Opening night of “Back to Bacharach and David” with guests including Steve Martin and Nia Vardalos!

By Greg Hernandez on Apr 22, 2009 12:02 am | Comments (0) |

One thing is for sure, Kathy Najimy has a lot of friends! And that comes in handy when you have a big show debuting in the heart of Hollywood. The show is the musical revue Back to Bacharach and David directed by Kathy who confessed to me on her way in that she was a nervous wreck. But she felt she had done all she could do and would leave the rest to the cast.

It was a star-studded premiere Sunday night at The Music Box @ Fonda theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Steve Martin was one of the first celebrities to arrive but avoided photographers and slipped into the theater. Nia Vardalos arrived last but was chatty as was Jenni Garth and her hubby Peter Facinelli, Dana Delaney, Sam Harris, Helen Hunt, Ed Begley Jr., designer Bob Mackie, producers Neil Meron and Craig Zaden and singers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

Also there was Milk producer Bruce Cohen, Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and Emmy winner Camryn Manheim.

I invited my pal Trevor Daley (pictured above with Bruce Cohen and below with me) to attend and he was a real champ to arrive early and hang out as I did interviews. Not that Trevor was a lost lamb, he is a longtime staffer of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and knows how to work a room. He had chatted up Marisa Tomei who wasn’t even doing any interviews!

Trevior Daley and Greg Hernandez by you.

It was a real treat to see Emmy winning musician Lance Horne for the second night in a row. We met at the GLAAD Media Awards where he played the piano for Cheyene Jackson who performed during the ceremony. Lance arrived when I was chatting up Steven Sater who won two Tony Awards for Spring Awakening. I’ll be sharing interviews with them in the coming days.

Back to Bacharach and David, a tribute to the songs Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and was conceived by Najimy 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.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=85c41ace3f&view=att&th=120b696d1accb08f&attid=0.6.1&disp=inline&zw

The show runs through May 17 and stars former American Idol runner-up Diana DeGarmo, Tom Lowe, musical and film actress Tressa Thomas, and Susan Mosher who starred in the original production of the show 16 years ago.

It is a FANTASTIC show. You must go and see how the immensely talented quartet performing 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, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again and What’s New Pussycat? arranged in ways that will blow you away.

Trevor and I had balcony seats so did not get to sit in the nightclub-like area downstairs. The man sitting directly in front of me kept leaning forward and obstructing my view. It became a huge problem because he had an extremely large head. About three songs into the show, I tapped him hard on the shoulder and said: “Can you please sit back in your seat!”

Trevor thought it was a bit harsh of me but then again, he didn’t have to try and navigate around a head the size of Montana! We departed after the show instead of attending the opening night party because, well, we weren’t invited! Well, at first we were and then we weren’t. We were told right before the show by the PR firm: “You can’t attend the party.”

Nice. We’ll just stop by McDonalds on the way home.

** A chat with Kathy Najimy about creating and directing the musical Back to Bacharach and David

**A chat with Diana DeGarmo: From American Idol to Back to Bacharach and David

** Tom Lowe talks to Greg In Hollywood about American Idol and Back to Bacharach and David