Well, dear readers, we have survived our opening night and survived it pretty well. I shall keep the notes short and sweet, not necessarily in that order, because I’m tired and have to get up for our mini-haineshisway.com breakfast and then on to the matinee of The Brain. Let me just say that yesterday was a wonderfully wonderful day, the best birthday a boy could ever have. I slept in, I didn’t do any work or shipping (despite a whole slew of orders – they’ll go out on Monday), I just had a very relaxing day. I then went to LACC with cast gifts in hand (they all got a new book of short stories), handed them out, discussed some fixed light cues with our stage manager, discussed some sound issues with our mixer, and then began to mingle with the arriving crowd.
Opening nights are always weird for me – especially when you’re basically opening cold. In our case, we’d only had the one performance with an audience. It was a lovely crowd, which included Miss Cindy Williams, Mr. Hugh O’Brien, Mr. Curtis Harrington, several wonderful old-time actors from B-movies of the 50s (courtesy of dear reader MBarnum, who was there), Miss Stella Stevens, Mr. Nick Redman and family, Mr. Grant Geissman and family, cousin Dee Dee, former dear reader Maria, elmore, Andy Taylor (hubby to Alet), Alice Ripley (wife to drummer Shannon Ford), Sharon McNight, Adryan Russ, dear reader MusicGuy, one of the King sisters, Mr. Skip E. Lowe, the Wechter clan, and many others I’m too tired to remember. The show began about ten minutes late because we were waiting on several people who were very late. And then, we began. My opening PSA announcement got a couple of laughs, and then the show began. While I felt there were some energy problems here and there, and a few messed-up lines, and one mis-called light cue, the show ran very smoothly and the laughs were plentiful, and when they weren’t landing as I like, it was usually because of low vocal energy, something I’m constantly railing about. Our sound mixer still hasn’t quite got it together – the band monitors weren’t working at all and she kept trying to say they were. Also, I’m still trying to get her to push for louder sound in the book scenes – hopefully she’ll get that together soon. But mostly the show worked really well and it really is a smart-looking show design-wise and costume-wise, and I’m very pleased with the staging. The actors were very good, although some got sloppy, which I’m going to be very strong about during this run. This show walks a fine line and that line, when crossed, is harmful to the tone of the show. So, we’ll be having a little cast meeting prior to the matinee, just to lay out the rules of the road, as it were. The band sounded great, except for some weird level things with the second keyboard. I will say that the opening of act two killed, just as it had the night before. Getting to particulars, Alet was fantastic, Lauren was, as always, great, Kevin did just fine, Merrill was excellent, the student actor who plays her beatnik boyfriend was really on, Egbert as the Brain was great, and Cason Murphy just about walked away with the show. Benjamin Clark, in his dual role, despite a flubbed line in the opening (for some reason he really has a mental block about his first few lines – it’s maddening when he gets them wrong because so much is being set up in the opening that it makes things not funny because the clarity suffers), is really turning in a marvelous performance, and the ensemble members have all come into their own. The audience, which was almost a sold-out house, seemed to really enjoy it – they weren’t quite as vocal as the previous night, but they were incredibly responsive. There was an instant standing O at the end and much cheering and hollering for our talented cast.
Afterwards, there was a lovelier than lovely reception and much food and drink was consumed. After that, my darling daughter, her friend Skye, and Adriana and I all went to Du-Par’s for a little bite to eat. And that was our opening night – I got quite a few presents, there were two count them two birthday cakes for ME, and the whole day and evening simply could not have been better.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I promised to keep these notes short and sweet and I intend to keep said promise.
This morning I’ll be toddling over to Du-Par’s, then attending the matinee performance of The Brain, then coming home for a little while, then returning for the evening performance of The Brain and our hainsies/kimlets gathering at Genghis Cohen. The darling daughter enjoyed the show so much that she’s returning to see the matinee, and even our waitress at Du-Par’s is coming to the matinee.
Then, tomorrow, I shall have the entire day to do whatever I wish. Next week is quite busy for me, but it’s a good busy and I’m looking forward to it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, have breakfast, see a matinee, see an evening performance, and then have a get-together. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Pie Day – what are your favorite kinds of pie and where have you had the best pie you’ve ever eaten and what was it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s give me props for these very short and sweet notes.