Promises, Promises was more delightful than I had imagined!
Going in, I was most scared for Sean Hayes, but dammit, the boy can sing! (He does mug a bit in the middle, but not all the way through.)
Kristen is miscast. She’s neither young enough nor vulnerable enough. But she sounds great!
“A House Is Not A Home” has no place in the musical and should not have been added, but “I Say A Little Prayer” is a nice way to give Kristin a big number early on and helps even out the ballad/uptempo balance for her.
The male dancers are great! Very athletic and joyful.
But the biggest surprise was Katie Finneran! She was my favorite part of Wonderfalls on TV, but damn. She steals the show in the first scene of Act II. She should get another Tony for this performance.
Finally, I’m very glad that no one wore pink and orange together. I was worried when I saw the show logo. That color combination nearly made me ill in the Sweet Charity revival.
P.S. I was so excited by the music that I had to go home and download two Jill O’Hara albums. She was the Fran in the original show and I have always dug her voice.
Thanks to the fabulous Jann Arden I found this amazing video of Anne Murray performing with some of the biggest early 80s British pop stars of the day. Don’t miss it. It’s work watching. Anne Murray rocks!
My friend Bruce was visiting a few weeks ago, and while he was working on his laptop in the next room, he started playing a song which prompted me to comment, “Ah, Rufus Wainwight…” to which he replied, “No, Matt Alber.” Well, I was surprised, the vocal resonance and song stile was very similar to Rufus, especially from that first, self-titled album. A few minutes later a video popped up in my e-mail, and I got to see Matt performing in the video for his song, “End of the World.” Now music often moves me to tears, but rarely does video. In this case, both aspects of this beautiful song got me choked up. From the longing melody to the simple visual of streaming sunlight, “End of the World” is one of those song/video combinations that knocks it out of the part. Almost every image, from the way the barber tips Matt’s chair back to the look on his face halfway through the film, takes my breath away. I don’t want to say anything else so you can experience it yourself, so take a look.
So, during the first two or three years of the 1980s, my favorite band was a little South African outfit called Spider. They had one top 40 hit called “New Romance (It’s A Mystery)” but became better known for a what a couple of their members went on to do after the band broke up. Anton Fig was their drummer, and he was well-known for performing nightly on the David Letterman show. Holly Knight played keyboards, and she went on to be a famous songwriter who wrote songs for the likes of Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Heart, Aerosmith and many, many more.
Having missed my one chance to see them live (they were supposed to open for Alice Cooper at the Cape Cod Coliseum and I bought tickets but the show was cancelled!) and never having known them to shoot a video, I thought my chances of ever seeing them perform — even faking it — were nil. Well, leave it to YouTube. You’ll recognize the song because Tina Turner went on to make it a huge hit. However, Spider recorded it first, and this version will always be the one I remember and cherish the most. (Although it’s edited way down in this clip.)
Seems to be the week for catchy YouTube ditties. Earlier this week, I saw a post about this one on geeksarsexy.com. The video is the 2007 award winning fan anime music video from the conference Animazement. It’s very nicely done, but the real treat is the song Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton. I’m not a programmer, but who can’t related to a song about unrequited love and a soul-killing workplace? Plus, I like Fritos too.
I was also tipped off this morning to the next gem, “I Hate Everyone” by Vinnie the Bitchen Barista. I’m not normally a fan of terribly negative songs, but the joyful video totally makes it fun. The song is so bouncy too. I think it may get me through the next several weeks at work, which are likely to be trying. The language in the song is … well, a tad strong … so don’t blast this at work. And I won’t even tell you which phrase sticks in my head, but I bet you can guess.
I was just watching Seinfeld on TBS and saw the latest Dunkin Donuts ad. What made you sell your song to them? I know you like coffee, but surely you think Dunkie’s coffee is overrated like I do. Don’t you? And besides, the donuts are dry and cakey and sit in your stomach like a rock.
Krispie Kreme may have been a better choice. Or if you really needed money, you coulda called me.
Promises, Promises was more delightful than I had imagined!
