Monthly Archives: July 2018

• We need a three-strike rule for politicians claiming "the offensive remarks [or cartoons] on my social media were posted accidentally by someone on my staff without my knowledge." The third time, they need to own it.

Alan Longmuir, a founding member of the Bay City Rollers music group, has died at the age of 70. Once upon a time, the Rollers sold — depending on which account you believe — somewhere between 120 and 170 million records. Even the low-end estimate qualifies them as one of the most successful acts of their day.

A very minor footnote in their career is that in 1978, they hosted thirteen episodes of The Krofft Superstar Hour for American television and I was the Head Writer. There are all sorts of stories around about the Rollers then and since, some of them creepy or sad…and I have no idea how much truth, if any, there is to such tales.

I just wanted to say, in case it matters in the slightest, that during our long-ago four (or so) month association, Alan was an absolute professional and the cause of zero problems. In fact, when there were problems within the group, he was the guy who solved them. I have nothing but good memories of the man. Sorry to see he's left us.

• There's something oddly comforting when I think that no matter how bad my day may go, it's still a lot better than any day in the recent life of Harvey Weinstein.

• And my spell-checker converted "tariffs" to "taxes," which suggests it was programmed by a Democrat.

• Apparently, someone told Trump he could raise tariffs on other countries but didn't tell him that they could raise taxes on us.

Reprise is a company here in Los Angeles that stages short-term musicals, reviving old and well-remembered shows for brief glimpses.  They mount them with minimal sets, minimal costumes and minimal rehearsals…and all of their productions are amazing just for being thrown together in so little time and for so little money.  To see one, you have to act quickly because there are only around fifteen performances of each show.

Reprise went away for a while due to financial problems but it's back now.  Last night was the final performance of their season-opener, Sweet Charity and later in the year, they're doing Victor/Victoria and Grand Hotel.  Fortunately, all that minimalism does not include minimal talent.  I had a real good time. If I hadn't, I would have titled this review, "There's Gotta Be Something Better That This" but I didn't.

I wish I'd been able to tell you sooner about this so some of you could have gone on my recommendation.  I'm an opening-night subscriber but their opening night coincided with the Sherman Brothers Tribute at the Motion Picture Academy so I moved my tickets to a later performance.  Then that later performance was canceled when one of the lead performers had a death in the family — there are no understudies when you only do fifteen performances — so I wound up on closing night. If I'd gone earlier, I'd have suggested you rush to see it.

Kathleen Marshall directed and Laura Bell Bundy performed the hell out of the title role. This is the kind of show where if you don't have someone incredible in the lead, you might as well not do the show at all. Ms. Bundy — who got super-famous in the lead in the musical of Legally Blonde — was utterly electric, supplying a lot of personality and humanity that was maybe not all there in the play as written. Sweet Charity does not have the greatest book. Neil Simon wrote it and even when the original show was a hit on Broadway, he wasn't all that proud of his contribution. It has not aged well and I suspect that one of these days, someone's going to "update" it because the score by Dorothy Fields and Cy Coleman is just too good.

As is not surprising with Reprise shows, the whole cast is great. I was especially impressed with Barrett Foa as Oscar Lindquist, Krystal Joy Brown as Helene and Yvette Gonzales Nacer as Nickie. Mr. Foa is a regular on an NCIS show I don't watch and whenever he's done with that, someone's going to star him in a comedy series and have a very big hit. The guy is funny.

I could go on but what's the point? It closed last night. You can't go see it. If you live anywhere near Los Angeles, you might consider a two-show subscription to the rest of the Reprise season. In speeches before and after the show, they made it clear they're kinda desperate for money. A lot of good theater is these days and this enterprise is highly deserving of support. Here's a link.

Unless I need to post a sudden obit, there might not be new content here for a day or two. Lots of things I've got to get done.  When I do return, I have some other tales about Harlan Ellison and some info and further clips of That Was the Week That Was.

Comic-Con International convenes in seventeen days.

The classic "We Are the World" video is re-created by a bunch of talented folks from Broadway…