Crazytown

SPECIAL SKILLS

A Guitar Player is (Re)born
By Sam Perwin

Almost two years ago on the eve of 2015, I wrote a New Year's post about some resolutions. The first one was to add to the special skills portion of my resume by learning to play the guitar. I was pretty gung-ho. I bought a guitar, found an awesome teacher, and was taking lessons weekly for the first two months of the year. Then, as I wrote in my 35th Birthday post, some major life stuff got in the way. My Mom's battle with cancer and her subsequent death consumed most of the rest of that year. 2016 was about getting married and all the joy and mishigas that goes a long with that. Obviously, guitar lessons and practice sessions fell a bit by the wayside. 

But, as I also wrote in that 35th Birthday post, I'm doubling down on making my artistic dreams come true. In a wonderful way, the universe (not to mention my representation) has really risen to the occasion. My team has realized a few awesome opportunities for me recently. On the performing side, without giving away too many details, I've had some pretty major audition appointments recently, and while they haven't yet yielded a job, those are the rooms I want to be in. I've got another one this week - and, as luck (?) would have it, I have to play the guitar. At an audition. In front of people.

Who needs Dan Smith? I've got Mike Rosengarten!

My first response was panic - I called my agent and she suggested I "practice until my fingers bleed." I texted my guitar teacher, who came over for a lesson and gave me a totally manageable song appropriate to the show. This was infinitely better than my first choice song: Edelweiss, a.k.a. the only song I felt comfortable playing in front of people. But here's the real joy about learning something new: you remind yourself that you can, in fact, learn anything with the right guidance, attitude, and enough time devoted to practicing. I'm also reminded of the wisdom of my awesome guitar teacher, who reminded me that I'm not going to "fool" anyone into thinking I'm a professional guitarist. If that's what their looking for, then I won't get the job - it's that simple. But I'm right for the part in other ways, and if I can sing and play well enough to seem at least competent, that might be all they need. I have no idea how important guitar skills are for this role. 

Another adage I'm reminding myself of as I go in to this audition is "If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done." Well, I've never played guitar at an audition before. Here's hoping that gets me this job.

SAM PERWIN Actor. Singer. Writer. Tall. www.samperwin.com
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POST-DEBATE/CRAP TIMES THERAPY: VIRAL VIDEOS

Proceed to watch. STAT.
By Kathleen Choe (actor/singer/writer)

The morning after the third (and mercifully, last) Presidential debate on Thursday, I was in desperate need of some cheering up. I did the silly thing and hopped on my Facebook feed. Bad mistake: opinions and frustration and rage everywhere.

So I went back to my own feed and stared at this video of bunnies:

Which lifted my spirits in a jiff. Then remembered this one by Billy Porter. The whole thing is gold, but the part at 48:00 – 50:00 is super-shiny:

 

Then I remembered getting chills from the new Star Wars Trailer:

 

and Lil’ Buck dancing to Saint-Saëns :

 

and watching Prince sing an acoustical set:

 

 

and the world seemed a little brighter.

Three more weeks until Election Day. On the hunt for some more positivity to counteract the craziness. 

Who’s in?

 

KATHLEEN CHOE is a NYC based actor, singer, and writer. www.kathleen-choe.com
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ON REPEAT: "LOST IN THE WAVES"

If my Beats could talk...they'd say "can we play the next damn song already?"
By Jennifer Anderson (Actor/Singer/Easily fixated)

Crazytown, I get obsessed easily. I fall hard. If it’s a TV show, I watch all the episodes I can find until I finish them all and then start again (I think I’ve seen every “Impractical Jokers” at least 3 times. And Bob’s Burgers? There’s no telling.) If it’s theater, I’ll rush it until I’m out of breath. And if it's music, it plays in my ears on repeat for days. Sometimes weeks.

So, I'm taking this opportunity to turn my obsessive tendencies into something to write about with a series I'll call "On Repeat." This week, we'll discuss Kooman and Dimond's "Lost in the Waves."

"PUTTING ON A SHOW..."

...is a lot of work!" - Karlan Judd's The Real Actors of NYC
By Jennifer Anderson (actor/singer/friend of new musicals)

Crazytown, some of you may remember my best week ever in March. During that artistically fulfilling week, I was part of a reading of a brand spanking new musical by Karlan Judd called The Real Actors of NYC.

Loosely based on the real life experiences of my friend Jake, Nick, and myself, The Real Actors of NYC is a satirical look at what actors have to face in the New York musical theater world. It's madcap, campy fun and I'm elated to announce that we have the opportunity to bring the show Off-Broadway!

THE MUSIC THAT MADE OUR WORLD PODCAST

Classical music that's fun for everybody.
By Tom Rizzuto

I think that it would come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that podcasts are my current favorite form of entertainment. They're fun, accessible, and there are so many out there that anyone can find something they're interested in. 

And starting this Fall, they'll be one more. 

That's right, everybody. I'm throwing my hat into the podcasting ring and developing my own! 

The Music That Made Our World podcast (which you can, and should like on Facebook immediately) is a new kind of podcast about Classical Music. 

What makes it so new, you ask? 

We won't beat you down with dry, boring music theory or subject you to hours of composer biographies. No, we get right to the good stuff.

Did Beethoven help us beat the Nazis? Why were the first musicians to performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons all orphans…and why were they kept in a cage? Why are Chopin's body and his heart buried in two different countries? Who the heck is Figaro anyway? 

All of these questions and more will be answered in The Music That Made Our World, an upcoming podcast about classical music for everybody, regardless of what kind of music you like to listen to. 

How can I be so sure, you'll like it? 

The truth is you've been listening to classical music your entire life, whether you realize it or not. You've heard it at weddings, graduation ceremonies, and even funerals. You've heard it blaring from people's cell phones on the subway. You've heard it in movies, TV shows, and commercials. Haven't you ever wondered why or even what you were listening to? The real answers might surprise you?

We focus on the stories that the history books won't tell you. The funny, sad, and even shocking stories behind classical music's greatest hits. We want to teach you more about the pieces you already know and love…or at least, sort of like. 

Along the way, you'll hear about how classical music influenced every aspect of the world we live in. The pieces that won wars, inspired nations, and literally changed the course of history. This is the soundtrack to our lives. This is The Music That Made Our World.

 

Tom Rizzuto is a freelance musician and writer working in New York. He has also taught guitar and music history at several local universities. For real, everybody, like the Facebook page. 
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NATASHA AND PIERRE AND DAVE AND CLAUDIO

Are today's radical musicals reenacting the revolution of 1598?
By Eric Grunin

I saw Dave Malloy's Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 back in 2013, and somewhere in Act 2 I had a tiny epiphany about where he's coming from, and perhaps where we're all headed. Since The Great Comet is coming back to town, and since the cast album is a good representation of the whole show (and can be heard in its entirely online), I'm going to talk this one out.

Let's start with some background.

Dave Malloy

I saw The Great Comet during the Meatpacking District run, the one in a pop-up tent. Phillipa Soo was terrific as Natasha, which none of you will find surprising. Malloy himself was Pierre, and presented as a cross between Elvis Costello and Vladimir Vysotsky (which I mean as high praise). And Tolstoy spins a great yarn when he puts aside his obsession with theories of history and gets on with his story.

Pierre (Dave Malloy) fights a drunken duel.

I found the show more consistently engaging than Malloy's 2010 Three Pianos, a hallucinatory fantasia on Schubert's song cycle Die Winterreise, whose energy level dropped considerably about two-thirds of the way through. I had a similarly uneven experience at last year's Preludes, a play with music (definitely not a 'musical') which digs deep into the dream-life of Rachmaninoff as he struggles against depression and despair. But all this work is on a very high conceptual level. Malloy is deeply engaged with the emotional processes of the so-called Romantic Era, a musical epoch for which Schubert and Rachmaninoff virtually delimit the beginning and end.

As it turns out, Malloy is very, very dissatisfied with the state of musical theater. He even wrote a kind of manifesto about it five years ago. I disagree with a lot of his analysis, but he's asking the right questions, and that's more important. Here's a short and less dyspeptic interview from 2014:

 

Now it's time to turn away from Mr. Malloy for a minute and go over a little recent history.

Lyrics and Music and Style and Idea

The way that music and story interact in what we call the American Musical has remained essentially unchanged since 1943. There's nothing wrong with that: using songs to advance the story and delineate character and subtext is a strategy that is far from exhaustion.

The harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary of the music has also remained much the same, which is much more problematic: English usage is in the middle of a revolution unlike anything seen since Shakespeare's time, and new linguistic tropes require new music to match. The way we talk, even in 'formal' settings, now incorporates informality, slang, new grammatical constructions, viral catchphrases, and the telegraphic speech of sitcom banter.

In the late 1950s, when this transition began to pick up speed, popular music was changing to accommodate it: you had to have a new kind of music if what you wanted to say was I wanna hold your hand, let alone Good golly Miss Molly, sure likes to ball.

 

No YouTube clips with lyrics - coincidence?

TWO TRAGEDY, OR NOT TWO TRAGEDY?

Is personal tragedy really such a bad thing?
by Alex Syiek (Writer/Performer)

A friend of mine reminded me of an Oscar Wilde quote the other week:

"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

It's the 'artist's struggle', isn't it?

An actor goes to hundreds of auditions. Shut down, time and time again. Early mornings, he's rushing to the cattle call, just to find that the "room where it happens" has no time for him.

A writer dreams up hundreds of ideas. Draft after draft, submission after submission. Every time he fixes one problem with - the script, the book, the copy - another problem arises.

It's a tragedy, ain't it?

Those same artists - the actor - he gets his dream role - the writer - he gets his book on the New York Times Best Seller List. But what then?

What does the actor strive for once he has done the thing he wanted most? What does the writer follow the book of his dreams with?

It's a tragedy.

OFFBEATS: ANTON BRUCKNER

Dead moms, teenage girls, and Beethoven's skull! Who are you to resist?
By Tom Rizzuto 

Offbeats is series in which we explore the eccentricities of some of music history's greatest composers. We rip open the curtains of the past and reveal the dark, twisted stories that the classical music world doesn't want you to know. This week, we tackle Anton Bruckner.

I mean, just look at this guy.

Bruckner (1824-1896) is not as well known in America as he is in his native Austria. He never quite reached the heights of world wide popularity that some of his contemporaries did, but he was extremely well respected by the musical community of his time. 

He is known for writing long, complex symphonies, that are among the most challenging to play and comprehend in the classical repertoire. 
 

THAT TIME DUKE ELLINGTON'S WIFE SLASHED HIS FACE WITH A RAZOR

A story the Ellington's kept under wraps since 1928.
By Tom Rizzuto 

Do a quick Google image search for jazz icon and American musical pioneer, Duke Ellington. Notice anything? All of the profile shots seem to be of the right side of his face? Why is that?

Why so many questions, baby?

Ellington, who made a name for himself baring his soul on such well known compositions as "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me," was in actuality a very private man. Bandmates worked with him everyday and still had no idea about his personal life. At times, even those closest to him were kept in the dark.

BRIAN WILSON WROTE A RAP SONG ABOUT MALE FEMINISM IN 1990 AND IT DESERVES SOME DAMN RESPECT

I'll have none of your sass, Internet. 
By Tom Rizzuto

Here are the facts. In 1990 Beach Boys founder and universally acknowledged musical genius, Brian Wilson was not in a great place. He was still reeling from the effects of decades of mental illness and substance abuse, he was being treated by controversial psychiatrist Eugene Landy (who most believe to have been unethical and manipulative), and his recording career was at a standstill.

"Tell Kanye West I think he's adorable. Spunky little guy."

It was during this tumultuous period in his life that Wilson wrote and recorded a rap song called Smart Girls. The song was coproduced by and recorded at the insistence of Landy, and was intended for Wilson’s 1990 album Sweet Insanity. The album was rejected by Wilson’s record label and never released. It resurfaced years later and this song in particular is generally swept under the rug by most Beach Boys and Brian Wilson aficionados.