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.