Music and Comedy

Celebrating the anniversary this week of the March 1987 filming in NYC of (IMHO) the most joyous 1980s pop music video, the seminal Whitney Houston classic "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" -

Where's the musical theater connection? Well, the smash hit song became one of the goofiest, silliest jukebox-musical numbers ever, so we offered "The Hottie Guard," parody to the (maybe still Broadway-aimed?) stage version of "The Bodyguard"

"I've Got a Chance for Some Hottie (Who's Studly)" - parody of I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" -

https://youtu.be/Pqkd0k6quMU

Monday, March 2, 2026

Some optimism for our "Last Starfighter" musical comedy adventure - an official "Last Starfighter" movie script sequel, though in comic book form

Some optimism for our "Last Starfighter" musical - an official "Last Starfighter" movie screenplay sequel, though in comic book form

It's an official Last Starfighter sequel in comic book form - but hoping we can come up with some way to parlay this into more productions of our THE LAST STARFIGHTER musical, or maybe even sales/downloads/views of Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland original cast recording.

"After 41 Years, the Greatest Sci-Fi Cult Classic of the '80s Is Officially Getting a Sequel" https://collider.com/sci-fi-cult-classic-the-last-starfighter-sequel-comic-series/ "Last Starfighter" musical comedy adventure - on Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland site - Book by Fred Landau, Music & Lyrics by Skip Kennon. Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Betuel

https://kritzerland.com/starfighter.htm and on the YouthPLAYS site

https://www.youthplays.com/musical/the-last-starfighter-full-length-version-by-skip-kennon-fred-landau-466

Friday, January 2, 2026

LOOKING BACK AT 2025: SOME PARODIES OF 2025 BROADWAY EVENTS

JUST IN TIME - Since Jonathan Groff himself has such open fun making fun of his own sweating and spitting, we did a parody-tribute to his Bobby Darin, suggesting that in the case of Mr. Groff, people might not only NOT mind being in a "splash zone," they might even pay extra for those seats.

"Mack the Knife Parody"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3eaFLReem8

Considering the worldwide talent search promised in the 2025 announcement for the new DREAMGIRLS -

Do they really intend to do a revival without some really really big names in this mid-2020's star-crazy box office climate?

YOUTUBE PARODY - 2020's FANS REACT:

“It Takes Stars to Make Us Buy, My Love”
Tune of “Hard to Say Goodbye, My Love” from DREAMGIRLS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSV0h8S4Puc

To the song "What a Wonderful World" from Broadway's A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL (2025 Tony nominee)

We offered a parody of the feel-good "What a Wonderful World" - a more realistic feel-less-good "2025 update"

"What a One-Percent World!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kjivj2eNMY

The idea of a Celine Dion parody show like TITANIQUE, that started small and (one assumes) is ready to charge Broadway premium prices of whatever the market will bear, is a joy to contemplate for those of us who traffic in parody! (We'd originally done this spoof back in summer 2019 about "Bat Out of Hell.")

"We're All in the Balcony Now" - Parody of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Celine Dion version) -

https://youtu.be/smw2Qf3TIR8

With the affordability crisis being such a part of life (and the mayor race) in New York City, and meanwhile a three-actor Broadway play like "Art" having grossed $1.7-million per week and up, it felt like an appropriate time for this parody-tribute.

"Starry Starry Show" - PARODY - The high price of (the show) "Art" on Broadway

https://youtu.be/dKl25SQROCo

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Parody of a parody show: As TITANIQUE, the Celine Dion parody show moves to Broadway

"We're All in the Balcony Now" - Parody of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Celine Dion version)

https://youtu.be/smw2Qf3TIR8

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Recalling a very generous tweet from Lin-Manuel Miranda ten years ago

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a really generous person, and will even give a nod to lesser-known writers, in much the same way that Stephen Sondheim did.

Even in responding to online comments in the New York Times! This happened ten years ago (Nov. 24 2015).

In my case, I've never met him (I still haven't), but Mr. Miranda saw some of my comments in parody lyric form in the Times reader comments section and encouragingly tweeted

"Freddie the NYTimes commenter is a local treasure."

https://twitter.com/lin_manuel/status/669222699361771520

One of my all-time favorite "reviews" - that tweet even wound up on my parents' fridge in Florida. My parents weren't all that familiar with Sondheim's work all that specifically, but they and their friends and neighbors in Florida knew who Mr. Miranda is, and this - along with several books I'd written of my lyrics - added validation with them, and their encouragement that came from that.

Writers need encouragement and Mr. Miranda went out of his way to do that. And in what might be called a meta moment, the New York Times itself even reprinted online Mr. Miranda's generous tweet about my New York Times comments -

towards the bottom of this article

https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/service-advisory-artsbeat-is-finished/index.html

Ten years later, I'm still looking for that breakthrough. But that generous tweet ten years ago meant so much!

Thursday, November 20, 2025

It's the 100th heavenly birthday of Kaye Ballard, the first person to record "Fly Me to the Moon" - one of my favorite songs ever to parody.

It's the 100th heavenly birthday of Kaye Ballard, who was the first person to record "Fly Me to the Moon" - which is one of my favorite songs ever to parody.

This is my Newark Airport security scanner take "Fly Me In the Nude" - but don't worry, it's G-rated despite the parody title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMJvlkzntBg