Raindrops Keep Fallin'

I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself

Wishin' and Hopin'

(They Long to Be) Close to You

Walk on By

A House is Not a Home

Always Somethin' There to Remind Me

What the World Needs Now Is Love

What's New Pussycat?

Alfie

The Look of Love

I Say A Little Prayer

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

Arthur's Theme

That's What Friends Are For

There are definitely times when a person can stand on their accomplishments and their accomplishments can stand on their own.  Burt Bacharach's discography certainly stands with the best of them.

Described as "a composer whose venerable name can be linked with just about every other prominent musical artist of his era," Bacharach defined his own style of music.  His five decade plus career was littered with accomplishments that others could only dream of.  Seven Grammy awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 that proclaimed him the Greatest Living Composer.  Three Academy Awards for his contribution to music in film.  An Emmy award, making him one award short of an EGOT.  The 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, awarded by the Library of Congress.

His collaborators include a who's who of American and British popular music.  Songs for Nat King Cole, Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Frankie Avalon, The Drifters, Andy Williams, Doris Day, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, Christopher Cross, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, and Rod Stewart.  And of course, the legend, Dionne Warwick.  

While his music would be labeled easy listening and he made it look effortless, the process and the complexity was anything but easy.  He sought to make every composition interesting and in doing so, wrote for unique combinations of musicians, added unusual chord progressions, and played with tight harmonies, syncopated rhythms, pacing, and changing meters.  He was a master of his craft and it showed.

Bacharach passed away Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at the age of 94.

He will be missed.  Thankfully his legacy of music will live on.

TCM Remembers 2022

A bit of a look back today. As a classic film fan and lover of old Hollywood, this type of memorial strikes a chord. TCM always puts together a classy memorial reel, providing the most comprehensive look at the loss that film suffered in the past year.

This past years list included legends and personal favorites. While their presence will be missed, their contribution lives on.  

Sondheim

"Sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods
Do not let it grieve you, no one leaves for good."

They say that you are not just a Sondheim fan.  You may generally like Sondheim, but it goes deeper than that.  You are a Sunday in the Park fan, or a Company fan, or a Sweeney Todd fan.  You are a fanatic about the show that really spoke to you.

I am an Into the Woods fan.  

Generally, I'm not the biggest Sondheim fan.  I know that is a heresy in the musical theater community, but I can often find myself more impressed with the technical proficiency of the show or the level of difficulty in the music than I am with the show as a whole.  

Into the Woods is an exception.  Professionally, I have seen two different versions.  The first in 2002 on Broadway with a lavish star studded cast that included Vanessa Williams.  The second, the Fiasco tour with 11 artists playing all roles and instruments and very minimalistic staging.  It's this second version that truly touched me.  Part of it can be attributed to how art speaks to us at different times in our lives.  Into the Woods is a show about growing up and parenthood in particular.  Having our second child only a couple of months before this production, the story of the Baker, his wife and the witch resonated in  way this time that they could not before.  But this production also revealed something about the magic of theater.  At its core, it is just story telling.   It does not require all the flourishes we add to it.  All it needs, all it truly requires is talented storytellers fully committed to the message of their story.  And with that, a group of 11 artists, seemingly pulling props out of their trunk to add to their story can be so much more impactful than an extravagant, expensive version.  It can strike more to the core of the story and the audience to convey its heart.

Beyond that, it's hard to deny that Sondheim completely changed the future of musical theater.  Sondheim took an art form based in romance and happy endings into unexpected areas.  He wrote a musical about presidential assassins after all.  More importantly, he grounded musical theater in the complexity of human emotion, and in the mundane of our ordinary lives.  Company is about a single man and his feelings about all his friends getting married around him.  Into the Woods, for all the fantasy, is about parents and children.  Sunday in the Park about creative fulfillment.  

One of the things I like the most about Sondheim is that while his songs are lyrically and melodically complex, and thus require very talented singers, the singers that truly bring them to life do not have the most beautiful voices, but rather can bring the most emotion and experience to them.  I've heard a beautiful version of Send in the Clowns by an eight-piece men's choir that will bring you to tears.  But it doesn't compare to Judy Dench's worn voice.  That song needs that weariness.

Tonight, the lights of Broadway will be dimmed in memory of Stephen Sondheim's passing.  He died November 26, 2021 at the age of 91 from cardiovascular disease.  Dimming the theater lights is the time honored tradition for honoring significant contributors to the community.  

And tonight, for a brief moment in time, the heart of the city that never sleeps will be dark.  

Sondheim will certainly be missed, and his legacy will never be forgotten.

"No one is alone."

Jane Powell

 

There are certain movies that are replayed a lot in our house hold.  The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jurassic Park, Jaws.  All for a variety of reasons.  Nightmare for Jude. Jurassic Park for 90's nostaglia.  Jaws once a year for Fourth of July.

There are certain types of movies that get played a lot too.  We watch a lot of musicals.  I'm a sucker for classic Dream Factory musicals when they are on TCM.  Even if the plot is bad, I love discovering the old songs.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is played a lot.  Not as often as Jamie watched it as a teenager, but a lot.  More than once a year. 

The cinematography that demands wide screen and letterbox television.  Michael Kidd's incredible choreography.  

And Jane Powell's best performance.

Powell's Milly is the glue that holds it all together.  Her rich and clear operatic soprano pared so well with Keel's bass-baritone.  Her comic timing was impeccable.  The role remained her signature and best performance, truly marking her transition from child to adult characters.

An MGM staple contract player, she made the Dream Factory shine.  Throughout her career, her youthful appearance allowed her to project the image of the innocent girl next door throughout her career.  

Career highlights include the previously mentioned Seven Brides and Royal Wedding, in which she played Fred Astaire's wise cracking sister, giving her a chance to keep up with Astaire in a six-minute musical number of witty banter, song, and dance.

Jane Powell passed away yesterday of natural causes in her home at the age of 92.   She was one of our last surviving links to that Golden Age of Hollywood.  

She will be missed.

John Paul Leon

 

Today the comic community lost a giant.  John Paul Leon passed away from complications from cancer. He was 49. 

JPL began working in comics at the age of 16 and quickly developed his signature style. A heavy reliance on thick black inks creating a moody atmosphere. A page by JPL was instantly recognizable. 

He was also a master draftsman, with such inventive layouts  in one of his signature series, Earth X, each issue contained a double page spread that outlined the history of a single Maeve icon.  It remains an incredible encapsulation of each hero.

From all accounts, he was one of the nicest people in comics. And to lose him at such a young age is shocking.  I don’t typically curse here but can definitely echo the sentiments of the popular hashtag about it.  Cancer sucks (and that’s the cleaner version).

His art, his person will definitely be missed.

Rest In Peace John Paul Leon

The Cinerama Dome

My photo from across the street for the 2012 TCM Film Festival

Another grand movie theater is shuttering as a result of the pandemic.  The Arclight Cinerama Dome will be closed, as a part of the closing of all Arclight and Pacific Theaters. While the loss of the other theaters in their chains sting, the loss of the Cinerama Dome is particularly hurtful.

The Cinerama Dome opened November 7, 1963, as a venue specifically designed for widescreen Cinerama films.  Cinerama used three projectors to create an 86 foot wide image on the arced screen.  The screen begins to wrap around you and the resulting image cannot be recreated on our modern equivalents.  When they have tried, like in the Blu-Ray for How the West Was Won, the resulting image is shaped to resemble a smile.  That's the only way to preserve the whole picture.

When I wrote about the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, I talked about the special theaters I've been to.  The Cinerama Dome is up there.  I've had the great pleasure of seeing How the West Was Won and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World there as part of TCM Film Festivals.  How the West Was Won had an interview with Debbie Reynolds before the film, and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had a panel with Marvin Kaplan, Karen Sharpe Kramer, Barrie Chase, and Mickey Rooney.  While those interviews definitely color the experience, there is no question that I have yet to experience a theater screen that immerses you in the film like the Cinerama experience.

We're fortunate that the building was declared a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 1998, but there is definitely something lost by not having films on display.  That's my fear in this pandemic recovery and how it has affected Hollywood - not that the megaplexes will not reopen, but that we will instead lose the small, the classic, the unique theaters that truly make the movie going experience magical.  I know the Royal here in nearby Danville has changed management due to the pandemic and has not yet announced a reopening date.

Hopefully we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm ready to light the lights and to share the theater experience again, both for live theater and for great film.  I'm ready for that communal experience that happens with a full theater and a great film.

I just hope we have unique and beautiful places to see them in once this is all done.

To the Cinerama Dome, may you soon return.

Norton Juster

"It provides the same shock of recognition as it did then - the same excitement and sheer delight in glorious lunatic linguistic acrobatics.  It is also prophetic and scarily pertinent to late-nineties urban living.  The book treats, in fantastical terms, the dread problems of excessive specialization, lack of communication, conformity, cupidity, and all the alarming ills of our time.  Things have gone from bad to worse to ugly.  The dumbing down of America is proceeding apace.  Juster's allegorical monsters have become all too real.  The Demons of Ignorance, the Gross Exaggeration (whose wicked teeth were made 'only to mangle the truth'), and the shabby Threadbare Excuse are inside the walls of the Kingdom of Wisdom, while the Gorgons of Hate and Malice, the Overbearing Know-it-all, and most especially the Triple Demons of Compromise are already established in high office all over the world.  The fair princesses, Rhyme and Reason, have obviously been banished again.  We need Milo!  We need him and his enduring buddies, Tock the watchdog and the Humbug, to rescue them once more.  We need them to clamber aboard the dear little electric car and wind their way around the Doldrums, the Foothills of Confusion, and the Mountains of Ignorance, up into the Castle in the Air, where Rhyme and Reason are imprisoned, so they can restore them to us.  While we wait, let us celebrate the good fortune that brought The Phantom Tollbooth into our lives thirty-five happy years ago.  Mazel tov, Milo, Norton, and Jules!"

Maurice Sendak, 1996 in his introduction to the book

Norton Juster passed away yesterday at the age of 91, from complications from an earlier stroke.  An architect by trade, Juster had been given a grant by the Ford Foundation in 1954 to write a children's book about cities.  Instead, he began to be preoccupied with the story of a boy who asked too many questions.  This grew into his most popular and beloved book, The Phantom Tollbooth.

The Phantom Tollbooth was a foundational book in my childhood.  There is a reason that it made my top seven books.  My sister read it first and originally had the copy, I would discover and devour it later.  The wordplay and the concepts resonated deeply with me.  It's a book I revisited in college, as a new parent, and will start re-reading now.

The book is a love letter to learning.  In it, Juster created a version of Wonderland, Oz, or Neverland filled with wordplay and puns, celebrating language and math.  Ruled by King Azaz the Unabridged and his brother, the Mathemagician, the world was filled with the most interesting characters.  The Whether Man.  The Which.  Tock, a literal watchdog.  The Humbug.  The Spelling Bee.  If you saw my online presence in the early internet, you would have discovered my appreciation for Dr. Dischord and the awful Dynne.

Beyond The Phantom Tollbooth, Juster has written such beloved works as The Dot and The Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, The Hello Goodbye Window, and The Odious Ogre.  

Though he will be missed, we are fortunate his work lives on, continuing to delight and surprise new readers, and to inspire us all.

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes ... as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."

Christopher Plummer

 

Christopher Plummer passed away today at the age of 91.  Perhaps most famously known as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Plummer's career spanned seven decades, with recognition including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a British Academy Film Award.  He is one of only twenty-four actors who have received the Triple Crown of Acting: competitive wins for an Academy Award, Tony Award, and Emmy Award.   He is the only Canadian to win the Triple Crown.

His Academy Award came at the age of 82 for Beginners, making him the oldest person to win an acting award. His nomination later at the age of 88 for All the Money in the World made him the oldest person nominated for an acting award.  He has been especially prodigious in the last several years, with a third of his film work occurring over the last 20 years.  All the Money in the World represented a particular challenge in that he was replacing Kevin Spacey after Spacey's sexual harassment history came to light.  Plummer had twelve days to prepare for the role and filmed his reshoots over ten days.  I particularly enjoyed his turn as the eccentric mystery novelist in Knives Out.

Auf Wiedersehen, Captain.  Rest in Peace.

Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson passed away Thursday, January 28, 2021 at the age of 96.  Ms. Tyson, an icon of American cinema, had a career that spanned seven decades, from an uncredited role in an amazing noir, Odds Against Tomorrow, to a Tyler Perry Netflix film released last year.   She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one Tony Award, an honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award.

I remember being introduced to Ms. Tyson through The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, a historical fiction television movie we watched in junior high.  Her ability to play the character from the age of 23 to 110, just through her performance and makeup was amazing.  Then to see her range in Fried Green Tomatoes, Sounder, and even Madea's Family Reunion has been a joy.

Jamie and I have made a point for us to have mini-film festivals each month, given our love of film and the wealth of the libraries we have a click of the remote.  January was Studio Ghibli, for us to finish the preeminent anime studios work.  This month is Black Film for Black History Month.  To look at performances for great African American actors, movies conceived by African American writers and directors, and those that are telling great black stories. 

I look forward to adding a couple of early performances with Ms. Tyson in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and A Man Called Adam.

She will be missed.

Cloris Leachman

 

Cloris Leachman passed away yesterday at the age of 94.  An impeccable comedienne and incredible actress, her impact on film and television is amazing.  I didn't realize just how acclaimed she was.  She is the most nominated and tied as the most awarded actress for the Primetime Emmys.  Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, Daytime Emmy, and National Board of Review Award winner, her credits include some of the most amazing performances put on screen.  From Ruth Popper, the lonely and depressed housewife of the closeted football coach in The Last Picture Show, to Phyllis Lindstrom the interfering downstairs neighbor on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, to Frau Blücher (Neigh), the secret keeping housekeeper in Young Frankenstein.

My favorite story about her relates to that classic role in Young Frankenstein.  When Mel decided to bring the show to Broadway in musical form in 2007,  Leachman auditioned to play Frau Blücher (neigh) in the show, as she was now closer to the age the character was supposed to be.  Mel thought at 81 she was too old for the dancing and stagework required.  "We don't want her to die on stage."  Leachman took umbrage with the statement, especially as she was appearing on Dancing With The Stars.  After seeing her success in the dancing competition, Brooks asked her to reprise the role of Frau Blücher (neigh) after the departure of the current actress in the role.  The show sadly closed before anyone could see that come to fruition.

(as an aside - That leaves Mel Brooks, Gene Hackman, and Terri Garr as the last surviving principle cast of Young Frankenstein.  And Mel and Hackman are 94 and 90 respectively.)

Leachman's career began in 1947 and will see two posthumous releases this year.  

She will be missed.

Who is Alex Trebek?

The Answer Is...

This 37 year host of the popular game show Jeopardy passed away on Sunday, November 8, 2020 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

This game show hosts awards include of seven Outstanding Game Show Host Emmy Awards and a start on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This mustachioed game show host made headlines in 2001 when he shaved off his 30 year mustache late in the shows 18th season.

This television personality forever linked with Sean Connery thanks to a series of memorable Saturday Night Live skits, passed away just a week after the celebrated Bond actor in November 2020.

This humanitarian, longtime philanthropist, and activist, devoted himself to several causes including World Vision Canada, United Service Organizations, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the University of Ottawa Forum for Dialogue (which bears his name).

This icon made intelligence, trivia, consistency, facts, wit, and humor a staple of American culture for 37 years.  Nerd icon, culture icon, iconoclast.  He will be missed.

Note: I had thought of writing this entire post in the form of a question, but realized that was the wrong approach.  So, instead, enjoy this list of answers that could be used in remembrance.

RBG

"Women belong in all the places where decisions are being made. ... It shouldn't be that women are the exception."

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away today at the age of 87.  An iconoclast, she remained a vital advocate for gender equality and women's rights right up to her passing. It is not a stretch to say her advocacy and legal career created the framework for modern gender discrimination law.  Her tireless work as an attorney for the ACLU and as a judge and Supreme Court justice, only the second woman nominated to the Supreme Court, remain a bedrock foundation in this area.  

“The work is really what saved me, because I had to concentrate on reading the briefs, doing a draft of an opinion, and I knew it had to get done. So I had to get past whatever my aches and pains were just to do the job.”

Ginsburg had been fighting pancreatic cancer for a long time.  Despite this diagnosis, she remained determined to be active on the court.  When Justice John Paul Stevens retired in 2010, Ginsburg became the oldest serving Supreme Court Justice on the court.  She wore that distinction with pride, hoping to emulate Justice Brandeis, with nearly 23 years on the court, and Justice Stevens, with nearly 35 years on the court.  Her tenure provided her 27 years on the court, and made her the fourth longest serving justice of all time.

If we follow the precedent set in 2016 with Merrick Garland, no nominee should be named to fill Ginsburg's vacancy on the Supreme Court until after the election.  President Obama had nominated Garland in March 2016, but the Senate refused to hear the nomination, arguing that the next elected president should fill the vacancy.  It was too close to the election.  With it being mid-September and the election at the very beginning of November, surely the Republican party will have the integrity to maintain the same position this year? Sadly, it doesn't look like it.

It will fall to the millions of people Notorious RBG has inspired to keep up the fight.  It looks like it will continue to be a long one.

"People ask me sometimes...'When will there be enough women on the court?'

And my answer is: 'when there are nine.'"

Chadwick Boseman

Actor Chadwick Boseman passed away yesterday, Friday, August 28, 2020, from a four year long battle with colon cancer.   He was only 43.

Boseman had made a career out of playing icons of Black history and culture.  Jackie Robinson in 42.  Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.  James Brown in Get on Up.  King T'Challa in Black Panther.  His range was incredible.  Watch 42, then Get on Up, then Black Panther to see how fully he can create and embody a character.  Particularly those that are so varied and complex.

Boseman was also one of those superhero actors that seemed to transcend the role and become a superhero themself.  Like Christopher Reeve, Chris Evans, and Gal Gadot before him, he recognized the power and impact that he had as the Black Panther and used it to greatly impact those around him.  To know that most of his time spent in the role was spent during his battle with colon cancer, makes it even more heroic.

This one hits a little too close to home.  At 43, Boseman's death is a reminder of many things.  That we do not know how much time we will be granted on this earth, so let the important people in your life know how much they mean to you.  How much you love them.  And for the same reason, we should seek to do good to everyone around us.

It reminds us to not take our health for granted.  To get checked out by a doctor, to start colonoscopies and other routine checks when prescribed.  

His life over the past four years during his cancer diagnosis reminds us that we do not know what other people are struggling with.   What battles they are facing.  The general public knew nothing of his battle; from his presence on screen, you would think nothing was wrong.  Even in physically demanding roles like the Marvel movies.  That we could all face out battles with such resolve and grace.

In a time in this world in which we need superheroes more than ever, we have lost a bright shining example.  May we rise to the occasion.

Rest in Power, Chadwick Boseman.

Olivia de Havilland

By studio - Flickr, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26528818

Award winning actress Dame Olivia de Havilland passed away Saturday, July 25, 2020.  She was 104 year old.  Over her career, she appeared in 49 films and was one of the leading actresses of her time.  That career spanned 74 years, up to narrating a documentary in 2009 at the age of 93, and included such well remembered films as The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Gone With the Wind.  de Havilland was the last surviving cast member of Gone With the Wind.  

She was also famous for her long-running feud with her sister Joan Fontaine, one that had its roots in their childhood.  This feud first came to a head in 1942, when de Havilland and Fontaine were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress‍—‌de Havilland for Hold Back the Dawn and Fontaine for Suspicion. When Fontaine's name was revealed as the winner, de Havilland reacted graciously, saying "We've got it!"  Fontaine rejected de Havilland's attempts to congratulate her, leaving the other offended and embarrassed.  The reverse would happen in 1947 when de Havilland accepted her first offer.  The feud would reach a fever pitch in 1975 over disagreements with their mother's cancer treatment and would continue until Fontaine's death in 2013.

She will be most remembered in Hollywood as the woman who took on the studio system and won.  Growing dissatisfied with the types of roles that she was being offered by Warner Brothers, her contracted studio, de Havilland longed for the more dramatic roles offered her in films like Gone with the Wind and Hold Back the Dawn, she began refusing certain roles offered to her.  In 1943, she announced that her seven year contract with Warner Bros. was up.  Warner Brothers responded that there was six months remaining because of her refusal on certain roles.  de Havilland decided to fight back arguing that Warner Bros. was violating labor laws.  She won in a decision that would be dubbed the de Havilland Law, making her a free agent.  It was the start of other stars breaking away and doing the same.  In short, she won where Bette Davis and James Cagney had lost before.

"She was tough and she stayed with it, and as a result she brought the studios to their knees.  Other actresses have won Academy Awards. Other stars have been as famous. But few had as far-reaching an impact as de Havilland did.”  Jeanine Bassinger, Chair of Film Studies at Wesleyan University

Rest in Peace, Olivia de Havilland

Good Trouble

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair.  Do not become bitter or hostile.  Be hopeful, be optimistic.  Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.  We will find a way to make a way out of no way."

Rep. John Lewis

Representative John Lewis passed away Friday at the age of 80.  Civil rights icon, representative for over 30 years, comic book graphic novel author.  Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Lincoln Medal recipient, John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Lifetime Achievement award recipient, Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize recipient.  In his lifetime, he achieved more for civil rights, more for his constituency could imagine.  

We need more people today willing to get into his good and necessary trouble.  We need people willing to risk it all for the advancement of society.  Willing to push for civil rights for all, to recognize that making a way where there is none is trying, tedious work.  That it takes a lifetime, but it is what makes a life truly matter.  

Here's to good trouble.

Rest in Peace, sir.  Your work is appreciated, perhaps now more than ever.

The 2000 Year Old Man

Mel Brooks on Carl Reiner:

So, in tribute to Mr. Reiner, the 2000 Year Old Man:

Dennis O'Neil

Celebrated comic book writer Dennis O'Neil passed away yesterday at the age of 81.  He died in his home of natural causes.

I can almost guarantee, whatever part of Batman you like, you have O'Neil to thank.  O'Neil was credited of bringing Batman back to his crime roots after the campy 1960s television show.  He revamped Two Face and the Joker, and created the eco-terrorist R'as Al Ghul.  He remained a Batman editor and influences into the 2000s. 

O'Neil was also noted for bringing social issues into this comic book writing.  He penned the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic above that asked the question why superheroes did not address the social issues of the day.  He also wrote the later issue dealing with drug abuse and addiction in which Green Arrow's sidekick speedy dealt with heroin withdrawals.  

People often forget that comics have been about social justice since their founding.  Superman was fighting slumlords in his inception.  Captain America famously punched Hitler on his cover.  Marvel Comics in the 1960s focused on civil rights.  In the 1970s, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk dealt with Women's Lib.  Social justice is the lifeblood of comic books and superheroes. 

O'Neil was one of the greatest writers to give that a voice.

He will be missed.

Going Home

Going home, going home

I am going home

Quiet like, some still day,

I'm just going home

It's not far, just close by

Through an open door

Work all done, care laid by

Going to fear no more

Mother's there, expecting me

Father's waiting too

Lots of folks gathered there

All the friends I knew

Nothing's lost, all is gain

No more fret nor pain

No more stumbling on the way

No more longing for the day

Going to roam no more

Morning star lights the way

Restless dream all done

Shadows gone, break of day

Real life just begun

There's no break, there's no end

I'll be living on.

Wide awake with a smile

Going on and on

Going home, going home

I am going home

It's not far, just close by,

Through an open door.

I'll be going home

I'll be going home

Lord I'm going home.

(Antonin Leopold Dvorak, music 1893; William Arms Fisher, lyrics 1922)

Thomas T Brooks

I've often thought there are two types of people in this world, and you can tell them by the way they respond to one particular situation.  When faced with a shortage of room at the table, there are those that build bigger fences and keep their table small, and there are those that build bigger tables.  Those with a mantra of "the more the merrier."  That are always welcoming, always inviting.

Always inclusive.

It's my goal to be the latter.  To be inclusive.  To be welcoming.  To make people feel it.

And I learned that especially from Thomas T Brooks.  PawPaw Brooks.

His circle of friends was ever expanding.  Ever changing and growing for the better.  If he met you and talked to you, you were in.  If he visited your church, you were invited to the fish fry.  

Those are the great memories.  The reunions.  The large gatherings of family and friends.  The fish frys.  The turkey frys.  Mexican Train.  Hand 'n foot.  Washers. Horseshoes.  Fishing.  Traveling in the RV.

Always on the go.  Always meeting new people, making new friends.  

And he didn't really slow down much, even right up here to the end.  Still driving into his mid-90s.  42 at the church.  Breakfast here.  Dinner there.

His personality is going to be missed, for sure.  His warmth, his welcoming.  His stories.  I know he's having a great reunion now.  Granny Brooks.  Zach.  His brothers and his family.  All those friends and neighbors that have gone on before.  What a fish fry they are having.

He leaves big shoes for the rest of us in the family to fill.  I pray we can be as warm and inviting.  As inclusive. And as celebratory of life.  

It's hard in this time when gatherings are limited, when travel is difficult.  Just being so far away.  I look forward to when we can have a great, big fish fry in memorial.  

I can't think of a better way to honor him.

Rest in Peace, PawPaw Brooks.  You've earned it.

Theater's Prince

“The two things that characterize him most are energy and impatience.  He trained as a stage manager and he learned the business from the ground up, so he knows how to order a pair of shoes, which many producers don’t.  A visual imagination is, if not his greatest strength, then one of them.  He sees things visually first, and he knows what a show looks like in his head before he takes it on.  In a certain sense, if Hal had his druthers, he’d direct operas only.  His heroes are directors like Max Reinhardt, the ones who pulled out all the stops.”

Stephen Sondheim, on Hal Prince

The lights on Broadway are a lot dimmer tonight.

Hal Prince, Broadway legend and prodigious Tony winner, died Wednesday, July 31, 2019, in Reykjavik, Iceland at the age of 91.  He had been traveling from Switzerland to his home in Manhattan, when he died in Iceland after a brief illness.

Mr. Prince began his work on Broadway in the late 1940s as an office assistant.  By 1949, Mr. Prince was an assistant stage manager on the musical “Touch and Go.”  He would go on to become a successful producer for such shows as “The Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees,” “New Girl in Town,” “Fiorello!,” “Fiddler on the Roof," and “West Side Story."

“I was grateful, but I still wanted to be a director, not just a fellow with a lot of bumbling enthusiasm who said, ‘Yeah’ and ‘Swell’ or ‘Great’ a lot.  I was not creative, not an artist. I was doing interviews about box-office grosses.  I didn’t want to be a business man.  I am a good one, but only by default.  I didn’t get into business to keep books.”  Prince in a 1968 New York Times interview.

It was "West Side Story" that would prove very influential in getting Mr. Prince his directing opportunity.   Though he had met Sondheim years before, “West Side Story” would be their first professional collaboration.  Prince produced with his partner, while Sondheim would provide lyrics.  Prince would then go on to produce “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” With the shows following, Prince would also serve as director: “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” and “Sweeney Todd.”

During this time, Prince would also produce and direct, “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane..It’s Superman,” “Cabaret,” and “Candide.” He would also form a successful partnership with an unknown at the time British creator, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.  This partnership had Prince direct “Evita,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”  “Phantom” remains the longest running show on Broadway.

He worked with an embarrassment of riches in creative talent, including Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, Leonard Bernstein, John Kander, and the aforementioned Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  He has been awarded 21 Tony’s, far surpassing anyone else in multiple categories.  His awards stretch from 1955 with “Pajama Game” and reach 2006 with his lifetime achievement.  He received his last competitive award in 1995 for his direction of an extravagant revival of “Show Boat.”

To say he is a legend is an understatement.

Mr Prince redefined Broadway several times in his career.  With “West Side Story” and Sondheim.  With “Cabaret” and the concept musical.  With “Phantom” and the epic musical.

When prominent theater professionals pass away, it is the tradition of the Broadway community for the lights of all Broadway marquees to simultaneously dim.  They are dimmed at curtain time, usually 8:00 pm and are dimmed for a full minute.  No announcement is made, aside from a press released issued by the Broadway league prior to the event.  Then the lights go up and the show goes on.

It’s a minute of silence, a minute of reflection.  A minute recognizing how dim the theater community is now with the passing of such a contributor.

For Prince, all lights were dimmed for one minute on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at exactly 7:45 pm.  

“To be both a genius and a gentlemen is rare and extraordinary.  Hal Prince’s genius was matched by his generosity of spirit, particularly with those building a career.  Sitting on the T Edward Hambleton Fellowship panel of Mentors alongside Hal was both a lesson in producing and a lesson in humanity.  He was a giant.”

Thomas Schumacher, Chairman of the Broadway League

Rest in Peace, dear Prince