April 30, 2004
Oh boy...I've let a lot of time go by!
OK, real quick: Had a fantastic Christmas/New Years trip to London. Saw
50 shows in ten days, or something silly like that. Definite highlight:
Jerry Springer, the Opera. Right up my
alley.
Tina Howe and I have been working on our show, tentatively titled
Hush. She is a delight to
work with, so smart and skillful and creative and fun. We've written
the first few scenes and songs, but as we're both working on other
projects simultaneously, this one might take a little while to finish.
Some exciting news: I was one of several people commissioned by
Carnegie
Hall to contribute a song to a song cycle for Audra McDonald to
perform in her series of concerts this June. The concept for the song
cycle is seven songs representing the Seven Deadly Sins. (To read the
press release at Playbill.com, click
here.) My
sin is Sloth. (Hmmm, how did
I
end up with that one, he asks innocently?) My song is called "My Book,"
and all I'll say is that even though I initially felt that I should
write something classy and artsy for the auspicious Carnegie Hall, I
ultimately swung in the opposite direction. Let's hope it works!
On the performing front, I'm just now rehearsing for a concert version
of
Candide, to be performed
May 5-8 at Avery Fisher Hall with the
New
York Philmarmonic. I'll be playing the role of Maximillian, sharing
the stage with such luminaries as
Kristin Chenoweth,
Patti Lupone,
Sir
Thomas Allen,
Paul
Groves, and Janine LaManna. FYI, the director is a certain Mr.
Lonny Price. :-)
I think the only other thing notable about this particular period is
how completely obsessed I am with two reality shows:
Survivor and
American
Idol. Frankly, all of my favorite people have already been
voted off
Survivor, but I'm
hooked anyway. As for American Idol, I still haven't gotten over the
whole
Lisa
Leuschner debacle, not to mention the
Jennifer
Hudson debacle. But at least we still have
Fantasia
and
LaToya
to look forward to.