A chat with Kathy Najimy about creating and directing the musical revue “Back to Bacharach and David”

When Kathy Najimy and I sat down last week to talk about Back to Bacharach and David – the musical review she is directing which opens Wednesday in Hollywood -we talked about the first time she put on the show.

The year was 1993 and because I have a freaky memory about stuff like this I blurt out: “Isn’t that the same year you made Hocus Pocus?”

“I had just finished Hocus Pocus, flew from Los Angeles to New York and created the show,” Kathy confirmed. In case you don’t know (and how could you not?), Hocus Pocus is a Disney film Kathy starred in with Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker with the trio playing witches and was a lot of fun.

Then we start finishing each other’s sentences. Me: “One minute you’re flying on a vacuum cleaner in the sky…” Kathy: “…and the next minute I’m singing Alfie.”

I love this gig.

Okay, back to Back to Bacharach and David, a tribute to the songs Burt Bacharach and Hal David which include such classics as Walk on By, Close to You, Message to Michael, Anyone Who Had a Heart, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, among others.

The Off-Broadway hit Kathy directed and conceived with her childhood pal, actor and musical director Steve Gunderson (Forever Plaid) in the early 90s, has been licensed around the country over the years. But the run at The Music Box @ Fonda that begins on Wednesday marks its Los Angeles debut and a return to the helm for the actress best known for her roles on the Sister Act movies and the TV series Veromica’s Closet and as the voice of Peggy on King of the Hill.

The show runs through May 17 with the official opening night on April 19 and stars former American Idol runner-up Diana DeGarmo, Tom Lowe (profiled here last week), musical and film actress Tressa Thomas, and Susan Mosher who starred in the original production of the show 16 years ago.

“I’m always trying to make it more relevant and modern for today so there’s a lot of humor, a lot of sexuality and sexual ambiguity thast happens in it which I really love. Moat of the songs really hold up but some of the songs are really period appropriate to the 60s and 70s and with those, we’ve taken the liberties to do a big dose of comedy – very tongue and cheek.”

Asked for an example of what doesn’t hold up, she says Wives and Lovers and begins to sing: “Hey little girl, comb your hair, put on makeup, soon he will walk through the door. Don’t think because there’s a ring on your finger you don’t have to try anymore.”

So they let us really skew it and that song ends up in What’s New Pussycat? that Diana DeGarmo does as a bisexual rocker anthem (laughs). It’s great.” Another gay twist: “Tom Lowe sings Anyone Who had a Heart and keeps the (male) gender.”

Both Bacharach and David have attended rehearsals and the show, for the first time, has the complete blessing of Bacharach.

“Burt never came to New York, Hal came,” Kathy said. “We thought, ‘Oh well, we got some good reviews, it was fun.’ Then they were doing it at Solana Beach (theaters can license the show) and Burt’s wife saw the marquee and made him come. I’m not talking out of school, Burt will say that he’s never been a fan of the Bacharach and David plays or revues or tributes – never. For some reason, he went and saw our show and freaked out over the arrangements.”

This meant an other opportunity for longtime friends Najimy and Gunderson to team up artistically, something they have been doing since they were growing up together in San Diego.

“When I met Steve, I was 14 years old,” Kathy remembered. “I went to his house and he was sitting in the ground surrounded by Bacharach and David music everywhere and albums – that’s when we had albums, no CDs no iTunes, no iPod. And he was hunched over a little piano like Schroeder in Peanuts. He would drag us, whoever – the pizza guy, the maid, the next-door neighbor – and put these groups together. We’d perform at hotels, at the neighborhood bar, in his living room. So I’ve been doing projects with him forever. And when I did the feminist off-Broadway play Kathy and Mo, Steven was our first piano player and he helped us with the songs. So we’ve been together for 37 years.”

“There’s a shorthand that we have,” she said. “You picture us in 1970 playing this music and now it’s 2008 and Steve and I are still best friends and we’re walking into Burt Bacharach’s office together. It was crazy surreal. I couldn’t believe it. And then he said, ‘Let;’s out it up again.’ And we said, Okay!’ So we got the funding, we got Burt and Hal approval, got these great four new stars, we added a couple of numbers.”

Click HERE for ticket information.