantasize about being married to him and moving to New York, finally leaving the Middle East behind. The composer at the piano would be singing about how they all seem rapt and loving his music (that is until he hears a stray snore coming from the producer). I think even the lyricist singing will have his inner thoughts revealed...he will realize that no one is listening to anything he is singing and that it's horrible to be performing in the window of a piano store just two blocks from the 2005 London Tube bombing. This could work. Saw Follies at Encores tonight. I knew I was letting myself in for a disappointment. I am now one of those people who say "but I saw the original!" Well, I did. And everytime (including the very exciting Philharmonic concert in the 80s) I see another Follies I cannot get the original out of my head and it will never be as good and that's that. Returned home to phone message and then two phone calls from my collaborator Jeff and his wife is not well at all. It is getting more obvious that he will not be coming to NYC to work on the Kander and Ebb (on a happier note, spoke to Charlotte Rae today and she MIGHT stay in NYC and do the show and sing YES from 70 Girls). Tomorrow we shall find out who will be playing the piano and musical directing the evening. It all makes me very nervous and there is too much on my shoulders here, but it's the way it is. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

Yesterday, after going to bed late (Rainbow Room see below) I woke up early (for me)...thank you Jet Lag! But I need all the waking time I can get. I gave one of my lectures for the Elderhostle groups I adore. I have given many of these now over the years. They are about, well, me! It's about my career as a writer in the musical theatre, but recently I have taken to including my writing of books as well. I usually cue up several videos and talk about how I have written musicals since I was 15 and show clips of my work. Lately though I have been telling the amazing but true story of how David Krane and I wrote Aspire as the first commissioned American musical to be presented in the Middle East. This story always goes over brilliantly and now that we have actually written (still writing) a musical called The Road to Qatar! The story has a great punch line and is a big hit. The upside of doing these lectures is always that the people are so marvelous. These elders are far from hostile. They come from all over the country to enjoy theatre and learn something about the inner workings. And they appreciate every word I give them. The laughs are great. I love performing and I come away with more than they do. Yesterday was no exception. I came away with a very clear understanding of what is great about the story and I was inspired to really get down to finishing my rewrite of the first 20 or so pages of the show. So now I have new and reshaped material to send to David and he can get to work on recomposing (as opposed to DEcomposing, which one of my other collaborators is doing, but that's another story, never mind). I am excited again about the show and the truth of the matter is, the real fun lies in the writing. The rest is just the rest. Today I had a meeting at the Morgan Library about the Kander and Ebb evening and made some strides in the producing end. Got a sound and light guy and asked my friend Elliot to stage manage it for me. Still need some more talent, but it will come. Who knew I would have to produce this? Well, produce, direct and write...that's now my label. Onward and up! Taking a first class ride as we hit the road to Qatar!

After the Rainbow Room

It's early Tuesday morning and the Drama League Show went very well. If it had been a first preview, we would know what to cut and prune and tomorrow it would be a much better show, but all in all, it went better than I expected. The videos went without a hitch and the material I wrote was clever and fast, even if there was a little too much of it. Dreamgirls started the night off with a bang and then my special material for Joanna Gleason and Jim Dale went very well. The Way You Look Tonight was lovely and the dance was stylish and Astaire-ish. The next two numbers were just okay and it took a while to recover. Heather MacRae following the wonderful post war musical film video montage brought the show up again...although in a ballady soft way. What we needed was a big dance there but we had several slow numbers in a row. The Tarzan number with film went over well and the flop medley did pretty good too, Brinberg is good, wish we could have made him funnier tho...if I had been here I might have helped with that. The other Flop medley people were great troupers...loved them. Rita Moreno was surprisingly good singing I Never Has Seen Snow. Much better voice than I suspected. I boldly approached her about writing a book with her. She was sweet but non-committally offputting. I will pursue it tho. All that Jazz went over very well and Ruthie Henshall certainly gives her all. I should ask her to be in the Kander and Ebb...the video was good at the end too. Spring Awakening was nice but not the Finale I wished it was. The evening was too long and boy did I have to pee! Still, in all better than the last one I wrote and saw (didn't see last year's) and Jim Dale and Joanna really gave their all. Dear people. Of course I came home and got blue immediately...from the high to the low...that's part of a theatre writer's life. And so the sun sets over the Rainbow Room and tomorrow I do my elderhostle lecture and they will surely revitalize me. On to Kander and Ebb...on to Qatar...on to on to on to...and to sleep...zzzz

Over the Rainbow Room

It's been a few days since I have been able to write here. Last time I blogged I was on my way to London. The whole trip was heaven. From the business class seats on BA to the suite at the Berkeley (not Barclay) Hotel to the two brilliant shows (Billy Elliot...better the second time and Frost/Nixon) we saw and the two magnificent meals (one at the Boxwood Cafe and the other at the famous Ivy in the West End where Noel and Gertie dined after Private Lives). We also walked our feet off, taking no subways (the weather was great) and walking all the way up to the top of the dome at St. Paul's. Saw Granny for dinner at his place (He is coming over here today for a month and his 70th birthday) and all in all had too short but a wonderful trip. Today I returned to the freezing cold New York weather and climbed (in an elevator, thank you very much) all the way up to the 65th Floor at Rockefeller Center to the fabulous Rainbow Room to attend the rehearsal for tonight's Drama League Gala. There was some interesting and aggravating drama, but everything was resolved and now I am dressed to kill and ready to see what the hell we wrought. I think it's going to be a lovely evening and I going to be spending it with a dear friend who just became a grandmother but doesn't look it in the least. Dinner, show and glamour. And whatever I wrote will be said and sung and all will be well. I will report on the truth of that statement in my next post. Now, it's over the rainbow room for me.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's 5:26 and the car will be here in a few minutes to whisk us to the airport and off we go for a whirlwind holiday in London. I have submitted the Drama League script and left them with instructions. I hate leaving at this time, just when the rehearsals are happening, but I will be back in time for the big one day craziness that leads to Monday night's performance. Then it's over. At least for this year. The sound designer was very complimentary and enthusiastic about the script (did anyone else read it?) and thought this would be the best show in years. Well, I put a lot into it and it is the most coherent script-wise in a long time. It is a kind of story, which is odd for a vaudevillian benefit with all these performers who never meet until that night. The hosts will glue it all together and the fantastic video montages that sprinkle the evening to me will either be the highlights or if the technical Gods are angry, the nadir. But I shall remain optimistic. I got the most lovely emails from a fellow writer whom I never met about I Could Have Sung All Night. His praise was just the lift I needed before leaving the country. Well, off we go...speak to you from London.

First Drafts

I just emailed the first draft of the script for When Broadway Met Hollywood. It's really pretty good, not the script, but the fact that I am submitting a script a whole week before the show. Many times before I have waited till the last minute as stars came and went. But since there are so few A list stars this year, I suspect no one will drop out...now watch! Getting geared up for my London trip and I hope I don't have to do too much transcontinental rewriting. Tomorrow morning I am having breakfast with a director I like to talk about my show Saturday Night at Grossinger's which is pencilled in to be produced this summer at the York Theatre Company here in NYC. The show has been produced several times now in this small six character state and the best production by far was in LA. I hope we can somehow recreate that magic.

Sunday Night at the Drama League

Well, I finally got down to writing some of the intros for the Drama League Benefit. It has been harder than I thought because I am so unsure about two of the numbers. This is the most theme driven and chronological of the shows I have done for the Drama League...I really have to order the show to go from 1927 (after our opening which is in the present) and the invention of sound to the film version of Chicago...and to now...80 years of stuff...but two of the number early on are vague to me...I Got Rhythm is a great song but it wasn't what I wanted in the slot and I have no idea of how to cleverly introduce it as it doesn't further my love affair between Broadway and Hollywood...I guess it does...it was born on Broadway and remained in the three film versions of the show. A standard, a staple, something to anchor all the movie versions. So that's what I shall say...maybe. And the other is Manhattan, but really a bit by an impressionist that takes us out of our time period. Oh well, I will try to make it work. It's only a show! By that I mean it's not a book show and it's only one night, but oh how I would love it to be great. It's enough that there aren't too many big stars, so I would really like it to hold together as an evening. Well, we shall see what we shall see. At least I wrote some today. My favorite intro, which I am sure will get cut down is as follows:
(This is to introduce a Julie Andrews medley but also to point up the comic aspects of how Hollywood treats Broadway royalty. It might be split up between our two hosts or not...not sure yet) Neither Alfred Drake nor John Raitt got to recreate their roles in Oklahoma and Carousel. Both roles were played by Gordon MacRae. John Raitt DID get to play his role in The Pajama Game, but opposite him was Doris Day instead of Janis Paige. Janis Paige was busy playing Gretchen Wyler’s stage role in the film version of Silk Stockings, in which dancer Cyd Charisse played the part that was acted by non-dancer Hildegarde Neff on the stage. Opposite Cyd Charrise in the film version of Brigadoon was not singer David Brooks but dancer Gene Kelly, while Gene Kelly’s dancing stage role of Pal Joey was now taken on the screen by a singing Frank Sinatra.,

Amazingly, Ethel Merman DID get to play Reno Sweeney and Sally Adams in the stage and screen versions of Anything Goes and Call Me Madam respectively, but to offset those she was allowed to recreate neither her Annie Oakley or Rose in Gypsy. Those roles went to Betty Hutton and Rosalind Russell respectively. Rosalind Russell’s singing was dubbed by Broadway’s Lisa Kirk whose role in Kiss Me Kate was played by Ann Miller. Chita Rivera’s Spanish Rose in Bye Bye Birdie was played on the screen by a very blonde Janet Leigh in a dark wig, while Chita played the screen role that Helen Gallagher played on Broadway in Sweet Charity, in which Shirley MacLaine replaced Gwen Verdon.

Mary Martin’s Nellie Forbush was supplanted for the film version by Mitzi Gayor, who sang Merman’s songs in remake of Anything Goes. And although Juanita Hall did get to play her stage role of Bloody Mary, her singing was dubbed by the actress who played the role in London.

And now we get to the Julie Andrews factor.

Mary Martin’s Maria Von Trapp was taken by Julie Andrews, while Julie Andrews lost Eliza Doolittle to Audrey Hepburn with a little help from Marni Nixon’s voice. In fact, although Julie Andrews was able to lick her wounds while polishing her Oscar for Mary Poppins, she did not get to play any of her Broadway roles on film. The screen Guenevere was Vanessa Redgrave while her Boyfriend role was sung and danced by none other than Twiggy. Later on, Julie somehow got to reverse her fortune and recreate her screen role of Victor AND Victoria when that film became a Broadway show. Phew!

To remind us of the wonderful songs that Julie Andrews either introduced on stage or popularized on the screen is the irreplaceable Melissa Errico.

Late Night Extra

Got to chat on line (IM) with my collaborator Jeffrey Saver. We wrote Dodsworth, Time after Time and lots of special material songs together and are now putting together this Kander and Ebb. Jeff is off tending to his wife who is ill and we don't get to speak enough, so this is a treat and stimulating for both of us. Jeff and I met in the early 90s I think and began to work together right away. It was he who got me involved with the Drama League and with Albert Stevenson and thus with John Kander. By the way speaking of Ebb, he was one of three judges who gave me the coveted Ed Kleban Award several years ago for my work on the libretto of The Night of the Hunter. I never really got to thank him. The prize was a hundred grand! Thanks Fred! Now if I could only win the Fred Ebb Award! Jeff is going through a lot of hell now but he will get through it. He is a wonderful person and deserves better, but because he is a wonderful person he has a great support system. I only hope that we can get back to work soon on Time after Time which has so much potential. Also, if we were working on that again it would mean that his dear wife was better and he could concentrate on something other than her health and the well being of his two daughters. That would be wonderful. Meanwhile we are working together on this tribute to his dear friend John and that will be wonderful as well.

Saturday...the Day Off

Today I went on a journey to Foxwoods Casino with a group of friends. It was a fun excursion except for not winning any money and the fact that it was a smoke-filled day. Everyone smokes in these places! My throat is sore, my clothes stink and I hate it. Other than losing money and stinking, I loved the day...Also, I only THOUGHT about my writing. But while I was out Karen Ziemba confirmed that she will appear in the Kander and Ebb Tribute and David Garrison is also pencilled in. Add them to Deb Monk, David Hyde Pierce, a pretty certain Barbara Cook and an almost Liza and you almost have a show. More to come on that. Still working hard in my head on the new opening for The Road to Qatar. Tomorrow, I will write everything that I can for the Drama League show and get it off of my plate as much as possible. The day off is over.

Friday Night at the Movies

I received emails with quicktime versions of the edited film clips that will accompany the special material song that I wrote with my collaborator Matthew Ward for the Drama League Benefit on Feb. 5th. The song is being sung by Jim Dale and Joanna Gleason and it's about the 80 year disfunctional love affair between Broadway and Hollywood. The film clips are brilliantly edited by Harry Arends. This is the first time I have worked closely with Harry although we shared the bill on a few other Drama League Benefits beginning with our tribute to Liza Minnelli . In fact Harry and I shared a Liz Smith column in which she praised us both, saying that Harry should "get his own brand of Oscar" and that "the brilliant lyrics written to the tune of 'Deep in the Heart of Texas' were penned by the gifted Stephen Cole." Oh yes, that's me! Stephen Cole. Not the Stephen Cole who writes Dr. Who, but the Stephen Cole who wrote After the Fair, Casper, The Night of the Hunter, Dodsworth, That Book about That Girl, Aspire, The Road to Qatar and others...THAT Stephen Cole. Anyway, I am thrilled about the way we are going to combine live action and film in this show. That is what keeps me working on this. I know the audience is going to love it.

Kander and Ebb Tribute and FD

I got a call back today from Liza's assistant giving me a 50/50 chance that Liza will be available to appear at the March 5th Kander and Ebb Tribute I am writing and directing. This is exciting news. I need to really get on that on Monday, pin down other performers and know that we have a show. But if Liza is there we are solid. The audience will be so happy. The Drama League benefit continues to plague me, but I am in hopes the performers will be solidified and I will have a version of the script by the end of Tuesday. I have to. I leave for London on Wed. morning. I had breakfast with FD today and procrastinated as usual. We watched some of Kate Hepburn on the Cavett show and Bette's Person to Person. FD is a good person to procrastinate with. We have known each other for several decades and we will leave it at that. Numbers won't appear in this blog.

Last Night's Salon with my Book Agent

Last night my book agent had eleven of her favorite clients over for a "salon." I had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be inspirational and one of the reasons for me starting this blog. She was telling us all to think big for 2007. To go for the big money advances, the big co-authors, to use the internet better...I need to update my website and now...I am writing a blog. My latest book I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT written with and about Marni Nixon (how many of you know that name? There will be a quiz!) is in it's third printing since being published in early September. I guess that's pretty good. The paperback is due out in the summer and that should do well too. I am not on the hunt for a new subject. I had toyed (and haven't totally given up on) writing a dual biography of two of my favorite stars (both of whom I knew) whose career and lives crossed on several occasions. But I am trying to think bigger now and want to collaborate (meaning, as Marni so aptly put it, I am the writer and they are the author!) with a very big celebrity who brings to the table their story, their fame, their publicity. After all, I have to do all the grunt work, like actually putting words on paper or computer as the case may be. So if there are any stars out there who want to write their memoirs, remember you can't do it alone. Come to me. I will drag the story from your guts, leaving you like a wet dishrag sometimes, but in the end you can say you wrote a book. Seriously, I am looking for a great subject so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

First Post

Well, this is my first post. I am not sure who will read this but I will try to write it as often as I can. I am in the midst of writing material for my 18th Drama League Benefit. This year's theme is When Broadway Met Hollywood and along with my collaborator Matthew Ward, I have written a piece of special material entitled Dysfunctional Duet for Broadway stars Joanna Gleason and Jim Dale to perform. I have also helped to devise a medley of Great Songs from Hit Broadway Shows that were turned into Bomb Movies. This will be done by four great singers with a special guest appearance from Barbra Streisand (she bombed in Hello, Dolly and On a Clear Day) in the guise of Steven Brinberg. The show is coming together and will include some interesting film montages which I am helping to create with a brilliant videographer on the West Coast. These benefits are very difficult and this year has been particulary hard in that stars haven't signed on as we would have wished. Not "A" stars anyway. Still it should be a very good show. I still have all my writing to do as far as the in between stuff and the intros to all the acts. I need to have this done by the 30th as I am leaving town and flying to London on the 31st for my partner's big birthday celebration. I will return in time for the last day of rehearsal and the show on the 5th of Feb. When this is over I have to dive into another similar event in tribute to Kander and Ebb, get back to rewriting my show The Road to Qatar, plan a new book proposal, and work on a mini show using Four Seasons songs. Phew! The writer's life.