Russ
Lorenson News
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Summer, 2008
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Above: Lee
Meriwether, as she was when I had a teenage
crush on her
Below: Lee with me in Michigan - and I
still
have a crush on her!
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Friends,
I hope your summer is going well! Though it's
been quiet for me on the performing front, I've
been busy working on a revamp of
A Little Travelin' Music for it's first
performance in 2 years, as well as putting the
brand-new show together for our Fall debut and
recording.
Since the last newsletter, I had an absolute
ball working on
Nunsense Jamboree in Michigan, working
with 4 great co-stars, including the
incomparable Lee Meriwether. What I hadn't
disclosed in past newsletters is that one of my
biggest teenage crushes was on Ms. Meriwether,
during the years she starred on the TV show,
Barnaby Jones. It was such a great
thrill to meet her in person (she is
still
Miss America gorgeous!) and get to become
friends with this incredible lady. One of the
highlights of my life will be remembering going
grocery shopping with Lee at 2 in the
morning...details will remain confidential, but
let's just say we had a blast...
As I've said, the new show will debut in October
in both San Francisco and New York, and then
it's straight into rehearsals, reprising my role
as Father Virgil with those wacky Little Sisters
of Hoboken in
Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical,
which will keep me busy until New Year's. We
are already busy booking 2009 appearances
(including an appearance at the Peppermill
Resort Casino in Reno!). I hope to see you at
one thing or another, and if you can't make it
yourself, please tell your friends to come see a
show.
As usual, thanks for your love and support!
Russ Lorenson
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On The Road Again...
Fresh off my "April in Paris" trip, I'm eager to
do the first performance of
A Little Travelin' Music
in over 2 years! Dusting it off after all this
time has been fun - we've taken a good look at
the show and have made several changes to the
set list, adding some great new tunes that we
missed the first time around. That being said,
"I Love Paris" is definitely a keeper, now that
I've finally gotten to visit there.
 Unfortunately
for most of you, the performance will be a
private event for the members of the Rossmoor
Community here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rossmoor is a gated community in Walnut Creek,
California, with a population of about 9,200. It
was one of the first "active adult" communities
for residents 55 years or older in the U.S., and
has won numerous awards for its outstanding
community.
As part of their annual
Summer Outdoor Concert Series,
the boys in the band and I will be taking the
Rossmoor residents on an evocative excursion
through the Great American Songbook, featuring
songs by composers such as Cole Porter, George
and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer and Cy Coleman.
We will fly away on wings of song...from London
to Chicago, Rome to New York, and from Paris
back to San Francisco.
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Standard Time
There used to be a time when pop music was
jazz, when the hippest singers were also the
most popular, and when the elastic swing of
jazz propelled feet as well as toes. But
with the dominance of hip-hop, the
fragmentation of the music audience, and the
current distance of real jazz from the
cultural center, it's easy to see why the
Great American Songbook has been declared
dead, if not at least on life support.
Well, I disagree! And I have a show full of
"new standards" to prove my point that
well-written songs with meaningful lyrics
are still being written today, just waiting
to be interpreted by thoughtful,
jazz-inspired vocalists. My brand-new show
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Standard Time - explores the Great
American Songbook of the New Millennium,
featuring great songs written within the
last 20 years.
We've
reconfigured the sound of the band for this
show, and in addition to
Kelly Park on piano and
Brian Carmody on drums, we will be
featuring New York-based (or is that "New
York bass-ed")
Tom Hubbard
on upright bass, and San Francisco Bay Area
favorite
Terrence Brewer
on guitar.
I'm pleased
to announce that the show will debut in
October at two of the best clubs in the
country:
The Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko in San
Francisco
Sunday, October 12, 7:00pm
AND
The Metropolitan Room in New York City.
PLUS
- we will be
recording the New York shows for a live
album!!
If you live in or near New York City, or
will be heading there for this year's
Cabaret Convention (which starts October
29), mark your calendars now to be there!
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It's beginning to
look a lot like... Christmas??
 Yup,
that's right! I'm so excited that creator Dan
Goggin has asked me to reprise my role as Father
Virgil in a new production of
Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical
at The Willows Cabaret in Martinez, California.
Nuncrackers:
The Nunsense Christmas Musical is the
first "TV Special" taped by the Little Sisters
of Hoboken in their convent basement cable
access TV studio. It stars the nuns you love
plus Father Virgil and some of Mt. Saint Helen's
most talented students. It features all new
songs including: "Twelve Days Prior to
Christmas," "Santa Ain't Comin' To Our House,"
"We Three Kings of Orient Are Us," and "It's
Better to Give Than To Receive." This show is
filled with Nunsense humor, some of your
favorite carols, a "Secret Santa," and an
uproarious take on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker
Ballet. Nuncrackers will make you laugh and
maybe tug at your heartstrings. It's the perfect
way to ensure your holiday season is merry and
bright!
Nunsense
was originally produced as a cabaret revue at
The Duplex in New York's Greenwich Village in
1983, scheduled to run for four weekends only.
38 weeks later, the show was a certified hit,
and it was expanded to a full-length musical.
It opened Off-Broadway in 1985, won four Outer
Critics' Circle Awards, and in 1992 became the
second-longest running Off-Broadway musical in
history. The show has been produced in over 25
countries in over 5000 different productions and
has generated ticket sales of over $300
million! Since the original, there have been 6
additional shows in the
Nunsense
franchise, including
Nunsense 2: The Second Coming, Sister Amnesia's
Country Western Nunsense Jamboree,
Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical,
Meshuggah-Nuns, and Nunsensations: The Nunsense
Vegas Revue.
The show runs November 17 - December 28, 2008 at
The Willows Cabaret at the Campbell Theatre in
Martinez, California. Tickets are $15-$25,
available by calling the box office at (925)
798-1300, or
purchase online by clicking here.
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Book me for your
private party or corporate event!
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