Ebenezer Scrooge 1998

1998 was my fifth year of doing Jacob Marley's Ghost in Ebenezer Scrooge at Harrah's. It was always nice to reunite each year with the cast and of course, Brian and Dorothy. Diana and I also danced in the Fezziwig number which was always fun.

Man of La Mancha 1998

Since I had been doing Assassins, I didn't do the music direction for WNMTC's fall show, Man of La Mancha. In fact, I believe Stephanie asked Diana and I to do a couple small Gypsy cameos sort of at the last minute and we agreed. At least I don't remember that we did a lot of rehearsing.

Assassins 1998

In the Fall of 1998 Jeffrey Scott asked if I would be interested in doing the music direction for Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, a musical based on the different presidential assassins. It was being produced by The Brewery Arts Center in Carson City and sounded like an interesting project. I ended up also doing MIDI tracks for the background music, as well as playing the narrator character called The Balladeer.

Below is the poster but unfortunately I don't seem to have any pictures from this production.

Jukebox Dreams with Tony Orlando 1998

Over Labor Day weekend in 1998 Tony Orlando brought his semi-autobiographical musical, Jukebox Dreams, to Harrah's Lake Tahoe. For some reason they were short a backup singer, and Harrah's called Bob Grant to see if he would fill in. Apparently he couldn't, but gave them my name, so I got the call. I remember there being only one three-hour rehearsal where I had to learn the music for two songs by ear. They didn't have any charts. Yikes. If I recall correctly there were three performances and I got something like $150. Good thing I didn't tell them I would have done it for free. Tony thanked me and gave me an autographed CD as a souvenir.

Jesus Christ Superstar 1998

For some reason Dave Hamilton decided to change the production of the one musical a year that LTCC was going to do from Fall quarter to Spring Quarter which is why we had Fiddler in Fall 1996 and then Superstar not until Spring of 1998. I remember talking with him about what show to do, and he had mentioned Superstar since he had always wanted to do it. I had said I love Superstar and had done it about four years ago. He asked about how we could do a full orchestra in that space, and I said that would be tough, but you could use MIDI. I knew about MIDI but had not really ever done much with it. So I pretty much taught myself how to create MIDI background tracks during Superstar. We could also customize it to the singer, change keys, add percussion, etc. The other benefit would be that I would be available if needed to perform any of the roles. As it turned out I ended up playing Judas, Dave played Simon, and Kurt Munger played Peter. We like to say our production was one of the first to "modernize" the story.

The Trib gave us a nice little promo piece.

Below are some photos from the production. Since Ron Bush (who was playing Jesus) and I had similar hair color, we kind of looked like Big Jesus and Little Jesus. I ended up bleaching mine to platinum blonde for a sort of Billy Idol look.

Romantic Moments 1998

Stephanie Arrigotti asked Katherine DeBoer and me to perform some music for a WNCC Foundation Fundraiser. I've been pleased to do these as my community service and it was fun to get to sing with Katherine. What a voice.

Ebenezer Scrooge 1997

Usually we would finish up the fall show for WNMTC and then start into rehearsals for Scrooge. 1997 was no different. Since so many people had been doing it for so many years, it sort of fell into that "everyone is a director" mode where if Bob tried to change something, we would always hear, "Well, last year we did it this way." I only played Jacob Marley that year. Diana got to play Mrs. Cratchitt.

We got a cover and feature in Best Bets.

The Action also had a nice cover and piece.

Brigadoon 1997

Sometimes it's nice to get recast in a role with which you're familiar already. Since I was being paid to do the vocal direction, I was happy to fill in where needed, but was also fortunate to get the opportunity to do many great leads. So in the fall of 1997 when WNMTC decided to do Brigadoon, it was my third time getting to play the role of Tommy Albright and it was fun to play opposite Liz again. Below is the program and poster.

We had a nice review in the Action.

Stephanie also sent me a very complimentary letter along with originals of the some of the publicity photos. I had also gotten a lovely colorized version of one of them which had been used for the poster.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 1997

In the Summer of 1997 WNMTC produced How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a popular show but not particularly one of my favorites. The composer, Frank Loesser, also wrote Guys and Dolls. I did the vocal direction and played a small role, Mr. Twimble. When not onstage I was in the pit playing synthesizer.

It's funny that there's a quotation of Twimble's on Quotes.net:

Mr. Twimble: Last month I became a quarter-of-a-century man.
J. Pierpont Finch: Oh, that's beautiful, a quarter-of-a-century.
Mr. Twimble: Quarter-of-a-century.
J. Pierpont Finch: How long have you been in the mail room?
Mr. Twimble: Twenty-five years. It's not easy to get this medal. It takes a combination of skill, diplomacy, and bold caution.

Fiddler on the Roof 1997

Almost right after Earnest, WNMTC opened up their production of Fiddler on the Roof. I did the vocal direction and also played the role of Sasha, one of the Russians. I got to stand on a table and hold a high G for a long time during the song "L'chaim."

Importance of Being Earnest 1997

Looking back I can't figure out why I decided to do this play, The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde. I did have fun. Diana and I were both cast opposite each other. But it was just way too many lines and I swore that would be the last straight play I ever did.

Below are photos of Marshall Lord and I as Algernon and Jack, as well as the entire cast. Liz Niven was the director.

Trial by Jury 1997

In April of 1997 I directed a one-act operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan called Trial by Jury for the UNR Opera program. We did six shows total including some morning shows for school kids.

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