Well, dear readers, I am legally blonde. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am legally blonde and no one can do a thing about it. I’m even feeling almost perky and my stomach didn’t even bother me today. In fact, the entire dad-blasted day was pretty nice, with the exception of one disturbing e-mail first thing yesterday morning – Vicki Lewis’s dropping out of the show two days before the show. She got a TV guest shot and, like all TV shows, they couldn’t promise her that she’d be out in time and she didn’t want to put us in jeopardy. I made a couple of calls to see if we could replace her, but the reality is it’s a long song with a lot of words and it really isn’t fair to ask someone to learn something like that in just a day. So, I made the decision to simply cut the number, and, since it was opening act two, I simply took a later number that I’d always considered for that slot and moved it, and the lovely thing is that nothing else has to change. But, we’re now less one more Menken song, which I’m not thrilled about, and we’re less one four-minute chunk, which means the second act will be four minutes shorter – I suppose there are worse things that could happen. I was, of course, shocked by such a dropout two days before a show, but that’s the way it is with benefits and people donating their time. Other than that, I spent several hours doing the lighting script (and I’ll now have to redo the number that’s moving to the top of act two) – I got it finished, so that’s a big load off my mind. I then toddled off to see Teddy, and he put a lot of silver things in my hair and then I sat under a hair dryer for a while, then got shampooed, then had a nice haircut. I looked quite spiffy coming out of there and there was a Spring in my step even though it’s Fall. Speaking of Fall, don’t forget to Fall Back and reset all your clocks one-hour earlier. After the haircut, I came home, fully expecting to go to tonight’s event – I opened the e-mail to get the address and noticed that the event was from four to six – since it was five-thirty when I opened the e-mail, I realized I would not have to attend. I then did some more silent auction item descriptions, then took a drive and ended up at a local Thai restaurant where I hadn’t eaten in about fifteen years. I had a fabulous dinner – excellent Pad Thai, a Thai salad, and a small dish of fried Catfish in an out-of-this-world curry sauce. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I continued re-watching the films of Patrice Leconte. I viewed Intimate Strangers, which I’ve written about before. It held up beautifully the second time, and it’s just a wonderful film, with great performances, a fantastic musical score, and terrific direction by Mr. Leconte. A masterful film, and, as I’ve said, I’ve yet to see a Leconte film that I haven’t adored.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m going to try and get a good night’s sleep – the night before I had horrible dreams and slept really poorly, but, now that I’m legally blonde, I fully expect to sleep beautifully.
Today is our second band rehearsal, which I’m looking forward to. I don’t really have any more work to do in the morning, but after rehearsal I’ll probably sit with our stage manager and go over various mic and staging details. When I get home, I have no plans to do anything other than relax and just go over the show details in my head.
Tomorrow will begin bright and early and then it’s show time. We’ve finally got all our silent auction items. For those who were interested (and who’d like to send bids via e-mail, which I’ll make certain get entered), the signed musical quotes are: Stephen Sondheim, a full-page quote of several bars from Not A Day Goes By from Merrily We Roll Along. Unlike most signed musical quotes, this isn’t just the melody line, it’s got the accompaniment, too, all in Mr. Sondheim’s hand. A great piece. We have three John Kander signed musical quotes – New York, New York, Cabaret, and All That Jazz. We have a Flaherty and Ahrens signed musical quote from the title song to Ragtime. From Rupert Holmes we have a complete cut song from Drood – while not in his hand, Mr. Holmes has written a fun note on the history of the song and when it was cut, and it is signed twice by him. It’s a real rarity and is probably the only copy out there. We have the first page of sheet music from A Place Called Home from A Christmas Carol, signed by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens. And we have a signed musical quote from Stephen Schwartz – Popular, from Wicked.
We have four original costume sketches from Ugly Betty. The are: From season one, a ball gown designed for Vanessa Williams as Wilhemina. From season one, Betty At Halloween – Betty as a butterfly in gold and lavender. From season two, “Betty At The Writing Class” – a hot pink outfit with a blue vest. From season two, “The Wedding Of The Year” (this episode airs November 8th), a stunning one-shouldered silver gown to be worn by Rebecca Romjin as Alexis.
We have the original Leon Joosen art for Lost In Boston IV, the final CD in the series. It’s a wonderful, large piece, beautifully framed and double matted, from my collection. It comes with a copy of the CD. We have a rare original window card from the legendary Broadway flop, Platinum, which starred LACC Theatre Academy alum, Alexis Smith. The poster has been signed by co-writer Bruce Vilanch. The other items are dining and theater and film-related and peculiar to Los Angeles. Again, if anyone would like me to enter a bid, just let me know your top price and I’ll make sure you’re on the bid sheet.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, attend a three-hour band rehearsal, do some work with the stage manager, and then relax and gird my loins for the very long day that precedes the fundraiser show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I go admire my legally blonde self.