Well, dear readers, sometimes I wish there was a way to push a magic button so that the notes would just suddenly be written without my having to actually write them. Wouldn’t that be marvelously marvelous for those evenings when I get home very late and my brain is no longer functioning, so that I don’t just ramble incoherently, word after word, sentence after sentence, and paragraph after paragraph. But, alas, there is no magic button I can push and hence here I am, rambling incoherently wishing there were a magic button so I wouldn’t have to ramble incoherently. Speaking of rambling incoherently, yesterday was another very full day. I got up pretty early, but had gone to bed pretty late. I then did some work at the piano, finishing up a lyric, then answered bunches of e-mails and returned some telephonic calls. Then I toddled off to a lunch meeting, which was very interesting. I then came home, attended to some errands that needed attending, and then I toddled off to Anaheim. As I posted yesterday, I finally figured out how to deal with the traffic, which is to remain completely relaxed no matter how bad it is, and just use that time to think of work-related things or listen to music. I must say, it worked very well – the drive, for whatever reasons, was about ten minutes shorter despite leaving ten minutes later. I hung out at Panera, and then it was time for our callbacks.
Last night, we had callbacks for The Brain. First, the Chance company members came in (the ones that wanted to audition), and the women learned Here On Earth, and the men, The World Of Tomorrow, then each sang their respective song solo. After that, we did an hour of tapping, and that was very interesting. We had some really good gals, but only a couple of guys, so that even if we offer the two guys the parts, we don’t know if they’ll want to do it. The gals we actually have more than enough to choose from. After that, the entire group of people there to read were brought into the theater. That’s not a way I’ve ever cast before, and I just sort of didn’t even get that that’s what we would be doing, but Oanh gently got me to understand that this was the way it was going to be. So, we began reading and it went very quickly, but, as I said, I’ve never read actors like this and it really took me a while to get used to it. Part of it was because of the dance routine taking the time it took, it was quite late by the time we started reading. In any case, we heard some very good people, and when it was all over, we finalized the people we knew we were happy with, but we still have three roles to cast, and I’ll be all over that for the next two days. I was very pleased with everyone we finalized, even though a couple of the actors are the polar opposites of the original people who played the roles. I’m looking forward to working with these new people. We didn’t wrap it up until 11:45. I got on the 91 freeway, as always, but when I got to the I5 North, which takes me back to LA, the junction lane was closed and there was a freeway detour that took me about five miles out of the way and caused me to waste about ten minutes – this city is beyond reprehensible sometimes. And seeing the teeny-tiny detour signs was very difficult and I almost pulled off the freeway a couple of times before the actual detour. I hope that was a one-time occurrence. Once back on the I5, there was no traffic at all and I got home very quickly. I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below – I guess our Unseemly Button is kind of a magic button and we all know how I’m longing for a magic button.
Today, I’ll be lunching with our very own Mr. Mark Rothman, after which I have a lot of errands to do, and some work at the piano and elsewhere, as well as attending to our outstanding casting issues. Happily, I have no plans for the evening, so I’ll get to watch a DVD or two.
Tomorrow, it’s just working at the piano and finishing up a couple of lyrics and whatnot, and I think I have to see a musical comedy either tomorrow night or Saturday night. Otherwise, the weekend is pretty free. I think we’re going to delay the start of rehearsals for one week until we finish casting.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands, lunch with Mark Rothman, work at the piano, and return more telephonic calls. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the single weirdest theatrical production you’ve ever seen – something that was so outré or outrageous or just plain wacko that your mouth was agape the entire time? Let’s have loads of lovely postings shall we, and today I’m going to try and invent a magic button so that I can just push it and have automatic notes.