Well, dear readers, we had our second performance in front of an audience last night – or should I say in front of an audie… You see, our preview papering service screwed up and didn’t list our show for this evening, even though they’ve had the info since last Tuesday. They listed it for last night and all was fine, so they were profusely apologetic and assured us it won’t happen again, but in the meantime we had twelve people. The good news is that the cast took their notes and really did a bang-up job addressing them – the show was tighter, funnier, and more musical than the night before, and that’s saying something. And best of all, the twelve people had a riotous good time and were laughing loudly for the whole evening. I mean, if you can score humor with twelve people you’re doing something at least partially right. Tomorrow we’re hopeful of having a large house, and our opening night is actually oversold and we’ll probably have to put up some folding chairs. I’m very proud of the cast and our very own Jose, who is doing yeoman work at the piano. We still have some minor things to clean up tomorrow, both musically and dramatically, but really not all that much. And, as of Thursday, it’s all in the hands of fate.
I finished watching Judgment at Nuremburg, a very long motion picture on DVD. By long I mean three hours and six minutes worth of long. But it’s compelling and really well-acted, especially by Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster (despite his rather feeble German accent), with great turns by Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. Maximilian Schell, who, I believe, won an Oscar for his performance, is a bit to large for my taste – he just is very loud and I wish he would have varied his performance a bit. That said, he’s always fun to watch and he is good. Stanley Kramer’s direction is serviceable as always, but nothing more. Good camerawork and art direction, and, as a bonus, Marlene Dietrich, looking faboo. I could have used a few less people singing German songs in bars – a little of that goes a long way. Strange score from Ernest Gold, but I’m sure he delivered what Mr. Kramer wanted. The transfer is really excellent, save for the inane MGM/UA continuing decision to not do anamorphic transfers for films they perceive were 1:66 in the theater. First off, this film was not projected at that ratio, it was projected at 1:85. Second off, even if it were 1:66 they can still do an anamorphic transfer, just like practically every other studio does. Feh, I say, and feh I say again.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, well, because, well, I don’t know why we should but it just seems like we should because we always have and I like consistency.
I’m very tired right how. I had a very bad spot of bad news yesterday, which I’m not quite ready to talk about, although it has something to do with the good news I mentioned several weeks ago, which I was also not quite ready to talk about and a good thing, too. I will talk about it a bit down the line. I hate bad news, baby, and I don’t want any more of it in the foreseeable future. Damn them, damn them all to hell.
I’m back in sandwich mode, having eaten a salami sandwich for dinner on Monday (there’s a café next to our theater), and a Subway turkey thing today. I’ll be needing a nice Musso and Frank meal soon. Or pasta. Or something, in the foreseeable future. Isn’t foreseeable an interesting word? It’s actually three, three, three words in one. We’ve got your “fore” we’ve got your “see” and we’ve got your “able”. Put them all together and they don’t spell “mother” they spell “foreseeable”. Or, if you anagram, they spell “seeforeable” or even “ableforesee”. I no longer have a clew as to what the hell I’m talking about, and I may not have a clew for the foreseeable future.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must deal with the spot of bad news (although I may put off dealing with it for a week, until this show is up and running and smooth), I must try not to eat a sandwich, I must do some work around the home environment, and then I must away to the Hudson Theater to watch our final preview. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old thing that might be rumbling around in the windmills of your mind. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, all in the foreseeable future.