Real-life Avatars

[Guest]

I think I did Joseph and His Technicolor Dream Coat earlier--but it's all pretty hazy right at the moment.

I won't tell you my age when I first heard Superstar but I know I was younger than junior high.

My folks always had music of all kinds in the house, and we kids grew up singing everything. No one at school knew this show but we certainly did.

It was only later that I began to put his shows together. Good stuff.

 

[cloudy]

I won't tell you my age when I first heard Superstar but I know I was younger than junior high.

My folks always had music of all kinds in the house, and we kids grew up singing everything. No one at school knew this show but we certainly did.

It was only later that I began to put his shows together. Good stuff.

First show I ever did was The King & I. I think it was also the show that was, by far, the most fun to do.

...even if Yul Brynner wasn't playing the King.

 

[sr71plt]

I won't tell you my age when I first heard Superstar but I know I was younger than junior high.

My folks always had music of all kinds in the house, and we kids grew up singing everything. No one at school knew this show but we certainly did.

It was only later that I began to put his shows together. Good stuff.

I got into musical comedy early (Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie) and I thought my dad was just tolerating the idea (an Army officer). It wasn't until the week of his funeral when I accosted my mother about withdrawing to her room and playing cowboy quartet records (e.g., "Cool Water" and "They Called the Wind Mariah") that I learned he'd recorded those records when he was singing on the radio before they got married. Strange he never mentioned that when I decided to study international relations rather than trying to break out of the child actor roll curse.

I only did three Lloyd-Webber ones: Joseph, JCSS, and Phantom--got sidetracked off into Sondheim. And Lloyd-Webber was murder on tenors.

 

[sr71plt]

First show I ever did was The King & I. I think it was also the show that was, by far, the most fun to do.

...even if Yul Brynner wasn't playing the King.

The King and I was the first musical production I ever saw (I think--unless I saw the Mikado before that). And later in life it almost sent me to jail. Celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a big party at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, and, since many of the guests were in the theater/music crowd, we were banging out show tunes on the piano and singing up a storm when the Thai police arrived. I had no idea that it was against the law to do The King and I in Thailand (considered lese-majeste)--but it is. If the one banging on the piano hadn't been the king's cousin, we all would have been hauled off.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm so totally non-musicals-oriented -- just listening and smiling.

 

[Guest]

I got into musical comedy early (Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie) and I thought my dad was just tolerating the idea (an Army officer). It wasn't until the week of his funeral when I accosted my mother about withdrawing to her room and playing cowboy quartet records (e.g., "Cool Water" and "They Called the Wind Mariah") that I learned he'd recorded those records when he was singing on the radio before they got married. Strange he never mentioned that when I decided to study international relations rather than trying to break out of the child actor roll curse.

I only did three Lloyd-Webber ones: Joseph, JCSS, and Phantom--got sidetracked off into Sondheim. And Lloyd-Webber was murder on tenors.

Birdie was the first show I ever directed.

My dad is retired Air Force with some talent. His dad was a military musician and director. And one of my uncles is currently a solid performing operatic tenor.

I have fond memories of every show I've ever done.

Even the bad ones.

 

[AlexysQuinn]

I'm so totally non-musicals-oriented -- just listening and smiling.

I'll just sit here with you, since I'm 'totally non-musicals-oriented' too.

 

[sr71plt]

Considering we're on AH, I'll note the wierdest production I did--I directed The Fantasticks (my all-time favorite, I think--have directed that on three continents; only one I've done more was Amahl and the Night Visitors--and that reminds me. Conrad Birdie wasn't my first singing role; it was Amahl). The leading lady was a perky young thing, perfect for the part--except she was being sluggish in her performance. She finally came to me and said she just couldn't get into the play--because all of the men in the play were gay and hitting on each other rather than her. It didn't have the heart to tell her I was bi--and was being hit on too.

 

[Guest]

Considering we're on AH, I'll note the wierdest production I did--I directed The Fantasticks (my all-time favorite, I think--have directed that on three continents; only one I've done more was Amahl and the Night Visitors--and that reminds me. Conrad Birdie wasn't my first singing role; it was Amahl). The leading lady was a perky young thing, perfect for the part--except she was being sluggish in her performance. She finally came to me and said she just couldn't get into the play--because all of the men in the play were gay and hitting on each other rather than her. It didn't have the heart to tell her I was bi--and was being hit on too.

BWAH!

Which recalls the line from Klein's "In and Out." "Is EVERYBODY gay???"

Once during Gypsy in summerstock theater the lead trumpet player was so drunk he couldn't manage Mazeppa's tune. Okay, more than once. Jesus, she was pissed. She just pantomimed and wriggled on stage as they snickered.

I swear the pit had much more fun than we did. The next show scheduled was Oliver, so I played in the pit. It was fun.

Show up ten minutes before curtain, eat and drink in the pit, smoke, laugh, leave the second the show was done.

 

[shereads]

I read somewhere that all the misery of a cold is the result of an over-blown allergy reaction. The cold virus that triggers this creates one sore somewhere in your air tract-- sinus, throat, bronchial tube, and is self-limiting, and all that misery can be completely alleviated with antihistamines-- unfortunately, only the kind that makes you go to sleep standing up. Like, claritin won't work.

So the rest of the symptoms can be treated individually with palliatives ,and you want to prevent secondary infections. My routine is; zinc coughdrops for the sore throat-- as much zinc as you can stand-- till your throat's too galvanised to support alian life forms.
Plus vitamins C, D, calcium-magnesium-potassium and B if you really need a shot in the arm
Pseudofed, or pseudo-pseudofed, to keep the mucous running out of your nose instead of down your throat.
Total cough suppressant at night, and a really long hot shower in the morning to get that mucous buildup the hell out of your lungs.
And I keep a athsma inhalor around for really rough bronchitis days, to be used with care.
Plenty of the NSAID of your choice for the rest of the symptoms

Seems to work, anyway...

Zicam works wonders.

 

[shereads]

If the one banging on the piano hadn't been the king's cousin, we all would have been hauled off.

If you don't write an autobiography I will hire thugs to break your knees.

 

[sr71plt]

If you don't write an autobiography I will hire thugs to break your knees.

Thanks for the interest--and I'm so full of drugs at the moment that I might not notice the knees are broken. I have written a form of autobiograhy--but just the more pleasant/glorified sexy parts--you can either buy it in an eXcessica book (Flying High) or read it here for free by clicking on my bio and following the chronological roadmap of stories. I think I have a related story on The Fantasticks production mentioned above (the story "The Cast Party"), but not this aspect of it. I don't include many accedotes I found amusing--it's more a sexual coming of (and mellowing out) of life.

 

[shereads]

Thanks for the interest--and I'm so full of drugs at the moment that I might not notice the knees are broken. I have written a form of autobiograhy--but just the more pleasant/glorified sexy parts--you can either buy it in an eXcessica book (Flying High) or read it here for free by clicking on my bio and following the chronological roadmap of stories. I think I have a related story on The Fantasticks production mentioned above (the story "The Cast Party"), but not this aspect of it. I don't include many accedotes I found amusing--it's more a sexual coming of (and mellowing out) of life.

I'm taking a break from reading about sex. I want anecdotes about illegal singing.

 

[driphoney]

SR,
I want an autobiography too! The wife part was particularly intriguing as I've not heard her mentioned before!

Also, please, please start another thread. This was has been so successful. You've got 113 replies in one day. If you got enough good ones started it would push all the political ones down and then ... ahhh ... it really would be a blessed Sunday, huh?

 

[sr71plt]

I'm taking a break from reading about sex. I want anecdotes about illegal singing.

Well, then, let me tell you about the time we did a Hoagy Carmichael tribute concert in an ancient Roman amphiteater outside of Limassol, Cyprus, because we knew a rich, possible angel relative of his was visiting--and she asked us after the performance if we'd paid our copyright fees for use of the music . . .

 

[sr71plt]

SR,
I want an autobiography too! The wife part was particularly intriguing as I've not heard her mentioned before!

Read "The Golden Triangle" then. She's the blonde (and maybe this can explain how I've managed to juggle all these years).

 

[driphoney]

Read "The Golden Triangle" then. She's the blonde (and maybe this can explain how I've managed to juggle all these years).

You know, I'm starting to get a little sad here as I realize how much you've borrowed from real life to create your stories. Hm. And here I thought you were just a really imaginative and thorough researcher.

It's all becoming very clear now.

Just don't ask you to change a light bulb!

 

[sr71plt]

You know, I'm starting to get a little sad here as I realize how much you've borrowed from real life to create your stories. Hm. And here I thought you were just a really imaginative and thorough researcher.

It's all becoming very clear now.

Just don't ask you to change a light bulb!

I could change the light bulb (well, the old-fashioned ones), if I only knew where they were stored.

Oh, some of my material is jazzed up and cuts to the chase (not bringing up all the preparation required), but much of it has foundation--and I do research. It got a bit painful researching "Dark Angel Sounding," for instance--but I didn't write about it without checking out the sensations.

 

[shereads]

Well, then, let me tell you about the time we did a Hoagy Carmichael tribute concert in an ancient Roman amphiteater outside of Limassol, Cyprus, because we knew a rich, possible angel relative of his was visiting--and she asked us after the performance if we'd paid our copyright fees for use of the music . . .

The Limassol Dinner Theater! Yes, tell that one.

 

[sr71plt]

The Limassol Dinner Theater! Yes, tell that one.

I just did. No dinner theater in Limassol that I know of. (The choir that did the Hoagy Carmichael concert was the Nicosia Singers.) But that reminds me of the British little theater on the British Sovereign Base at Episkopi, Cyprus, where I went one evening to review a play (I was entertainment columnist on the side for the Cyprus Sun as sort of a cover). At the end of Act One, the lights came up and British MPs descended on my table from every direction. They'd run my diplomatic plates and discovered what my day job was and wanted to know what the hell I was doing spying on a British base. Luckily, I had a copy of the paper with my byline and acknowledgment from the box office that they'd sent me the theater tickets.

 

[houstondoll75]

<----------------------me

 

[driphoney]

I just did. No dinner theater in Limassol that I know of. (The choir that did the Hoagy Carmichael concert was the Nicosia Singers.) But that reminds me of the British little theater on the British Sovereign Base at Episkopi, Cyprus, where I went one evening to review a play (I was entertainment columnist on the side for the Cyprus Sun as sort of a cover). At the end of Act One, the lights came up and British MPs descended on my table from every direction. They'd run my diplomatic plates and discovered what my day job was and wanted to know what the hell I was doing spying on a British base. Luckily, I had a copy of the paper with my byline and acknowledgment from the box office that they'd sent me the theater tickets.

What the hell were all those Members of Parliament doing on Cyprus! Damn! -- just joking!

 

[shereads]

I just did. No dinner theater in Limassol that I know of. (The choir that did the Hoagy Carmichael concert was the Nicosia Singers.) But that reminds me of the British little theater on the British Sovereign Base at Episkopi, Cyprus, where I went one evening to review a play (I was entertainment columnist on the side for the Cyprus Sun as sort of a cover). At the end of Act One, the lights came up and British MPs descended on my table from every direction. They'd run my diplomatic plates and discovered what my day job was and wanted to know what the hell I was doing spying on a British base. Luckily, I had a copy of the paper with my byline and acknowledgment from the box office that they'd sent me the theater tickets.

You are most entertaining. Did you sign up for this life, or did it just find you?

 

[sr71plt]

What the hell were all those Members of Parliament doing on Cyprus! Damn! -- just joking!

Yeah, the Brits probably have another name for their military police. I just don't know what that would be.

 

[sr71plt]

You are most entertaining. Did you sign up for this life, or did it just find you?

It apparently bubbles out when I'm on cold meds. But I was raised to go looking for life.