Okay, to start off, it was VERY cold, and we parked in the scariest parking structure in the world/my life, and I was terrified. It wasn’t fun, like no.
My mom and I were the first ones there, and Mr D sat us and a woman who was there right behind us about half an hour before everybody else. It made me feel special, and we had amazing seats.
Special Guest Audience Members: Tim Connell and another Spamalot ensemble member were in the performers’ section bench thing. Natalie Daradich was across the aisle one seat back from me. Holly Hyman, Everth Lopez and Eddy Rioseco’s wife were all behind me. Kristen Faith Oei was somewhere not near me, but I saw her after the show. Alexa Green’s husband/boyfriend was with her in the performer’s section. Fiama Fricano was somewhere where I didn’t see her until the end when the performers bunched into a group.
Show: Scott opened and sang Pieces, which was an amazing song. He has an amazing voice, and I can’t even comprehend how he manages to write such amazing songs.
While he was trying to introduce Merle (Dandridge, Spamalot’s Lady of the Lake), he mentioned that they had two musicals there, Spamalot and Wicked. Tim Connell shouted up ‘Spamalot’s better!’ at which a Wicked v Spamalot war broke out. Vicki shouted out ‘Isn’t that show closing?’ which got the audience to ‘ooooooooooh’. Scott was dying on stage, just listening. And then it died down, and I saw Tim and Vicki like making sure people on the other show knew they were joking. So funny.
Scott gave Merle an amazing introduction, saying how she had been one of the first people to sign up when he had made it public that he was going to be doing a concert. He said that she had sung the song she was about to sing with a few other people in New York.
Merle got up on stage and sang Never Never Land, and it was fantastic. She doesn’t belt that much as the Lady of the Lake, but she was belting out the song like there was no tomorrow. Her arms were completely spread out, the mic was as far away as her arms would let it be, and her voice was still overpowering. She was amazing. Seriously, she rivaled SJB, it was that good.
Scott kept talking about his boyfriend throughout the concert, saying that he had ironed his shirt, and that he didn’t like pda’s or something. Very cute.
Scott mentioned that he didn’t have a set song list or anything, and asked for suggestions. Tim Connell shouted up ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, and Scott didn’t see who had said it, so he said ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow, that must have been somebody from Wicked!’ Which made Tim Connell laugh, and then he shouted up that it was Spamalot. Rivalry war continues. Whenever he could, Tim shouted up for Scott to sing that song, and Scott nicknamed him ‘Somewhere Over the F__king Rainbow’ for the night. It was very funny.
Scott sang West next, as chosen by the audience, and it was amazing. I loved hearing him sing it. Julia does a fantastic job on the CD, but there was something about how Scott sang it, and the fact that he had written it. It made it have more meaning and depth. Overall a great song sang fantastically.
Scott sang Blessing, which he told us was written for his mom when he came out to her. It was a very sad story, and got a lot of ‘aww’s. He sang it beautifully. At one point, apparently he cracked (he covered it so well I didn’t notice), but then he really quickly at a pause in the song said ‘That was pretty!’ and continued. It lightened up the song a bit.
Then, Vicki came up, and Scott mentioned that she was an alternate, and she said ‘No, I’m the standby’. And there was a pause, and Scott said ‘But you go on a lot?’ And there was an awkward silence and then he said ‘Should I not be saying that?’ And Vicki was all ‘No, it’s the truth right?’ But I noticed they changed the subject very quickly after that. She said she’d been living the lyrics since she decided she’d sing that song, and that people at ‘work’ got really frustrated with her, because in the middle of a conversation she’d pause them and go through the lyrics in her head. He introduced her and said that she was going to be singing ‘And There It Is’.
As soon as the opening chords sounded, Vicki was completely in character. She was like heartbroken. Kind of I’m Not That Girl-ish. When she got to belting parts, she completely BELTED. At one point in the song she forgot the lyrics, and had to go back a line, and then still couldn’t remember what it was, and so she paused, and then went back a few more lines. When she still couldn’t remember, she turned to Scott and went ‘What am I missing?’ (It was ‘Will I surrender?’) But she couldn’t remember it, so she grabbed the mic off of the stand and said ‘I’m going to stand by you’, but Scott was all ‘I don’t have the lyrics!’ So there could have been a big problem. She got a lyric sheet from one of the Wicked performers, and got back up, saying ‘I’m never going to work with Scott Alan again’, but as a like joke.
Scott told her to get off the stage, and then he said ‘Wait, you get to restart? Sit back down, I’m resigning Blessing!’ Then started introducing her again. "She is currently not starring, but standby-ing as the Lady of the Lake understudy in the Wizard of Oz, to sing Somewhere over the F___ING Rainbow.... You've never seen her before, Vicki Noon!" She was bent over from laughing too hard, as was the whole audience.
Vicki got back up there and gave that song her all. It was fantastic, completely better than Lisa’s. I love Lisa, but really, Vicki surpassed her. She was belting every part she could, and only had to look down at her lyrics a few times. She looked amazing, and sang amazing. Vicki Noon is an amazing performer.
Scott Alan sang Kiss The Air next, and all I can say is A+. It was fantastic. I don’t remember the specific back-story, but he was giving back-stories to every single song.
Scott then said that his musical had taken 7 years so far, but that he keeps telling himself that Next to Normal took like 11. He said he brought a song to his (former) producers, and they wanted him to write funny and up-tempo, so he had an up tempo song for it, sang by Alexa Green. He at one point, once she was on the stage, said that he always wrote his songs for Elphabas, at which point Alexa kind of just stared at him until he said ‘And Glindas’, and then she was all happy again. She looked amazing, too.
The song was called ‘I Wish’, and it was a very bouncy and fun song, and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think it will be put on a CD because it’s from his musical, but if it was, I’d want Alexa to sing it. It was the first time that song had been debuted anywhere before, so yay Alexa. She was amazing.
Scott then sang a song he didn’t tell us the name of, other than that it came right after that song, I Wish. It was amazing, but because I didn’t get the name, unfortunately it didn’t stick out.
Celisse. Wow. She came up, and first of all, she and Scott were talking about the voicemail she left on his phone. He said that he sends singers a few songs so they can pick the one they want to sing or most relate to, and he said ‘And Celisse left a seven minute message—‘ Celisse said that it wasn’t seven minutes, and he amended it to ‘A seven and a half minute message saying Scott. Scott. Scott. Hun. Hun. This is the jam. Hun, this song is the jam. It’s the jam.’ Which is apparently Celisse’s thing that she says. Merle had had the message played for her and she said that that’s what it was, in a nutshell.
Wow. Really. Celisse sang Behind These Walls, which is the song Kerry Ellis sings on the CD. She didn’t BEAT Kerry, persay, but wow. She belted, and riffed, and was completely amazing. Every now and then she would go slightly nasal, but she completely made up for it with everything else. There was so much emotion, and everything was spot on. She was obviously the highlight of the night – she received a very long applause, and a standing ovation. Merle ended up throwing her shoe onstage. When Celisse left the stage she had to point viciously over to it so she would grab it for her. Celisse was amazing. A fantastic performer.
Eddy came up next, and Scott talked about how he knew Eddy for a while through Eddy’s wife, whose name I don’t remember. Eddy and Scott called her up and she gave Scott a hug. They talked a bit about how she was pregnant (about 9 months, so excited for Eddy and her!). Scott asked the audience what they thought the baby was, boy or girl, and people shouted out what they thought. When it quieted down, he went ‘Well I hope it’s a gay boy!’ And some people I guess thought that was mean, and he was all ‘No, that’s a good thing! Or a lesbian!’ Very funny. All the time Eddy was sitting there with his expression saying ‘Can I sing my song now please?’ It was very funny.
He sang a song (I believe) from Scott’s musical, called Now. It wasn’t very belty, more of a calm and serene song, but it was amazing. Eddy was fantastic with it. He also had amazing chemistry with Scott, ha.
Right before Scott started his next song, Holly sighed loudly, and it sounded like an ‘UGH’. Scott had already played the opening chords, but he put his hands down and looked around and was all ‘Who was that?’ I pointed at Holly so he wouldn’t think it was me, and he started talking while he turned back to his microphone and piano. Several crude remarks were uttered by him, which was funny, but not enough to get in trouble over typing it here.
Scott then sang It’s Good To See You Again, which was so fantastic I’m scared to listen to Marcus Paul James’ version of it, haha. It was amazing, but nothing stuck out. I loved it though.
Scott said that he had been talking about all his old boyfriends and breakups when his boyfriend was in the audience, and he said that Please Don’t Let Me Go (sung by Caissie Levy on the CD) was a song he had written for him. He said it was like the hardest song ever, and he was going to crack a hundred times, but he was going to sing it anyway. ‘....And crack a hundred times.’ He didn’t crack ones, and it sounded beautiful. I glanced over at his boyfriend and he looked really touched that Scott was singing it for him at the concert.
Scott asked the audience what they’d like for the finale, and by loudest vote, it was Always. He was about to start, and then his boyfriend reminded him about the CDs. He said that he’d have his CDs for sale outside and he’d be signing them, and I said ‘YES’ a bit too loudly, and he laughed and said something about me being excited or something. He was interacting really well with the audience, I think partially because it was such an intimate place. Somehow he got onto the topic of a sharpie, and somebody asked him what color, and he said ‘Black, of course! ...Not that I’m racist about sharpies! If you have a white, tan, yellow, red, green sharpie, I’ll sign with it. All sharpies are equal!’
Anyway, he sang Always, which was a really, really sweet song, and then he thanked everybody for coming. Bunches of applause.
After: Alexa and I chatted briefly.
Vicki was walking past me, and we locked eyes and a look of recognition was on her face. She was all ‘Oh, hi! How are you?’ It really made me happy that she recognized me
I explained that I was the one who had interviewed her over facebook, and asked if she got the questions, and she said no, and that she had been wondering where they were. I’ll be resending them to her, so her interview should be coming soon. I also mentioned that I had sent notes in last time I went to Wicked, and she remembered, and I asked her if that was okay to do, and she said yes.
I saw Kristen Faith Oei and talked to her about how I saw her last time I went to Wicked, and that she was in Angela’s track. She seemed shocked that I had known that, and said that it was nice that I knew the ensemble as well as I did, because they often don’t get credit. I told her that whenever people come out of the stagedoor I try and talk to as many as I can. Celisse was right there, so I told her that she had run away last time, and she was sorry, haha. I told her she was fantastic, and she thanked me, and made sure I was going to get home okay before leaving. She is so sweet, as is Kristen.
I was at my table talking to my mom, and Tim Connell went up to me. I didn’t talk to him, he went straight up to me. He said ‘I was just telling your mom thank you for exposing you to things like this. She told me that this is your dream, and I just wanted to tell you to stick to it. No matter what anybody says. Don’t become discouraged, because you will succeed if you try your hardest. And if you don’t succeed, that’s okay, because at least you tried.’ He made me cry. He is really one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I asked if I could hug him and he said yes, and more tears came. I didn’t let them go though, so I was just teary eyed. It meant a lot that he wanted me to know that.
After that, I brought my newly purchased CD and went into the line for Scott. He shook my hand and asked who I was, and personalized my CD. Commented on my name, too. He was really making the effort to connect to his fans, despite it being past 1 in the morning and him being very tired. I said I thought he should do another San Francisco concert, and he said that he has one in LA and one in London coming up. So, yay for people who can go to those! I got a picture with him.
Opinion: I really, really think Scott should make a special CD or something for the San Francisco performers. They were all amazing.
The Rrazz room was probably the best place for Scott to throw his first concert. It was small enough that every seat was a good seat, and you could see everything. The lighting was amazing, as was just the room in general. The performers and songs and Scott made it a very special evening.
Feel free to ask any questions
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Thanks for writing such a famazing review! It really feels like you're there when you're reading it!
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