Well, dear readers, I am ovvicially overtired. I am so overtired that I inadvertently typed ovvicially instead of officially. That is how ovviciously overtired I am. One of the reasons I’m ovviciously overtired is because I woke up at three in the morning yesterday, my head swimming with images, and lyrics running through the windmills of my mind. I got up for a few minutes, then tried to go back to sleep – I finally fell asleep about four, and then was awakened at eight by the telephonic device next to my bed. I got up, and began the day. I began by pre-planning the staging of the parody number for the LACC show. I’m trying to keep it very simple and amusing, because the teachers who are performing it don’t usually do this sort of thing. I made notes for all the major moves, and if I can decipher them, we’ll try to stage the number on Thursday. Once all that is done, then other than entrances and exits, my big staging work is done, save for the finale, which I won’t do until the week before performance. I then had a meeting with the lovely Linda Purl, and we’re going to be working together on her one-woman show, which I think will really be fun. By the time I finished that meeting it was already after one, so I picked up zero count them zero packages and came back to the home environment. At that point, I began viewing the rest of the DVDs for our celeb clip reel. That took quite a long time, but I finally got done with it around six. I then played catch up with the events of the day, play-wise. We definitely have one of our actors, and it’s 99% certain that we have the other (he’s basically committed, but his agent has a few “questions,” which probably pertain to his client having his days free (he does) and that we’re having an understudy for him (already cast) – so, all digits are crossed for the ovvicial word tomorrow. I spoke to our publicist, who is currently THE publicist for LA theatre. He seems on top of everything, and our first press release will go out as soon as the casting is in concrete tomorrow. I then proceeded to eat eight little boxes of Nerds. Nerds are really idiotic candy, but I’ve become quite taken with their idiocy and have been going through many boxes a day. I hope I don’t become a Nerds addict, so that I have a Nerd on my back, and I have to start a twelve-step Nerd program. And that was my day.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Dark Corner, a film noir from 20th Century Fox, which I got an early copy of. I’d never seen it before. It’s strikingly directed by Henry Hathaway, has a splendid cast, including Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball, William Bendix, and Clifton Webb, and is beautifully photographed. And yet, it just doesn’t quite work as well as it should, given all those elements. It’s entertaining, yes, but it just never gets beyond good, like most of the Fox noirs. The transfer, however, is very rich-looking black-and-white, and is quite sharp. The music, credited to Cyril Mockridge, is just another Fox pastiche – you know the kind – Street Scene by Alfred Newman for the Main Titles (has anyone ever figured out how many times that piece of music was used as Main Title music in Fox films?), a ton of source music, and a couple of dramatic cues.
What am I, Professor Drew Casper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must have more Nerds – I need my Nerds – can’t you see I’ve got to have my Nerds? I’m the Man With The Golden Nerds. Hmmm. I don’t like the way that sounds, do you?
Because I am ovvicially overtired, I completely forgot to give the answer to last week’s Unseemly Trivia Contest question. The question was:
It wasn’t one of the great seasons on Broadway. It was littered with flop musicals and flop plays. One such flop play lasted barely more than a week. The flop play was actually a revival and had originally been done some twenty years before, when it had a brief four-month run. The play was based on a classic work of fiction, although the title of the classic work of fiction was not used for the play. The play was turned into a successful film a decade after its original short Broadway run, and a decade before the flop revival – the film used the title of the Broadway show rather than the work of fiction’s original title. The original run of the show featured an actress who would go on to win an Academy Award just a few years after the flop revival closed. The revival featured a young actress who would go on to appear in a hugely successful Broadway musical, and then, some years later, a hugely successful television series. The revival was directed by someone who was better known as a playwright. Finally, the original production had incidental music by someone who would go on to become a well-respected film composer.
Name the play, the work of fiction that the play was based on, the author of the play and the author of the work of fiction.
Name the actress from the original run of the play who would go on to win an Academy Award a few years after the flop revival of the play, and name the film for which she won the award.
Name the revival’s young actress, name the hugely successful Broadway musical that she would soon appear in, and name the hugely successful TV series she appeared in some years later.
Name the director of the revival.
Name the composer of the incidental music for the original Broadway production.
And the answers are:
The Innocents, William Archibald, The Turn of the Screw, Henry James.
Beatrice Straight – Network.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Annie, Sex in the City.
Harold Pinter.
Alex North.
And our winners were FJL and elmore. We put their names into our patented Electronic Hat and the High Winner for this week is elmore. So, if he will send his address I will send him a sparkling prize. And, if anyone else hasn’t received a sparkling prize they are do, please send your addresses and I’ll get those out, too.
Yesterday, I also got the model of our set, and I must say it looks rather splendidly splendid, and I can now start playing with ideas – they even included three little cut-outs of the cast members for me to move around.
Today, I must put yellow post-its onto each DVD, along with the in and out times for the clips. Then I’m meeting Mr. David Wechter early tomorrow morning to hand off the DVDs to be digitized, and then we’re planning to edit on Tuesday evening. I must also really organize the stuff I’m responsible for in the LACC show – a lot to do, but I must buckle down Winsocki and do it. I must also really give some thought to this huge counterpoint ending to the opening number – if I have too much movement it will be utter chaos, but I don’t want them to just stand there like so much fish, either. So, I shall be pondering that. And then, I shall attend rehearsal to finish said opening number, and stage the act one finale. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat some more boxes of Nerds, I must try to write, I must actually begin preparing for my signing on Saturday, and I must do various and sundried other errands. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite resorts or holiday spots? I take very few vacations, so I always like to hear about resort areas that are interesting. I’m looking mostly for the relaxing kind, with lots of lushness, and yet, where there are fun things to do. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? In the meantime – my name is BK, and I’m a Nerdaholic.