HARVEY SCHMIDT

A FANTASTICKS MEMORY
from Ken Kantor

One of the great frustrations when doing THE FANTASTICKS down at Sullivan Street was that everything that happened during a performance of a unique nature had happened sometime before. You wanted to feel that something you participated in was happening for the first time. Unlikely in a show that had run for so many decades. But it finally happened while I was doing El Gallo during one memorable weekend performance.

We did our first of two evening shows and then broke for dinner.  During the break, our keyboardist injured her wrist and couldn’t play the second show.  They called our backup pianist, but she was ill and couldn’t come in.  They then called Norman Weiss who was Harvey Schmidt’s musical secretary.  He was conducting PHANTOM OF THE OPERA that night and was unavailable.

Having run out of options, they called Harvey.  Could he come in and play the performance?  He said had never played the show at Sullivan Street before.  He agreed to come in and play the show if he could squeeze onto the piano bench.  The piano was sandwiched between the set and the rear wall.  There was limited space that could not be altered and Harvey had “grown” in girth over the years. It turned out he could squeeze in so he agreed.

There was one other problem.  Harvey didn’t read music and had never played the whole score in performance before. He arrived with a black loose leaf book and put it on the piano.  We were warned that if he lost his place while playing he was likely to start banging the keys with his fists which would at least maintain the tempos.

Well, we started the show and all went well.  I was curious as to what was in the loose leaf book.  I knew it wasn’t music. Each page was written in Harvey’s unmistakable handwriting.  He had written the number of the musical sequence’s title and a phrase such as “Third black key ... higher than you think”. Made no sense to us, but was clearly an important such phrase to him.

I had a friend race down to the theatre to make an audio recording of the performance.  Listening to it now, Harvey’s version was kind of funky and jazzy ... totally unique and utterly “Harvey”.

A truly memorable and finally “unique” experience for me and everyone else there.

P.S.:  He did lose his place once.  During “Round and Round” he actually did start pounding the keys like a little boy until he found himself.  As El Gallo I merely began reciting the lyrics until we were back on track again.

In that same year I did PHILEMON, THE FANTASTICKS and COLETTE COLLAGE. It was one of the best years I ever had. Each show was a terrific experience, and the total experience was quite overwhelming. While still in college I was in 110 IN THE SHADE and after my three show experience mentioned, I did CELEBRATION for Musicals in Mufti.

My gratitude to Tom and Harvey has no bounds.