Well, dear readers, it’s already Friday. I know, it’s only Tuesday – I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. How many of you had to actually think about whether it was already Friday? I’ll tell you one thing, it already feels like Friday, even though it’s only Tuesday. That means that Friday will feel like Wednesday and soon the days dwindle down to a precious few – and these few precious days I’ll spend with you, these precious days I’ll spend with you. What am I, Walter Houston all of a sudden? These here notes are already all over the map. Some of the notes are in Spain, some are in Italy, and parts of them are in Pacoima. Speaking of Pacoima, yesterday was a day-and-a-half (no mean feat). I got up early, jogged early, and then had to attend a casting session. There were no real standouts at the session, but a couple of the people read well. I then had to toddle over to LACC for rehearsal. We ran the show from start to finish – it’s a bit painful to sit through, as the actors were off book but didn’t know their lines very well. I admonished them to get the lines in their heads by today, because it’s too difficult to run the show otherwise. We’re all starting to feel our way through, and some nice acting moments are peeking through in the process. It’s great having our musical director there and it enables me to adjust and fix musical things as we go. We’re going to have to drill the songs and harmonies again, because it’s been getting a bit sloppy in terms of choral singing and cutoffs. On the other hand, it’s a very complicated show in terms of its layout and structure, and it’s got a lot of blocking and staging and set moves. After the run-through, we convened in the theater in which we’ll be doing the show, and we ran three of the big numbers – it took just a few moments for everyone to adjust, and I must say I was pleased with the way they looked. I then left the majority of the cast to run the big tap number over and over, whilst I did scene work with several actors – that went very well and we found some fun stuff and I continue to add to and hone the staging each time we run a scene or song. After that, I went back and watched the tap number and I couldn’t have been happier with what I saw. What I saw was everyone trying really hard, and that just made me smile and feel good, because they’re doing a great job, especially considering ninety percent of them had never had a pair of tap shoes on before. When they’re sharp, it is very cool looking, and if they continue to work hard I think it’s going to stop the show. We then dismissed the company, but I stayed with our musical director to begin the tortuous and arduous task of figuring out where all the incidental music goes and what it’s going to be, as well as all the scene change music. We figured out all of act one (although the musical director now has to notate all of it), and we’ll do act two today. I then finally came home, where I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled No Orchids For Miss Blandish, an outlandishly sleazy film from the UK circa the late forties. Based on the book by James Hadley Chase (later remade by Robert Aldrich as The Grissom Gang), it’s a hard-boiled potboiler that caused the majority of the UK critics to suggest that the film should be flushed down the nearest toilet because of it’s sadism and sex and violence. For years, this wasn’t an easy film to see, but it’s come out on a region 2 DVD. It really must have been a strong film in its time – now, of course, it’s quite tame. It features a lot of bad acting by Brits trying to be Americans, and the whole thing has the low-budget air of the film noir classic, Detour. It doesn’t, however, reach the giddy heights of Detour – it’s pretty sub-standard, but it does have its moments. The transfer (there is a warning about its deficiencies) is better than I expected.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty rest, you know.
What a beautiful Friday it is, too. Only kidding – just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. Today, I must do some shipping and some errands prior to rehearsal. From three to five-thirty we’ll be working scenes and such, then there’ll be a dinner break, then we’ll be running the entire show, for the first time in our own theater. I still won’t have all the actors, but it will be most. I will have all the actors for our Wednesday designer run-through, and then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I’ll be missing between one and three people. It’s difficult, but when you have guest artists, the scheduling can be a bitch.
This morning I’ll be sending a bunch of mp3s to the Kritzerland web designer, so by end of day there should be some sound clips up for the Skinner/Ripley CD. We began taking preorders yesterday at www.kritzerland.com. We have a special 2CD holiday price of $19.98 until December 31st. Those who preorder will have their copies shipped in advance of the December 19th street date, and said preorders will arrive in time for Christmas. So, order away, you dear, dear people out there in the dark.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, ship, do errands, rehearse, do a run-through, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the sleaziest movie you’ve ever seen – the one that was so sleazy it actually made your skin crawl? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s make certain that everyone is paying attention. Those who aren’t are already at the end of the week.