Well, dear readers, may I just take a moment to discuss the state of ranch dressing in New York? I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence? Nowhere, that’s where. In any case, I have now ordered ranch dressing in three restaurants and in each of the three restaurants the glop that is served to me neither resembles nor tastes like and ranch dressing I’ve had and I’ve had plenty, baby, I’ve had plenty. Is there something I’m missing? Are they not allowed to serve real ranch dressing in New York? Are they only allowed to serve this pseudo and faux glop that calls itself ranch dressing? Last night’s ranch dressing at the Westway Diner took the cake. And frankly, I really wanted the cake, but the ranch dressing took it and I had to go sans cake. Where was I? Oh, yes, the sorry state of ranch dressing in New York. I gotta tell you. On the other hand, I’ve had Russian dressing in three restaurants and it’s been grand all three times. Why should it be that Russian dressing is great and ranch dressing tastes like horse snot (not that I have any actual experience tasting horse snot)? Have I just spent the entire opening of these here notes talking about the sorry state of ranch dressing in New York? I do believe I have. Speaking about ranch dressing in New York, yesterday was quite a long, but productive day which, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo) was long and productive, not necessarily in that order. For example, I got up. That was productive. I then attended our rehearsal. We began the day blocking more scenes with our leading lady, the General and others. Again, we begin by recreating the LA blocking, but then these marvelous actors do something interesting and I end up changing things and adjusting blocking because of it. The General had a good idea how to button one of his scenes and it worked very well and it’s now in. And we continue to have to reinvent certain moments that worked really well in LA but don’t work at all here because of the radical change in the physical look of the show. That gets to be very frustrating, but sometimes it leads you to interesting new places and I’m always up for interesting new places. We then put Amy/Joyce into all the group numbers and then we recapped all those – they’re looking terrific and I continue to be amazed with our wonderful choreographer. He was concerned, I think, that I would be closed minded about him changing my musical staging from LA, but he found it’s the contrary – I love all his new stuff, and I’ve only asked for, I think, two little things to stay exactly as I had them, and let me tell you, they were really minor.
The most radically changed number is The Brain Tap, but because we changed the locale of Cason’s number, that, too, has gone through a lot of changes, staging-wise, and let me tell you, until you’ve seen Mr. Murphy being rolled around on a giant beach ball, you haven’t seen anything. And unlike LA, where our two “hunks” were really skinny and non-hunky (but very nice) fellows, our bathing suit boys here are eye candy beyond belief. After the review of the big numbers, I blocked half of the longest act one scene, which goes on for about twelve pages. Have I mentioned that I love my company of players? It is so lovely to walk into a rehearsal room filled with pros who are there to do the best they can and to work, and the whipped cream is that everyone seems to be on the same page and really happy to be there. I must say, the sound of taps is alive and well at our rehearsal studio. Have I mentioned that I’m crazy about my musical director? He’s just great and was the absolute perfect choice for the show. Plus, he’s very fast at adjusting things. We’ve added dance music to two numbers, changed the key of one of them, plus had to change the incidental music for the change of locale in Cason’s number. We experimented with different feels, he instantly came up with one I loved, and then I suggested he hint at the tune of Cason’s song, and he found an absolutely brilliant way of doing so – it’s just incidental music, but boy is it clever and boy does it help set the scene.
After rehearsal, I had a meeting with our publicist, who’s a very nice guy. We discussed strategy and what we can do to get the word out for our show without shoving it down people’s throats. Without going into detail I will only say that NYMF does things in their own way and occasionally it doesn’t seem fair to a lot of the shows, but, you know, one deals as one can. Happily, I know a lot of people and that’s very helpful at times. But, the show’s the thing, and our job is to just do the best we can do and hope that audiences come and enjoy it, and that perhaps we can interest a producer or three in giving the show a long life.
I then had a meeting with our costume designer. We discussed what she’d be using from LA (very little, in fact), and she showed me some designs, we made some adjustments (mostly for color balances) and I think she’ll do a fine job, especially considering the low budget she has to work with. After that meeting, I hobbled home, got a Subway club and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and sitting on my bed like so much fish.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we ponder the sorry state of ranch dressing in New York.
Today, we’re blocking the humungous final scene of act two – it was a bitch in LA and I’m sure it will be a bitch here – it involves almost everyone in the show being on stage at the same time, with a ton of stuff going on every second of the scene. The job is to keep the center of interest clear at every step and to make sure the audience knows exactly where to look when. Luckily, it’s already blocked, but it still takes time, and we’ve added some new dialogue and one large, new prop, so that will take time. After that, it’s more group number review, then on to choreographing the two numbers that are left to choreograph. So, aside from putting our new Fred, Rob Evan, in on Monday, we will have choreographed and blocked the entire show in five days. Obviously, we could never have done that if the show hadn’t already been staged before, and all I can say is thank heaven we did the production last December and that we had an incredible video record of it, thanks to our very own edisaurus. Tomorrow will be the last day in our current rehearsal studio, and then we move to a new rehearsal studio on 43rd Street, where we’ll stay until we go into the Acorn on September 20th.
We’ve also been doing a lot of work on the fundraiser, in terms of flyers and group sales and formulating a plan for our publicity person. I still have to get about twelve to fifteen more people for the show – I have a wish list now and am just awaiting contact info.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, sup, and maybe do something fun in the evening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, an import CD of a wonderful Ernest Gold movie theme album. DVD, we haven’t got no stinking DVD player. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and if anyone wants to send me some good ranch dressing from a State that knows how to make it, please feel free.