Name Dropper!

Don't you hate it when people pepper their conversation with random famous names? Usually these famous names are tossed out in such a way as to imply that their fame is insignificant to the speaker - as if it just happened to come up in conversation. It can get really old, really fast - especially if it happens often.

Annoying, right?

But here's the thing - today's blog entry is about somebody famous that I'm fortunate enough to get to work with. I could go through the entire entry using pronouns or non-specific phrases, but that would almost make it worse. The herculean effort people put into NOT dropping a name is more annoying than just saying it and moving on! So, watch your toes and clear some space, cause here it comes...

The funny part is, the reason I bring her up isn't because she's famous - not really. But you'll see what I mean soon enough...

I first worked with Chita when she did a guest spot on "Johnny and the Sprites". She played the part of the Queen of All Magical Creatures and, when her character appeared, she was greeted by a song I wrote called Welcome to Grotto's Grove. The song was mostly sung TO her, but she briefly joined in at the end, so I found myself at a recording studio with Chita to pre-record her vocals. She only sang a few lines in the song, but there was something very surreal about hearing her voice - that distinctive voice - singing something I had written. To this day, one of the most exciting theatrical experiences of my life as an audience member was seeing her in Kiss of the Spider Woman the day after she won the Tony award for her performance.

A few months after "Sprites", I was approached about briefly filling in for her music director for some concerts and club gigs - and I jumped at the chance. I learned her show - a combination of showtunes she made famous, standards and stories about her career - and did 2 concerts in large theatres as well as a 2 week run at the Rrazz Room - a more intimate "club" venue in downtown San Francisco. A little over a year later, they asked me to return as her regular pianist and I'll be doing various concerts with her in 2010, including an exciting night at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Saturday March 6!

(L-R) Jim Donica, Chita Rivera, Me & Michael Croiter

In Sarasota, FL - January 20, 2010

Working and performing with her has been a wonderful thing, but what surprised me more than perhaps it should have, was how creatively energizing she was to me. I 'm not telling any secrets when I say that Chita has been performing for a long time! And that doesn't happen unless you have something very special - and she does! In the several years I've worked with her off and on, I've never seen her just "sing" a song. She is invested in everything she performs - every song she sings is acted and interpreted and given such care, and yet it is never overdone or anything other than appropriate for the moment. It is extremely impressive! I still find myself carried away by her performance - no matter what the audience is like, no matter how tired we are or aren't, no matter how...anything. When she is on that stage, performing, you clearly see why she was, is and continues to be who she is!

And that's the funny part about it - in regards to everything I've said, she really does just "happen to be famous". I would write the same thing and get the same thrill from any actor and performer who brought the level of dedication and craft and joy and commitment to her performance. It really is something to behold and an honor and a thrill to be a part of.

So, if you wanna say this entry was me being a name dropper, that's fine - but, in a business that's as cynical and jaded as it can be, I will gladly risk the "name dropper" moniker to remind myself of the excitement, the thrill and the joy of why I do what I do. All of which is embodied in the life, career, personality and performance of...

Chita Rivera

(For info on my upcoming appearances with Chita, click on the News button at the top of your screen.)

Adaptation

Over the last few years, I've been asked to consider writing a few musicals which would have been adaptations - from books, movies, etc. Some I was excited about - the source material seemed rife with possibilities for musicalization. Others, I didn't see working out. As it turns out, I'm not working on any of those proposed projects, but I have thought alot lately about musicals that started out as something else.

I want to be clear on this from the start - I see nothing fundamentally wrong, bad or distasteful about a musical being adapted from another source. It's been going on for a long time and, when it is done well and wisely, it can lead to a really wonderful musical. In fact, one of my favorite musicals of all time, Little Shop of Horrors, was based on a movie. But in that oddball little show lies what I regard as the key to adaptations - imagination.

Take a look at the movie version of Little Shop of Horrors - certain characters and plot points will be familiar, but the musical is a very different animal from the movie - and that's a really, really good thing. It's not a good movie! The writers of the musical - Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman - were able to see imagine and create an entirely new musical world. If they had lacked imagination - or lacked sufficient imagination - they might never have written the show or, worse yet, they might have written a straight "musical version" of the film without adapting it at all! Horrors indeed!

There are other more recent examples of well-done adaptations, but there are also - as I'm sure you've noticed - plenty of examples where it didn't go so well. Writing a musical is never easy, but, when it comes to adaptations, it sure is easier to regurgitate a movie on stage with some songs thrown in. It might even be successful - depending on how you measure success that is. (Sadly, laziness is no guarantee of failure nor is imagination a guarantee of success!) But when laziness trumps imagination, we get lazy shows, lazy producers, lazy actors and, eventually, uniformly lazy audiences.

So am I suggesting that, from now on, we do nothing but original musicals, not based on any source material? Of course not! If a show is well written and works on stage, it doesn't matter where it came from. But we need to care more about the quality of the shows being done - big shows, little shows, cheap shows, expensive shows - all kinds, all musical styles and all types of stories.

It is a sad bit of irony that, in the entertainment industry, creativity and imagination are often valued less than what I will charitably call "the easy road". We need, as an industry, to try harder, aim higher and do better. And making that level of work the norm will take the most imagination and be the biggest adaptation of them all!

(On a related note, check out my Media page to listen to a demo recording of the song " Different Kind of Man" which I wrote for a potential musical version of the indy film, Kinky Boots.)