Well, dear readers, I have figured out that part of my recent malady has to do with allergies, not sickness. And yes, the malady lingers on, I’m afraid. But I’m not really sick, I’ve just got these allergies that affect my nose and my throat, not necessarily in that order. I think all that rain and wind stirred up the air something good. But why dwell on the malady when there are notes to be written. Of course, maladies have notes and a key signature. Speaking of a key signature, yesterday was quite an interesting day. For example, I got up. That was interesting. I just tried to relax all day, but had to print out a lot of orders, write a thing for our LACCTAA newsletter and get it sent off. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that our fourth event in this new series of events will be An Evening With Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt – we’re very excited and it will be a lot of fun, I think. I’ll moderate, and they’ll each play a few songs, and we’ll have an open Q&A, too. I had a Subway sandwich for lunch and I listened to some more material from our upcoming soundtrack release (there is a LOT of material to go through – we lucked out in that two of the twelve tapes were the music stems from the film, which gives us the movie order of the music – very helpful). Oh, and I did do the long jog, as well. I then shaved and showered and people started arriving for our very informal reading of The First Nudie Musical, The Musical. I think we had about eleven people there, but shockingly Matt Ashford was a no-show. No message from him, no returned call, no nothing. I probably should have confirmed with him a day or two ago, but he asked me to send him the script via e-mail along with all the info about the time and stuff, and I did all that right away. That threw a real monkey wrench into the proceedings, and I had to ask an actor who was there to read the role of the backer, Eddie, to read Harry. He’s a very good actor, but totally wrong for Harry, but he got us through the reading. I assigned Eddie to the actor who was reading the composer, Dick Davis. So, he read two roles.
The reading went very well for a cold reading with no prep at all. There were lots of laughs, and because we had a few people who were not right for what they were doing, some things that landed in the first reading didn’t here – but that’s what happens in cold readings. People have to just make an instant choice and sometimes the choice doesn’t work. I did manage to croak my way through the score, which people seemed to enjoy. Best of all, all the changes we’ve put in since David Wechter came on board, worked really well and really helped the show a lot. Characters that disappeared in the previous version now have more to do and are kept alive throughout the show. The new musical number worked really well, and the new Eunice number finally hit the mark, my eighth try at that number. David and I were pretty pleased with everything, but we both feel there is still some work to do with some punching up exit lines and little nips and tucks here and there – but it’s all minor stuff we should be able to do in an hour or two. So now I begin thinking about our March reading – it will have to be toward the end of the month, but for that one I’ll have a full cast and will do a bit of staging and that will be fun. Plus, I won’t be playing the piano, which is a good thing in just about every way. What happens from there is still unknown – I’m hoping we’ll have some clew about it in the next week or two. All in all, it was a very satisfying evening.
After everyone left, I went to Gelson’s to get something light to snack on because everyone WUSSBURGERED after the reading. I always like to go out and have a meal, but David had a shoot to prep and everyone else had early days.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because my malady, like the melody, is lingering on. And on. And on.
Today, I am staying home and resting and getting better. I shall only leave to get food, otherwise I’m staying put and listening to CDs and watching DVDs and doing some proofing of a new novel. I think I’m supposed to have dinner with a book dealer friend, but I’ll only go if it’s close by.
Tomorrow we’re supposed to record vocals, but I had an e-mail from Mr. Geissman asking if we could do it today or Saturday – for some reason he thought it was just me, but I booked four other people for tomorrow and it will be hellish if I have to unbook and rebook. I’m awaiting his response. I may be supping with a friend in the evening.
The weekend is relatively free, which is good, because the first three days of next week are going to be very long and involved days working on the long musical. And I’ve also got meetings and meals and all sorts of other things.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (if possible), rest, relax, proof, maybe have a dinner, and just take it easy. Today’s topic of discussion: Here’s a topic I’m always fond of – if you could take our haineshisway.com Time Machine™ and go back in time to have one meal with anyone in history, who would it be and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst the malady lingers on.