Well, dear readers, here we are on the day before the day before the brand spanking new month of September. I must say that the day before the day before the day before the brand spanking new month of September turned out to be a pretty wacky day. The day started out perfectly fine, when I received a telephonic call from our very own Miss Tammy Minoff, who said she needed pancakes. I love when someone calls me on the telephone and says they need pancakes. So, a mere half-hour later we were sitting in Du-Par’s having pancakes, which were, as always yummilicious. Then I came back to the home environment and wrote a few pages. I must tell you that certain things are sometimes difficult to write, and certain things are an absolute delight to write. For example, certain sections of all three Kritzer books were quite difficult to write, while certain sections were an absolute delight to write. I found all of my newest book, Rewind, a delight to write – in fact, I couldn’t wait to get up every morning so I could write away. I am finding that to be the case with the current short story I’m working on. What started out as a one-joke premise that I scribbled down on my bedside pan, has… Beside PAN? Bedside PAN? Now wait just a darned minute – I don’t have a bedside pan and I hope to never have a bedside pan. What I meant was a bedside PAD. Anyway, what started out as a one-joke premise that I scribbled down on my bedside pad has turned into something much more fun, and it has taken a quite unexpected turn, and I’m having a blast letting it just sort of write itself. First off, it’s become a period piece set in 1959, which I love. Second, the leading character has become really intriguing to me after changing his profession. We’ll see how it goes, but for now it’s just tickling me pink. Not tickling me midnight blue, mind you, no, it is tickling me pink. Anyway, after I finished a few pages (and doing a bit of eBay research to be accurate about certain book titles that I’m mentioning), I then finished the song I’ve been working on for the same girl who did the Annie song, Caitlynne. I have no idea if she’ll think it’s for her, but I’m quite happy with it. I may go over to Mr. Grant Geissman’s home environment today to make a quick demo of it, which I’ll then e-mail to Caitlynne and her mum. I then got a panic call from the pressing plant saying that the Harvey Schmidt CD master was bad. Thankfully, Vinnie was around and he made a new one, which I then took over to the pressing plant. Whilst there, I picked up the repressing of After the Ball, so I now have stock again. I then did some errands and whatnot and came back home. I then attended a dinner meeting with a potential publicist for our play – everyone liked him, and if he likes the play and we can make a deal that works for all of us, then we’ll try to get him onboard. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
I’m happy to announce that Kevin Spirtas’ CD single of The Sweetest of Days and the Finest of Nights is up at Kritzerland and available for preorder. It has to be ordered separately from other titles – it’s the only downside of paypal. When we’ve set our pricing structure for shipping, it can’t be changed, so the two dollar shipping charge for the single (we’ll actually lose money at that cost) has to actually be made part of the price. The CD single is really nice – Mr. Spirtas sounds divoon on it, and it will be featured in a soon-to-be-shown episode of Days Of Our Lives. We’re not allowed to say more until the show actually airs, but the CD will ship prior to air date – in fact, it will probably ship this week.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because we’ve got us an Unseemly Trivia Contest to answer, and there is at least one other thing that will make me tickled pink.
Yes, Virginia, I am indeed tickled pink. Why you may ask, and I shall tell you, for why should I withhold such things from the likes of you dear readers? I am tickled pink because we all get to put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, we all get to break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, we all get to dance the Hora and perform Kabuki, because today is our very first Japanese birthday celebration – today is our very own dear reader Hisaka’s birthday. So, let’s give a big hainehisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Hisaka in honor of her birthday. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER HISAKA IN HONOR OF HER BIRTHDAY!!!
Now, I do believe we had an Unseemly Trivia Contest question. Here’s what it was:
This interesting theatrical season produced two legendary musicals – one instantly legendary, the other legendary over time. The season also produced no less than six huge flop musicals, three of which are also legendary in flopdom. The season was also rife with revivals of plays. A handful of the new plays were turned into films. However, one particular flop play wasn’t so lucky. It managed to only eke out a few performances before biting the dust and entering into oblivion, never, to my knowledge, to be performed again. It was the only play produced on Broadway by this author, who, prior to the play, and been a performer with not too many credits – although one of the author’s credits was understudying a co-starring role in a classic Broadway musical comedy. The play’s director had directed a few shows on Broadway, one of which was turned into a controversial film, said film which was directed by someone else. The play’s female star achieved her considerable success as a movie star, in films running the gamut from musicals to horror to comedies to period films and on and on. One of her roles is one of the most well-known roles in film history – it remains to this day her most iconic film role, even though she was not the lead in the film. The play’s male star was a well-known Broadway regular who appeared in both plays and musicals, and who was well-known to TV audiences as well. He would be dead one year after opening in this play. He was, at one time, married to a well-known actress.
Name the play, its author, and the role the author understudied in the classic musical comedy.
Name the play’s director, and the controversial play whose controversial film version was directed by someone else, and name the someone else.
Name the play’s female star, and her most well-known film role and film.
Name the play’s male star, and name the well-known actress to whom he was once married.
And the answers are:
Murder Among Friends, Bob Barry, Pappy Yokum in Li’l Abner.
Val May, The Killing of Sister George, Robert Aldrich.
Janet Leigh, Marion Crane, Psycho.
Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones.
And there you have it. Our winners were FJL, Jed, Robert Armin, and Dan-the-Man. And our Electronic Hat has chosen completely at random our High Winner – Dan-the-Man. So, if Dan-the-Man will kindly send his address, we will send him a sparkling prize.
I picked up the new special edition DVD of The Fly. I decided to watch the documentary first, so I could report to Pogue on his appearance in same. I’m happy to say that Pogue looks great, has many interesting things to say, and comes off very well. In fact, he and the producer of the film are the only people onscreen for the first ten or fifteen minutes. This documentary, however, runs a whopping two-and-a-half hours, which I find ludicrous. If you love The Fly and want the film to retain its power and magic, I would recommend shutting the documentary off as soon as they start talking about the making of the film. I’m so bored of these things – they are actually harmful, as these sorts of extras make the people viewing them think they are armchair experts about everything. Just give me the movie and, if we must have supplements, give me some humor, some fun facts, but leave the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking out.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must attend to many things that need attending to, I must pick up packages, I must address a few more packages, and I must then attend an opening night at the Pasadena Playhouse. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite books about theatre – biographies, fiction, technical, coffee table, anything and everything theatre related? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, because that would make me tickled pink.