TGIF! Friday presents..."Cool" from "West Side Story" (1961)!

One of my favorite songs from my favorite musical. Besides, it's hot out there. We all need to get a little "cool".

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B.K. to J.I. = "Great job!"

A few months ago, my friend Janelle received an email from Barry Keating, who wrote the music and book for the "Starmites". He had just watched the videotape of the Theatre Cedar Rapids "Starmites" production Janelle and I were in wayyyyy back in 1995. So I emailed Barry myself and he sent me this lovely note:

Barry Keating on Facebook
March 24 at 4:50pm
"Hey Jeff - Just saw your performance on a dvd yesterday. Great job!"

Nice. That's me in the foreground (1995) decked out in leather, as Space Punk, leader of The Starmites. Kick-ass show. One of those shows you either like or hate. Not unlike the musical "Blood Brothers" which I was in 3 productions of - once as Mickey (one brother) and twice as The Narrator.

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I wanna be "Next to Normal".

I mean, I wanna be IN "Next to Normal".

"Next to Normal" is a rock musical that concerns a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effect that her illness has on her family. The musical also addresses such issues as grieving a loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and suburban life.

Never heard of it until I watched the Tony Awards last night. Besides Alice Ripley's acceptance speech for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (wasn't sure if that was Ripley giving the speech or the bipolar character she plays in the musical), I was drawn into the story and music. I would love to perform in it.

Aside from Ripley's win, the musical won 2009 Tony Awards for Best Original Score for Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics) and Best Orchestration for Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt.

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TGIF! presents..."What's the Buzz" from "Jesus Christ Superstar"!

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An "ECHOES" flashback to the Summer of '94!

I saw this picture posted on my actor-friend John Rich's Facebook site of he and I in the musical, "Echoes" - a spectacular musical review we performed at Theatre Cedar Rapids in CR, IA in the summer of 1994. John's lying on the floor and I'm right above the guy in the white tee - Jake Stigers.

Whew. Where did the time go? THAT was a WILD show - and THOSE were some wild parties. Theatre lore in them parts nowadays...but don't ask me to tell you about it, OK? Had to be there. Moving on, the above picture is a group of us singing "Officer Krupke" from "West Side Story". Excellent show, "Echoes" was. We covered everything from "Le Miz" and "Miss Saigon" to "Cabaret", "Little Shop", "Tommy" and "Big River".

Did I mention what a wonderful time we had? John and his wife, Dee (also in "Echoes") live in AZ with their two children. There we are below - today. Me (left) and John (right).

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"Mariaaa. I just kissed a girl named Mariaaa!"

West Side Story movie poster.

My favorite musical of all-time...West Side Story. (Fingersnaps.) "Snap, snap, snap, snap, de da da da daaaaa, de da de da de daaaaa, snap, snap, snap, snap."

West Side Story opened on Broadway 50 years ago today. Geezuz. Almost forgot this little tid-bit. Thank you, NPR.

I sang "Officer Krupke" in a musical review back in 1994. Loved it. Love the movie - that jazz dancing is my favorite of all the dances. Jets. Sharks. That jazzy sound of the early 60's, Bernstein, Laurents, Sondheim...I get chills thinking about it. I wanna do the musical! I wanna jump around on stage and sing those gorgeous songs and feel what Riff and Maria and Tony and Bernardo and the Jets and Sharks were feeling.

Is it too late to play the malt shop owner, perhaps? The movie came out in 1961 and was a huge success - the most nominated for it's time - 12 nominations, was it? And it won 11.

The original Broadway playbill.

George Chakiris won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Bernardo, leader of the P.R. Sharks.

I'll let you go online and explore the story, the movie, the stage version and the songs - "Maria", "Somewhere", "Cool", the Jet Song - listen to them. Buy the soundtrack. This is a musical that changed musical theater forever. It's theme is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.

And remember: "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way from your first cigarette 'til your last dying day!" Cool. Be-bop!

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