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October 26, 2007:

NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is so late, and I am so tired, and yet there is no rest for the weary, for the weary must now write these here notes. So, I will dispense with all arch writing and just cut to Ye Olde Chase. I wonder if I could actually write an entire notes sans arch? And I think we all know the answer to THAT question. In any case, yesterday was a difficult day in certain ways and a nice day in others. I was awakened by The Rat Men, who, after roaming the attic for thirty minutes, could find no Rat Remnants – which means, of course, that the stupid, stupid, stupid rodent is in a wall somewhere. The smell is almost gone anyway, so we’ll just grin and bear it for a few more days. Then, if the smell is still there, perhaps we’ll grin and bare it – that will remove any smell. After they left, I got the excellent news that both Mr. Alan Menken and Mr. Stephen Schwarts will be in attendance for our fundraiser. I’m quite pleased about it, I must say. We lost Sara Rue, so I’m trying to cover that loss quickly. We may also lose Chad Kimball because he never showed up for rehearsal and didn’t call and didn’t return my call and hasn’t returned my stage manager’s calls for two days. I don’t get it, frankly, but, you know, I don’t get this new breed of performer. I then rehearsed with Zane Huett, who is adorable and will be great, then Matt Ashford came and rehearsed (even though his real time is today, he just showed up), then we rehearsed with Mr. Rex Smith, who is also going to be terrific. Our final rehearsal was with Jennifer Leigh Warren – she’s singing the song she sang on my Stephen Schwartz album and she sounded wonderful. Oh, and before all that, I’d lunched with Mr. Barry Pearl, and we had a fine old time and talked of many things and cabbages and kings and his fellow cast members and some of their post-show behavior. Always fascinating. I then had to hie myself to the Pantages to see Wicked.

Last night, I saw a musical entitled Wicked. Just so you know right away, I do not mourn the Wicked, I come to praise the Wicked. I hadn’t seen the show since its second reading, and I have to say that the changes made from there to here were immense and good. Stephen had all his friends write notes based on what we’d seen at the reading, me included, so it was really fun to see the ways in which he and Winnie Holtzman had focused the story, discarded the songs that didn’t work and replaced them with stronger songs. That was most evident in the opening number, which is what I wrote most about when I sent my notes. It’s the same song, but it was so unfocused and there was so much information flying in the reading version, but all that’s been cleaned up and clarified and the number works very well now. I didn’t know what I’d think of the production, because I’d heard so many comments both yay and nay. For me it was mostly a yay all the way and also a way all the yay. The design was, I thought, very good, and the costumes were great, as was the lighting which, unlike most of what I see today, didn’t overplay its hand. I gather the band here in LA is smaller than its New York counterpart – there’s even an “orchestrations adapted by” credit. It’s a sixteen-piece band here, but five of those pieces are keyboards. How big IS the NY band? Does anyone know? It still sounded fine, but my guess is the bigger band would help. The cast was excellent, especially our very own Miss Julie Reiber, who was on as Elphaba (and why I went) – she was fantastic. Her singing was stellar, but more importantly she really found the heart of the character (the hair and makeup design is brilliant), and I was very impressed with everything she did, and I’m ever so certain I’ll be working with her on some recording at some point. Megan Hilty was fine (obviously the people who do that role have to channel Miss Chenoweth), John Rubinstein was good as the Wizard, the Fiyero was good, and Carol Kane was great. I’ve heard a lot about how the show was cannily designed for tweener girls, but I don’t think it was. I think they lucked into it, and the fact is I was emotionally involved from start to finish, and I found some of it quite touching and I’m not a tweener girl. I wasn’t crazy about the choreography, but that’s a minor quibble. Joe Mantello has done a good job keeping the whole thing moving and focused. Now as to what I really didn’t like: The fact that the audience thinks they’ve come to Disneyland rather than a theater. Of course, the theater (or the people running the concessions and the lobby) is to blame. I mean, there are eight count them eight souvenir stands – you can barely walk three feet without coming to a new one. Additionally, there are people standing everywhere, also hawking the merchandise. Then there’s the candy-counter with Red Vines and all sorts of crap – this is the THEATER not the movies. Then there are the Wicked groupies, who must be at every performance. They’re laughing before the jokes, they’re screaming and whooping it up before numbers are over, and it’s all very annoying. Nicest surprise? The fact that they don’t milk the curtain call like most curtain calls these days. It’s quick and then it’s done, the way it should be. All in all, I had a grand time. I went backstage after and, of course, half the band were people who’ve played on my albums. I said hey to Julie and told her she was great and then I finally headed home where I had no time at all to sit on my couch like so much fish.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because keeping my lids open is becoming very difficult and it is ever so hard to write notes with closed lids.

Oy and vey is it late. How late is it? It’s so late that it’s early – morning that is. Today, I must do some damage control with replacing the one or two people we lost (not a problem, just takes time), I must do some more work on the order, although I’m starting to like what I have (I shuffled around a bunch of stuff yesterday), and then I have several performers rehearsing in the afternoon, after which I must go to an ensemble rehearsal so I can block Zane into the opening number, plus block his solo part.

Boy, do we have a lot to do in the next week and two days – it’s really mind-boggling. I do wish we had more helpers, but we’ll just have to make do with what we have – it’s daunting and becomes more daunting every day.

Oh, let’s put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora and the Anniversary Waltz, for today is occasional dear reader Jed’s birthday. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to occasional dear reader Jed. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OCCASIONAL DEAR READER JED!!!

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, rehearse, rehearse more, and then eat something at some point. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – DVD, the Stanley Kubrick box (not the whole box – it wouldn’t fit in my DVD player), cassette, a lovely Skip Kennon short musical, CD, a home-grown CD of the soundtrack to Fanny. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and, in honor of Wicked, let’s make them green.

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