XX04 Notes
Although the show originated at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ, I’d really always dreamed of presenting the Xtravaganza in a beautiful theater instead of a bar. The idea of Town Hall, or someplace like it, had been in the back of my mind ever since dragging the show across the Hudson to the Bottom Line in 1994.
Ten years later, the story of the 2004 Xmas Xtravaganza begins with the search for a new venue. Besides the fact that there was occasional negative audience feedback about the BB King Blues Nite Club (possibly because it is human nature to resist change), I had a number of reasons to consider looking elsewhere. Mostly, I was annoyed at the lack of an acceptable date offered to me by the club. As things turned out, I now consider that quasi-snub a blessing.
Xtravaganza helper and good friend Kathy Wagner offered us a terrific option. ‘How would you like to play in a gorgeous new theatre, larger than BBKings, but not too large, in Atlantic City’s newest and most extravagant hotel?’ she asked. In New Jersey. Imagine that: bringing the Xtravaganza back to the state from which it began.
After giving it a lot of thought and much hand ringing, I declined the excellent Borgota offer – not an easy thing to do. In fact, I began considering putting the show on hold for the year. But my daughter Sally’s protest changed my mind. There were a number of comrades who work on the show each year who were disappointed in my state of mind, but what I needed to inspire me to get serious and pull the show together was the voice of a child. My ‘little’ girl – now a teenager - wanted me to forge ahead with Dad’s neurotic annual Christmas event again this year.
I usually need to commit the show to a date in a venue by around August or September. Here it was late October and I was just beginning to call NJ theaters. There are a number of local places I have fond personal memories of attending events at – so I called a few of them. McCarter Theatre and Alexander Hall in Princeton for starters. Then I remembered my old acquaintance Chris Butler at the State Theatre in New Brunswick having long ago suggesting we try it at his theater.
I’ve been to the State Theatre often. You might say I grew up in that cavernous old movie house. I saw “Let It Be” there, as well as “2001 A Space Odyssey”, “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid”, “Mary Poppins” and “Woodstock”. I caught Sid Gottleib’s band Heavy Trucking play there in the 70s and I took my son Beau to see “Plan 9 From Outer Space” on the big screen. It’s a grand old theatre, built in the 1920s, which has seen its share of high and low periods (I remember “Deep Throat” advertised on the marquis). But due to people like Chris Butler, the staff of the theater, and help from the State of NJ and the City Of New Brunswick, the State Theatre has been renovated back to it’s original magnificence.
Chris said the theatre might be available for the Xtravaganza.
But if I made that move, I knew I’d face a problem. The State Theatre seats 1800. That’s considerably larger than our previous venues. We’d always done well at BB Kings & the Bottom Line before, usually selling out, but the State Theatre holds THREE TIMES as many people. The place could look empty even with as many in the audience as a sold out house at BBKings’ would hold. And on top of that, the show had spent the past ten years in Manhattan. There was a good possibility we’d lose a considerable portion of the audience by relocating 35 miles south.
And you might not think it to look at me with red or green hair, but I am naturally a conservative guy.
Still, nervously, I called a guy Chris Butler introduced me to named Dave Hartkern, the State Theater’s General Manager. We began banging out details for the show. Dave’s a bright, funny and talented dude (he also plays drums with NJ band ‘Primitive Soul’). I was taking on a major risk. For the first time in my career I found myself paying for the use of a venue, as well as the union workers there, and picking up all the advertising costs myself. In other words, I became the show’s PROMOTER.
Yikes.
I figured we would either break even, or it’d be the last time I ever did the Xmas Xtravaganza. It was a major risk, but we went for it.
Kathy Wagner jumped in immediately, coming up with a plan of action regarding organizing and promotion. You’d be hard pressed to find someone as resourceful, capable and hard working as Kathy.
Next on board was Jeff Hoffberger, who has mixed the show a number of previous years. Jeff is a Production wiz. When I first called he was on the road with Cyndi Lauper, but he still found time to scheme up elaborate, inspired and intelligent ideas for our Christmas show.
Simply put, the XX04 would not have been as wonderful as it was without the talent and hard work of both Kathy and Jeff. For this, I am grateful.
The entire time leading up to the show I was concerned about not having the right size turnout. What if I brought this big show I organize every year to my hometown ONLY TO HAVE IT FLOP??ENTER BRIAN O'BOYLE
I called my old friend and publicist extraordinaire Brian O’Boyle, asking for advice. Unlike previous years, when the venue took care of the advertising, I was on my own this time. Both Brian and Kathy had very effective ideas concerning getting the word out.
ENTER KRISTA WALHAGEN
Designer Krista Walhagen volunteered to design a logo, a postcard, a lanyard, and a print ad for the promo, which came out great. Kathy ordered the printing, and we were off and running.
My wife Rosie got involved in a way she hadn’t previously. She’s my partner in so many other areas of my life, I guess she decided I could use some help in this endeavor. She began by looking into something I’ve been talking about wanting to do for years…
ENTER MIKE CALLAHAN
Rosie contacted Mike - a young, bright, and very hard working Attorney. (He’s also Plinky’s son-in-law). Mike dove into the arduous process of helping us incorporate the organization and file as an official Non-Profit organization. Through the years the money has always gone to charity, but now it’s all ‘legal’ and officially recognized by the state of New Jersey as a “501C” corporation. Are you impressed? Truth is, Mike has invested countless hours, gratis, so that we can make sure we’re as effective as possible. What a guy.
YA GOTTA START SOMEWHERE
With ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ lurking ahead on the not-so-distant horizon, I called Barbara Hahn to ask if she thought we could pull together a decent choral group to sing Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. Barbara’s not only an excellent soprano, but also a solid musician and one of my best friends. She said she thought we could do it, and suggested she bring along a bass singer friend of hers.
ENTER RICHARD LOGAN
Richard sings bass in the Saint Martin of Tours Parish church choir (New Hope, PA) with Barbara, and he signed on for our little choral performance. Since Deena Miller agreed to sing with Barbara on other Xmas material for the show again (as she had the year before), she would sing the alto part for the “Hallelujah Chorus”. My original intention was to perform the piece with only 4 voices, and now we had one for each part (soprano Barbara, alto Deena, bass Richard and yours truly singing tenor), but Barbara suggested we might be wise to expand to a larger group, especially considering the grandiose nature of Handel’s piece. She had a good point, and so I thought to add 4 more singers, one for each of the parts (so each part was doubled).
ENTER JOE SUCHOCKI
Finding bass voices ain’t easy – bass singers don’t grow on trees. Most guys with deep ranges would rather play football than study music, and most of us music type males who develop versatile singing voices tend to be ‘girlie men’ tenors. (Rock/Pop tends to develop testicularly challenged high singing). I thought of the choir director from my wife’s church (Our Lady Of Peace), Joe Suchocki, remembering he had a deep speaking voice, and asked him to join us (he did), then Joe suggested who he referred to as a “soprano to die for” he knew…
ENTER MONIQUE LIGORI, MARTY O’KANE and AMANDA HOMI
Since Joe spoke so highly of Monique, I HAD to ask her – and she generously took time away from putting her little boy to sleep a few nights for the sake of my rehearsals. I next asked my friend and guitarist from Spiraling, Marty O’Kane, to join me in the tenor section. I asked the great Joy Askew if she’d sing the alto part for us, and she suggested bringing along her friend Amanda Homi, as another alto.
So the tally was such that we now had 2 basses, two tenors, two sopranos and three altos…I was concerned this imbalance might make the blend ALTO HEAVEY (I’m funny that way). So I called to ask old friend and wonderful soprano Nancy Sebastian to sign on as soprano, then Dave Anthony to sing bass, and wonder boy Tom Brislin to round out the tenor section. Now we had 3 voices doing each of the 4 parts. Only thing was, I was depending on Tom to be the pianist for the piece, and now he would need replacing. So Tom suggested a star piano pupil of his could handle the Handel.
ENTER MIKE STEIN
High School Student Mike Stein is a serious young player, with a great attitude, solid work ethic and potent chops. He took on the piece, studying it and learning it in time for the show.
I called my long time friend and Slaves Of New Brunswick co-hort Tony Shanahan. Because his touring schedule with Patti Smith was so busy, he almost wouldn’t be available. But things turned out just right; Tony was available again this year (he hasn’t missed many Xtravaganzas).
Aware of the size of the State Theatre’s stage, I knew it offered so many previously unaffordable options space-wise. I imagined filling the stage with a boatload of musicians. I reached out to my extremely talented horn-playing friends to begin assembling a section. And then I wondered, wouldn’t a string section be spectacular?
ENTER JAMES EGAN
Jamie Eagan is a trumpet player, whose played with high caliber ska bands Catch 22 and Streetlight Manifesto. He‘s also Director of my town’s High School band programs. Only two or three weeks before the show, I contacted Jamie to ask him about two of his student groups of musicians, starting with a string section…
ENTER THE NORTH BRUNSWICK TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL STRING ENSEMBLE
Amazingly, these student players fearlessly dove in and began learning the music Mr. Egan was putting in front of them, which was changing day-to-day and always fresh from the little ink-jet printer in Egan’s office. I was interacting with Jamie almost daily, and thrilled at the idea of the addition of these enthusiastic young musicians into our Xtravaganza family, while their Director worked beyond the call, rearranging string parts, squeezing in extra rehearsals and magically finding a way to supply transportation for all the musicians he was adding to the show. To me, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
There was one more group from the High School I asked about.
ENTER THE NBTHS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
I had seen a performance by this impressive drum group the previous spring, and wondered how we could fit them into the Christmas show. I asked Eagan about them, who laid down the ground work with their Director, Paul Bongiovi (yes, he’s related to you-know-who). I attended one Percussion Ensemble rehearsal, and we very quickly figured out a way to present this group’s amazing performance.
At the same time I was organizing the rehearsals for the show’s backline band. These are reunions of a sort, since many of us only see each other once a year and it’s comforting to see old faces like Bernie Brausewetter, Mark Sacco, Tony Shanahan, Plinky, Tom Brislin, Jerome Tyus and Dave Anthony together as a band, re-learning the Christmas repertoire. The parade of talent comes and goes at these get togethers, as we work out with Carlton Brown, Antonique Smith and a new addition who Kathy Wagner suggested.
ENTER FREEDOM BREMNER
A man named Freedom. Imagine that. And to boot, the guy is a killer singer, and a charming dude. Freedom didn’t know any of us, and when I thanked him for being adventurous enough to jump in taking the time to work on a show like mine, which he’d known nothing about previously, he said, “That’s the joy of it.” That stuck as one of the most memorable statements of this year’s show for me.
As far as promoting the show, I did a few interviews with NJ papers, and there were pieces in The Courier News (thanks Bob Makin), The Home News Tribune (thanks Chris Jordan), The Asbury Park Press (thanks Kelly Jane Cotter), The Star Ledger (thanks Jay Lustig), and New Jersey Monthly (thanks Tom Mackin). One early morning I brought Beau & Sally into Manhattan, where we picked up Darla and made what has become my annual appearance on the Scott And Todd morning show on WPLJ (thanks to “Jersey Girl” Diana Ferrito). Jeff Tomberg met us there, to join in playing tuba along with our couple of songs. After that, we left Darla to her day of college classes, and drove down to Asbury Park to sing on “The Point” and “The Hawk”, in promotion of the show.
While seeing to some of the show’s financial preparations at my local bank, a regional VP recognized me and we spoke about the Xtravaganza, which he’d seen before and liked. This led to my local Wachovia bank helping me get the word out. Hats off to Bill Smith and Debbie Knox, Kay Christensen and the other friendly Farrington Lake Wachovia branch employees. Thanks also go to Debbie Mazella, mid day DJ at 94-3 The Point (WJLK-FM) in Asbury Park, for helping us out with promotion on a number of levels. Also thanks are due to John D. of Max Cruise Entertainment for including a notice of the Xtravaganza up on his website.
Then it came time to do the show for real in a big, “proper” theatre.
XX04 SETLIST
Like the previous year, the 2004 Xmas Xtravaganza opened with my kids and I (“The Burtnix”) singing Merry Xmas From The Family, accompanied by cousin Jeff Tomberg on tuba.
Second was Everlounge with 2 songs, including their perennial “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch”. To the band’s surprise, a stellar horn section appeared behind them to join in on the Grinch.
ENTER TOM MOSELLO
This year, the horn section consisted of old friends who graciously returned to the XX: Tom Timko (saxes, flute), Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg (trombone), Mark “Love Man” Pender (trumpet), Ed Manion (saxes) and newcomer Tom Mosello (trumpet). This was a very very good ensemble, which really raised the quality bar of the show.
ENTER BOB HART
Next came our performance of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, as performed by our previously listed singers along with the addition of an on-the-spot, last minute sight-reading of the bass part from Bob Hart on stage during the show, as well as Mike Stein on piano, and the NBTHS Strings.
We next brought on Christine Ohlman and Joe Hurley on the annual performance of New York City Fairy Tale, followed by the 70’s pop arrangement of J.S.Bach’s “Joy, Jesu Of Man’s Desire” (featuring Plink and Brislin), both with full band and string section.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Mary Lee Kortes was next. This was probably her/our best version of all the shows Mary Lee has participated in over the years (she’s performed at most). Her voice was perfect, the band’s dynamics were just right and from onstage the hall’s acoustics sounded excellent.
ENTER SHANICE BLAND, KELSEY LAOIA, MEGAN HENNING and SHANE TIEGER
Next came the Chipmunk Song featuring a group of newcomer kids to the Xtravaganza, and as always, backed by the band and Jeff Tomberg, our resident tuba player (not to mention web master).
ENTER THE UPPER ROOM MINISTRY CHOIR
Plinky had been recording this spirited church choir from Long Island, and we invited choir Director Mark Chadwick to come bring his wonderful group to perform. There were something like 40 or so of them, and they blew the theatre’s roof off. The stage wings were filled with the show’s other musicians, all of us watching this choir rock for Jesus. I believe the songs they performed were titled Hosanna and Jesus, What A Wonderful Child.
Next up, the horn section took to the stage to play on the following 5 tunes, starting with “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by our resident author, rock-historian Producer, and musician, Lenny Kaye.
Then my old friend Marshall Crenshaw brought a sweet Dean Martin chestnut - at his lovely wife’s suggestion – “Christmas Blues” (he also brought along his two adorable, enthusiastic kids).
After that, Christine Ohlman returned to the stage to sing “Rock And Roll Santa” and then came the great Mark “Love Man” Pender’s turn to front the festivities with his take on Elvis’ “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” before I sang "Must Be Santa".
After that, the stage filled up with singers to join the traditional “The 12 Days Of Christmas” as mimed by Jigs & his “Jigzettes”.
The great Joy Askew sang Joni Mitchell’s “River” – another really gorgeous combination of excellent performance and wonderful acoustics.
Tony Shanahan next dedicated “Blue Christmas” to his Mom who was in the audience, and then our angel, Antonique Smith sang O Holy Night and Aretha Franklin’s Blue Holiday (complete with horn section). During Antonique’s first number, Jeff Hoffberger and Kathy Wagner surprised us all with onstage fog. The timing was great, the effect was special and the mood was perfect.
As applause for Antonique finished, the next song began with a dramatic entrance by the North Brunswick High School Percussion Ensemble. I had always had this idea of marching drummers entering the show from the back of the theatre. (My favorite type of Broadway entertainment has been those productions that break down the typical rules and include the performance out in the seated section -Blue Man Group, De La Guarda - and I must've seen this kind of thing done somewhere.) For a second it sounded like faint firecrackers coming from the lobby/street area, until the Percussion Ensemble came marching down the aisles, in growing numbers, playing a steadily crescendo-ing Military style drum cadence. It felt absolutely electric.
We had to make sure the drummers could climb the narrow steps to get on stage without tripping or falling (the hadn't had a chance to try doing this before show time!), which worked out, and they got into place on stage perfectly. A scrim raised onstage, revealing even more players with stationary gear (timpani, vibraphones, etc) and the Ensemble members all joined to perform an explosive percussion piece, which led into “Little Drummer Boy”.
Now, since the time they had committed to doing the show, there really was very little opportunity to organize, arrange and rehearse the material (that's often the way the Xtravaganza works anyhow). I felt confident we could fit them in, and the way to involve the Percussion was to have them play a preconceived piece - something they already knew - to which I'd add a rocked up version of “Little Drummer Boy” to (I always liked Joan Jett's version). Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. We pretty much wedged “Drummer Boy” in-between a few of their drum line style cadences with next to no preparation (I’d met with them only once). Directors Paul Bongiovi and James Eagan were flexible enough - as were these players - to make it work.
The number turned out to be a high point (if not THE high point) of the night.
One of the show’s mainstays, Willie Nile, was up next to sing his rocking rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful”.
My dear old friend Richie LaBamba, best known as trombonist of the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, was featured next singing lead vocal on “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” with Ed Manion taking a saxophone solo, followed by “Joy To The World” performed by guitarist/singer extraordinaire Vicki Genfan.
The Fritz Polka Band was next with “Christmas Polka” – and I can now say I’ve jammed with a polka act.
ENTER BERNARD PURDIE, GEORGE NAHA, ED ALSTROM and BAILY GEE
The horn section was onstage accompanying the next 3 acts, beginning with Hudson River Rats. This was the complete band, as led by singer/harmonica player Rob Paparozzi, comprising of excellent players: bassist/vocalist Bailey Gee, piano/vocalist Ed Alstrom, guitarist/arranger George Naha, and the legendary Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums (Purdie is a legendary session player, having played on many essential, historic rock records). The ‘Rats’ played Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” (the original recording of which Purdie happened to have played on) and The Stax records track by William Bell, ”Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday”. I jumped in on percussion – thrilled to be playing alongside such pros. And pros they are – their performance was spotless and positively groov-acious.
Carlton Brown took the stage next with his annual version of “Merry Christmas Baby” and added “White Christmas” – during which Jeff Hoffberger once again surprised us in conspiracy with Kathy and the State Theatre staff, with another onstage effect. This time it was a snowfall during Carlton’s “White Christmas”. I was absolutely pleased. This is the kinda show I’d like to watch from the house.
It was then “Boogie Woogie Santa” time, featuring our old friend and ripping gunslinger, Bernie “BB” Brausewetter – whose Mom sweetly sat in the wings, watching the show all night.
Next was a song titled “Give Love On Christmas Day” – a new one to me, brought to the Xtravaganza by Freedom Bremner, who sang it so well. In preparation for the show I looked the song up on iTunes and found a bunch of versions. Here was a lovely classic Christmas I was completely unaware of, which had been cut by everyone from the Temptations to New Edition, but it was the Jackson 5’s version that Freedom had learned from. All that aside, Freedom is as solid a singer as the Xmas Xtravaganza has seen, and all took notice.
After that, Beau Burtnick took the stage, and as the audience quieted, a young woman’s voice from the audience shouted, “Beau, you’re hot!” to which he shot back “That may be true…But that’s not why we’re here”. He went on to mention being a little drunk, before he dug in and sang an emotional “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen) alone with his guitar. (Well, actually, it was MY guitar). The audience fell silent, and his father was very moved.
Spiraling was up next to perform “DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?” and “NUTROCKER”. This brought the house to their feet again. The show was running long, there was no time for an intermission, people were basically stuck to their seats for hours, and still this mighty ensemble of Tom’s whipped the house up for a standing ovation.
This year, a few of the various parody ‘Santa’s’ from the past took turns appearing onstage throughout the evening – Rasta Claus, Santa Patel, the ‘Santa-nator’, etc – and then, in a final replay of a past hit of his, our politically incorrect Santa performed his bawdy, cross dress shocker “Walking Round In Women’s Underwear”. Once again, it takes a fearless comic actor like Chuck Buck to perform such a spectacle.
Then came nepotism time with The Burtnix punked up version of “Angels We Have Heard On High” (Darla lead vocal, Sally bass, Beau guitar, Papa on drums).
Joe Hurley next sang his celtic “Amsterdam Mistress” featuring Part Robinson on accordion.
Then The Youth Ahead took the stage and played their version of Adam Sandler’s “Hanukah Song”.
ENTER SPOOK HANDY
New Brunswick’s resident folksinger/songwriter/performer Spook Handy joined the Xtravaganza for the first time singing his "Santa's Night Off." A mainstay of New Brunswick, he’s appeared at New Brunswick’s Corner Tavern each Tuesday night since Sept 1985, was named Best Folk Artist in The Aquarian and NJ journalist Bob Makin’s Makin Waves Awards, and one of his songs, "Vote", found its way into the hands of Pete Seeger who since has performed it. Impressively, the guy I wrote a fan letter to as a child, Pete Seeger, has invited Spook to perform with him at a number of shows, including the Great Hudson River Clearwater Festival.
Following Spook, Beau’s band dibs performed Jed’s ode to Britney Spears and Christmas.
As always, we ended the show with “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and that was that. The night had been LOOONG (the show lasted almost 4 hours non-stop).
Meanwhile, the lobby had been filled with toys, food and bags of warm clothes so generously contributed by the audience. Members of The Marine Corps League (the James Paige Detachment) collected the toys, which wound up distributed through their Toys For Tots program. Laura and Sam, two volunteers from the Community Food Bank of New Jersey were on hand with a truck to bring the food back to their warehouse.
ENTER CHARLOTTE ZAPPILE
Kathy Wagner brought along the fabulous Miss Zappile to collect and organize all the donations of food & clothing in the lobby. Charlotte’s a great girl and a big help with such details.
And that’s the story. In the end, we raised over $25,000, which is more money in one show than we had in 4 shows at the Bottom Line – and twice as much as we did doing two shows at BB King Blues Club. In addition to the Community Food Bank of NJ, our annual financial contributions included New Brunswick’s own Elijah’s Promise kitchen. Thisdyear’s one show passed along thousands to organizations helping those in need. Not bad.
There’s a Church in Piscataway NJ, which organizes and distributes contributions to local families in need, and after the smoke of the Xtravaganza had cleared, I dropped off the extra bags of clothing, toys and other goodies. Once I was there, a sweet little elderly volunteer lady showed me where to place the contributions.
“Are you a clown?” she asked. I realized she was reacting to my bright crayon-red hair. “I guess you could say that” was all that came to my mind as an answer.
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