Saturday, July 9, 2005

Sondheim P.S.

I didn't mention all the performers in last night's Sondheim Gala at the Bowl but I should have mentioned the opener: A film of Krusty the Clown (from The Simpsons) performing "Send in the Clowns" — a song that was otherwise unsung during the event. No one sang "I'm Still Here" or "Comedy Tonight" or "Everything's Coming Up Roses" or a number of other Sondheim ditties that you might have expected. I think the audience liked the fact that the producers mixed the less-familiar with the familiar, instead of loading the program with songs we already all knew by heart.

I could also have mentioned that one of the best things about the evening was the audience, which was friendly and enthusiastic and I can't remember running into so many people I knew at a concert. Sondheim fans are some of the best people in the world.

• Posted at 12:27 PM · LINK

Kirby Kredit Watch

The new Fantastic Four movie has brought a few articles about Marvel's treatment of Jack Kirby. Here, in the Orange County Register, is an interview with Jack's son, Neal.

• Posted at 9:34 AM · LINK

The Gold Medal Kid With The Heavyweight Crown

Guess where I was last evening. BZZZ. Okay, time's up. Carolyn and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for their big 75th birthday celebration shebang in honor of Stephen Sondheim. What a wonderful show. What a wonderful cast.

The wonderful cast included Angela Lansbury, Jason Alexander, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Len Cariou, Josh Groban, Marin Mazzie, Eric McCormack, Elaine Stritch, Audra McDonald, Carol Burnett and I'm forgetting a whole lot of people. Warren Beatty and Barbra Streisand also turned up on stage but they didn't sing, unless you count leading the audience in a chorus of "Happy Birthday." There were many special moments — Stritch singing "Broadway Baby," Cook performing "Losing My Mind," Peters singing "Children Will Listen" and "Being Alive," Alexander doing "Free" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (with Adam Wylie in the Hero role). Every number was a highlight but I'm guessing that if you'd polled the sold-out throng on its way out, the favorite moment would have been when Cariou and Lansbury — the original Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett — performed "A Little Priest."

(The worst moment in the show also involved Ms. Lansbury. Coming out for the final bow, she tripped over a wire and fell. There were just under 18,000 gasps — that's how many people the bowl holds — and then, just under 18,000 cheers when she got up and waved to indicate she was fine.)

The evening was, in part, a benefit for a new Sondheim-connected program called Children Will Listen, which is designed to get kids all over the country involved in musical theater. To show how it's working so far, Mr. Sondheim closed his gracious acceptance remarks by introducing a local kids' choir performing one of his numbers as the grand finale. I think everyone present would have liked the proceedings to go on...oh, maybe about five hours would have sufficed. On the way out, you could hear people mentioning the names of their favorite Sondheim tunes that had gone unsung.

No, I do not know if the concert is coming out as a DVD or even just a CD. But it should. If they'd had them ready to buy on the way out, they could have sold just under 18,000 of them.

• Posted at 2:13 AM · LINK