Well, dear readers, I have decided I want someone to give me a sly come hither stare. Yes, Virginia, you heard that right – I would like someone to give me a sly come hither stare. Actually, when you get right down to it, what IS a sly come hither stare? Would I know a sly come hither stare if it hit me in Ye Olde Eyeballs? I think I’d be more likely to recognize a sly come thither stare than a sly come hither stare because I’m more of a thither person than a hither person. You know, it has just this very minute occurred to me that I have no clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about. Why am I going on about a sly come hither stare? What am I, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh all of a sudden? Is it Witchcraft, wicked Witchcraft all of a sudden? In any case, if someone could just post a photograph of a sly come hither stare I’d be most appreciative, because I do hate to be in the dark, sly come hither stare-wise. Speaking of a sly come hither stare, yesterday was a mostly-lovely day. The lovely bits were, of course, having Miss Alet Taylor in the rehearsal room. She was such a good egg, learning all her new choreography (most of the numbers were very simple to put her in, but the tap number is complicated, but she was picking it up surprisingly fast). The whole first part of the day was spent doing that, then the cast arrived and we put her in with everyone else – it was a lot of fun and she just brightens up any room. A few of us went down to Europa for lunch – I had their little Eyetalian sandwich. Earlier, dear reader Jose stopped by bearing a gift of the largest, fattest, most delicious cookies ever, from someplace called Levain. That was very sweet of him (literally) and mostly everyone in the company got to partake. Our choreographer began staging Alet’s big solo, using bits of what we did in LA and adding his own touches, most of which will be fine, but some of which I could see Alet is not taking to – but I told her we’d let him finish, and then, as I’ve done a couple of times, I’ll edit and ask him to fix a few little things – this mostly has to do with positioning and clarity of intention and making sure the audience hears each and every lyric and that she’s in the right place to deliver them so that the laugh lines work to their best advantage. It was a very productive day.
Towards the end of rehearsal, dear reader Jose returned and he and Alet and I toddled off to some jernt on Ninth and 48th whose name is now completely escaping me. It’s basically a New Orleans place – I’d walked by it this morning and wanted to try it. Well, the food was wonderfully wonderful, as was the company. Alet had the largest portion of fried chicken ever, Jose had a fried oyster po’ boy and some fired okra, and I had – “fired okra?” What in tarnation is fired okra? Okra that wasn’t doing a good job? I think I meant fried okra. I had a great fried catfish po’ boy and we all shared a small side of deliciously delicious mac and cheese. This may, in fact, have been my favorite meal on this trip thus far, and I’ll definitely be returning. After dinner, I was so full I could barely walk home. I was so tired, I just sat on my chair like so much fish the entire evening, just doing stuff on the laptop. I don’t know where the time went but it’s almost time to post these here notes.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because my brain is playing a nocturnal nocturne and I must soon be abed where I shall dream of a sly come hither stare and frankly I hope it strips my conscience bare and if it does, well, it’s witchcraft, wicked witchcraft.
Today, we put Miss Alet Taylor into all her scenes. We’re without our leading man today, but there’s plenty to do and it will be great for Barry and Cason to finally be able to play their scenes with the real deal. I’m pretty sure that will take up most of the day, but we also have a cue to cue scheduled for the set changes.
We’ve added a few more names to our benefit, including Andy Taylor (The Producers, Moon Over Buffalo and husband to Alet), Matt Ashford, and it looks like Miss Linda Hart may be coming in to do it – we’re just waiting for confirmation. Annoyingly, there’s now another benefit happening two weeks before ours, with a few of our performers – I have no doubt that this person who put that together as a fundraiser for himself and his theater group, knew exactly what he was doing when he trumped our date, and I can’t say I’m too happy about it. This guy has been doing this sort of thing for ages – I wouldn’t be surprised if he reads this here site on a daily basis, and I’ll probably see the names above suddenly involved in his show, or at least he’ll try. Our tickets will go on sale in about two weeks, so watch this space for details.
Tonight, I’ll be seeing The Fantasticks, which I’m really looking forward to. The last time I saw it was about ten years ago at the Sullivan Street Playhouse on Sullivan Street. I’ll have a full report afterwards.
Now wait just a darned minute – I’m afraid we have to put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, we must break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, we must dance the Hora and the Tap Tap Tapioca because even though he doesn’t post around these here parts anymore, we must give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our former dear reader (actually I think he still reads the notes) William Lurie. So, let’s do give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to the very errant and truant William E. Lurie. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO THE VERY ERRANT AND TRUANT WILLIAM E. LURIE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, lunch, see The Fantasticks, and attend to some errands. Today’s topic of discussion: What is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – laptop CD, Mirielle Matthieu Chante Morricone. DVD, nada. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and don’t forget to post with a sly come hither stare.