Remembering the brilliant, gifted Ellen Schwartz with a link to the site her family put up

Linking to a site celebrating the lyrics of our dear late friend Ellen Schwartz:  http://www.ellenschwartzandfriends.com/

Direct link to six of her shows

http://www.ellenschwartzandfriends.com/ellens-shows/

and also at that site, some highlights from the show TANGLED WEBS which Ellen co-wrote based on a story of mine called WEBCAST:

http://www.ellenschwartzandfriends.com/tangled-webs

Ellen Schwartz was (along with so many other talents and abilities) a gifted and dedicated dramatist and so attentive to characters in her writing. It was so great to see the characters and story that I had brought in way back when get such wonderful life by Ellen Schwartz, Skip Kennon and Bill Connington, and as loud and freewheeling as the meetings sometimes got, I think we all enjoyed the back-and-forth over which characters would do, say and sing what they did.

Goodspeed photos, also: since Tax work is keeping me from doing a timely HOLLYWOOD GOWN video this year

SOME PHOTOS TAKEN BY OUR FRIEND BILL 

OF A TRIP TO GOODSPEED IN EAST HADDAM:

(trip with Bill, Maureen and Janie)




Also, since tax work is keeping me from doing a proper and timely HOLLYWOOD GOWN video this year, I'm respectfully reprising the "Angelina Jolie's Leg" parody-tribute from a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMe-0U24tw4

and the extended version at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0QN41XBp1g

Reprising our Megan Hilty tribute

In honor of Megan Hilty's tremendous success at American Songbook:

Reprising our "Chatting is a Show's Best Friend" parody-tribute to her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes triumph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUa5GGeLdH8

Update on some of Skip's shows

Amazon listing for Skip Kennon's (and Ellen Fitzhugh's and Tom Cone's) show HERRINGBONE - starring BD Wong and directed by Roger Rees - released by Yellow Sound Label on December 2, 2014.

http://www.amazon.com/Herringbone-Concert-Recording-BD-Wong/dp/B00P9FC00Y

And HERRINGBONE was named one of 2014's Top Ten Cast Albums by Talkin Broadway in its Sound Advice column.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/sound/january0815.html

Information on the musical VIVA MAX! (based on the novel by Jim Lehrer, book by Julie Miller & Fred Landau, music & lyrics by Skip Kennon) is here:

http://music-and-comedy.blogspot.com/2013/11/thanks-to-everyone-involved-in-our.html

Info on TANGLED WEBS (book by Bill Connington, music by Skip Kennon, lyrics by Ellen M. Schwartz, adapted from the short story "WebCast" by Fred Landau) - including links to synopsis and sound clips - is at:

http://tangled-webs-updates.blogspot.com/

It was an amazing MITF ceremony last night - thoughts right after the big show, and it was a big show!

These are my thoughts immediately after the show.  I may revise these later if my perspective changes

The thing that I’d been told to get ready for (since our show had a real chance of winning in the Outstanding Actress category, but not really in the three others where we were nominated) but still was surprised and overwhelmed by, was the amazing joy of  having created a “star vehicle” and have the star of that vehicle get the Outstanding Actress award in a tremendously competitive category.  

The gifted Jennifer Pace had come in eight days before opening with the imaginative and resourceful  director (and dramaturg) Michael Kirk Lane after the actress who playing “Bette” in our show got too sick to do a show with so much solo singing.   Jennifer was aided in getting her performance together so quickly by her own and Michael's abilities, and by the extraordinary musician Clare Cooper, who would,  I’m sure, have gotten a nomination had there been a supporting actress or a music direction category in that division.  (And by luck, our technical director Terry Prideaux, who had kept things running smoothly back in February and March, happened to be the one presenting that category.)

A chat friend who gets to the point asked if it was as good as the show overall getting one of the other nominated awards?  As I told him, I’ll never know that, but Jennifer’s win as Best Actress at that moment felt like a win for our whole company of five. 

And some more praise for the MITF - it was quite a ceremony! The MITF really ran it like a real awards show, which of course it was - even going over the time limit to the extent that the marvelous producer John Chatterton complimented those who stayed to the end for their endurance, LOL!  The awards our show was up for were all in the first half, and while the writing and production awards went (as the buzz expected) to John Frida’s stellarly ambitious Alien Adventure, it was a thrill to hear us in the nominations alongside so much work that I’d admired in the festival.

(I'm trying to figure out how to put parts of the video we made online, but so far, no luck.)

"I Never Miss a Larry Kramer Musical" was nominated for 4 awards by Midtown Int'l Theatre Festival

We were thrilled to be part of the Midwinter 2014 festival, and now excited to hear we were nominated for four of the Midtown International Theatre Festival's awards.  These are the categories in which our show was nominated.  The complete list of nominees in all categories is at http://midtownfestival.org/

from the 2014 Midwinter Madness Awards Nominees

Outstanding Production of Play or Musical 


Alien Adventure, the Adventure

The Dooples in the Land of Doo


I Never Miss a Larry Kramer Musical: A Parody Chat with Bette Midler


Nosce Te Ipsum


Theme Night

Outstanding New Script/Playwright, Book, Music & Lyrics for a Play or Musical 


John Frida & Eren T. Gibson, Alien Adventure, the Adventure


Fred Landau, I Never Miss a Larry Kramer Musical: A Parody Chat with Bette Midler


Joshua R. Pangborn, Nosce Te Ipsum


Emily Rose, Confessions of a Rabbi’s Daughter


Fredric Sinclair, Provincetown

Outstanding Actress in a Play or Musical 


Jennifer Pace, I Never Miss a Larry Kramer Musical


Kathryn Neville Browne, Another One Darling


Justine Hall, Coming Home


Marjorie Conn, Lizzie Borden's Party


C. Niambi Steele, That L-Word

Outstanding Marketing/Producer for a
Play or Musical


I Never Miss a Larry Kramer Musical


That L-Word


I’m Sorry


The Dooples in the Land of Doo


Welcome to Tourettaville

Excited by upcoming shows by Stevie Wonder and Hugh Jackman - but can't help kidding the pricing! (season preview #2)

"Sir Duke" parody - Stevie Wonder tour pricing and concert seating 
parody  (2nd in a series) - parody sung by Sheree Sano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCl_-xMJE6w

And with Hugh Jackman coming back to Broadway



in "The River" -






























To celebrate:  updating "I Raid My Keogh" (from when he did his 

one-man show) to tune of "I Go To Rio" (parody sung by Jan Horvath) 









http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7UReYZx2wI

The book 21ST CENTURY OLDIES: PARODY LYRICS FROM A TO B



is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle



http://www.amazon.com/21st-Century-Oldies-Volume-Parody/dp/1492144126/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410105312&sr=8-1&keywords=21st+century+oldies