Category Archives: Musicals

So Long, Mr. Goulet

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He was old school; he was new school. Robert Goulet was one of those performers who made the transition from classic to contemporary with a wink and a smile. He has now made the final appointment that awaits us all, and has passed away at age 73.

My kids knew him as the singing voice of “Mikey” from the Disney cartoon, “Recess.” You may know him as the guy in the “Emerald Nuts” commercial or as the person parodied by Will Farrel on Saturday Night Live.  Many people knew him as a great baritone and classic performer.

I knew him as the guy who sang “On A Clear Day” and whose personae always made me laugh in a good natured way.

Here’s the episode from Recess (10 minutes long) where Mikey’s voice is discovered. I don’t know how long it’ll be available, but this video makes me laugh. (If you’re pressed for time, start at -7:15 and watch through -5:22 … about a minute and a half.)


Link for email and rss feed readers:
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9VUIABTeU

I heard about his passing on the radio this morning, felt a little nostalgic, and thought I’d share….

One Mad Search

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If you do a Google search for “Dramatic Christmas Musicals,” what do you think would be the number one link you turned up? Maybe the largest Choral Music Publisher or Distributor? Possibly the largest publisher of dramatic plays and Musicals for Churches?

No, those would be numbers two and three.

As of today, anyway, that number one spot (not counting the ad) belongs to just little old us.

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There’s a good reason for that, and it isn’t because ours is the best musical or resource for such things. And that reason can probably be summed up in one word: Blog.

Companies, churches and organizations who aren’t blogging should probably start yesterday…

Just Checking In…

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A few highlights from the past couple of weeks…

- Matthew and Melissa returned home from a great week at World Changers.

- Michael went water skiing/tubing with Keystone.  Maybe I should say he tried to water ski – he never really got out of the water… :)

- Our home air conditioning went kaput this week. The fan motor locked up, and probably needs to be replaced. We have the windows open and plenty of other fans going until we can get it fixed. Our house now feels like a summer open air cabin on the beach. …Except we are in Fort Worth, Texas, it’s really hot and there’s no beach. :)

- Leona broke her tooth.

- On the way to the dentist, Leona had a flat tire.

- I changed the flat tire for Leona, the damsel in distress. :) No sense in her getting all mussed up on her way to the dentist. :P

- We watched the 1956 classic, “The Searchers” this week. Amazing cinematography, and a story that flips sterotypes, racial prejudices, and notions of “good guys and bad guys” on their heads. Not bad for a John Wayne flick from the ’50′s.

- I’ve spent a lot of extra time polishing up our musical, “One Mad Christmas,” and making the preview files and performance license and contract available. We’ve had a number of inquiries about it and there have been quite a few searches for “dramatic musicals” around here, lately, so I thought I’d freshen things up a bit.

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And in other news, Leona and I have been praying about Compass and the restart, and if the vision and strategy will actually be accomplished in the manner and time-frame we originally thought. Is it possible that the vision might be fulfilled by me leading another church in the area to see it become a reality? We’re not sure.

No, we’re not in conversations with another church, but we are far more open to that as a possibility than we have ever been before. If the plan changes, we’ll let you know. Just trying to keep it real, here, folks.

Further bulletins as events warrant….

Three-fold Celebration Weekend

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We have three celebrations this weekend. Technically, they all occur on Monday, but we’re spreading them out over the weekend.

Monday, May 28th is Memorial Day, my daughter Melissa’s birthday, and Leona’s and my wedding anniversary! So we’re celebrating Melissa’s birthday on Saturday (I can’t believe how fast she has been growing up!), our anniversary on Sunday, and Memorial Day on Monday…

And speaking of our wedding anniversary, and since we’ve received a bit of interest in our Christmas musical this year, I thought I’d post a rough clip of the “curtain call.” Because of sound and camera issues, the overall video is a terrible representation of the production itself, but I like this clip for a variety of reasons.

The biggest reason is because it reminds me of just how awesome my wife really is. Leona and I created it together from scratch – music, orchestration, script, sets – everything – truly as a team. It’s a great representation of a theme that has run throughout our marriage.

This clip wraps up the musical in the final seconds with me giving a kiss to the lady with whom I have been privileged to share my life.

The red wig, glasses and funky outfit she is wearing can’t conceal the sweetness of her smile shining through, revealing the funny, amazing, supportive and beautiful chick that is my lovely wife, Leona.

It’s syrupy but it’s true.

Happy anniversary, babe. I love you!


Link for email and feed readers:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6985694699662498473&hl=en

…And she would like for me to remind everyone that she really doesn’t look like that… :)

One Mad Christmas

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Many of you know that Leona and I wrote a dramatic Christmas musical called, “One Mad Christmas” that we presented at our church the year before we became Church Planters. It is the typical but not-so-typical “dinner theater” type of musical that is meant to be performed by live musicians.

It was written for a smaller to mid-sized church with big aspirations: Sets, big dramatic cast, chorus, kids’ choir and live musicians.

The setting is 1960 in the fictional town of Madding, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. Think “Rat Pack,” tupperware, flip hairdos, and “it don’t mean a thing if ain’t got that swing.” It was inspired by the movie, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.“

Anyway, if your church or organization does dinner theater or dramatic Christmas musicals and are looking for something different, we’ve made the “preview” files available for a free download on the “One Mad Christmas Blog.” Be sure to start with the file, “1 Mad Start Here.”

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Download it. Check it out. Read it over. See if it’s something you’d be interested in. If so, drop me a line at johnny [at] compasswired.com. We’d be happy to work with your group to make it happen. We can personalize it, provide instrumental substitutions, and possibly even do a workshop for your cast, chorus and musicians.

If you don’t like it or it doesn’t fit your church’s goals or style, that’s cool, too. It’s definitely not for everyone. But now you can decide that you are not interested and I’ll never even have to know. :)