Well, dear readers, it is late and she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon, so I shall just begin these here notes with no fanfare whatsoever. I shall write these here notes faster than a speeding bullet, they shall be more powerful than a locomotive, and they shall leap this here tall building with a single bound – look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Supernotes!
Yesterday was quite a day. I know I got up very early, as the telephonic device rang at eight o’clock in the morning. It was the lab telling me we wouldn’t meet until Monday. I got up, answered e-mails and did some work on the computer, then did some banking and a few errands and whatnot. Then I did the four-mile jog, and then it was time to go to the Wood of Holly to see the thirteen-year-old in an Improve showcase at Second City, where she takes a class. I found a nice place to park on Hollywood Boulevard, a two-hour spot. Would you like to know what the cretins of Hollywood now charge at a parking meter? Well, I’ll tell you what the cretins of Hollywood now charge at a parking meter for why should I keep such information from dear readers such as yourselves? They charge two dollars for an hour of parking. It’s been getting worse everywhere, but that’s a new one on me. No wonder the Wood of Holly is a hell hole that people no longer want to go anywhere near – what with the plethora of trendy clubs now, the tattoo parlors and some of the scummy people who make walking on the boulevard very unpleasant. Bravo, cretins of Hollywood.
The show was fun – lots o’ youngsters doing some sketches, some improv, some music. Melody wrote quite a few of the sketches. I had a very good time and obviously the audience was very appreciative. Afterwards, they served pizza and cupcakes to audience and cast. Then Melody, her family, and I walked over to Musso and Frank for an early supper. I was thoroughly nauseated to see that the marquee of the Vogue movie theater, the theater where I saw The Parent Trap, for God’s sake, now says “Supper Club.” And directly next to it and Musso and Frank, some jerk opened a bar and restaurant, just what Musso’s needs next to them.
We were pretty much the only folks there. The waiter came over to take our order, and told us a couple of very shocking things. I’ve been going to Musso and Frank since around 1974 and the one thing you can always count on is that NOTHING EVER CHANGES, except the prices. Well, they suddenly, for the first time in something like fifty years, have specials now – macaroni and cheese with lobster, and the pounded steak now can be ordered chicken fried – it’s all very weird and a little unsettling, actually. I, of course, had the combination Louis with my usual bowl of 1000 Island dressing along with a bowl of cocktail sauce. I’m happy to say I did NOT eat the entire bowl of 1000 Island dressing as I normally do – I was very good, and used the cocktail sauce a lot. It was yummilicious in the extreme. Melody’s dad had the pounded steak with country gravy, which he loved. Melody’s mom had the crab Louis, and Melody had a Caesar salad and lots o’ bread. And that was the other thing – no more pats of butter. They’ve always had the wrapped butter, salted like most LA butter, but now they have butter in a little holder and it’s SWEET and I HATE sweet butter. So, another disconcerting thing.
After dinner, I came back home. Dear reader Sam stopped by and picked up some books and CDs and we had a nice little visit. Then I listened to our new master, which sounded fantastic, and I got everything ready for Monday’s announcement. I then had to leave to go see 1776 at a small theater in Glendale.
Last night, I saw a production of 1776 at a small theater in Glendale. First of all, I saw the Broadway production back in 1969 a few weeks after it opened and it was one of the greatest theater experiences I’ve ever had. A perfect cast, a fun score, and a great book. It’s a show that never should have worked and yet it not only worked it worked brilliantly. Peter Stone’s book is fantastic and it’s just amazing how much suspense there is about an event that we know is going to happen. But until the final minutes of the show you just don’t know HOW it’s ever going to come to pass. That Broadway production is the only one I’ve seen, other than the film version, which isn’t much to my liking, other than it preserves many of the original cast. The film was directed by Peter Hunt, who’d done the show, but he really knew nothing about film at all and it shows – he didn’t tone down the performances for the camera (some are great, and some, like Ron Holgate, are so over the top it’s just embarrassing), and he rarely knows where to put the camera.
Even seeing the show in the round as it was done last night, even though it may not have been the greatest production, the show is so powerful that I just sat there mesmerized and really enjoyed it a lot. Several of the actors were very good indeed. The production had two serious downsides, neither having to do with the cast. Downside one and the biggest downside – they used pre-recorded musical tracks. The tracks themselves are okay, but the cast is then tied to them and have no room to move or breathe or do anything out of rhythm. Some of the tempos are way too fast, some are too slow, and the poor actors are in bondage to them. Also, the way the music is structured in the show, sometimes the tracks just begin in weird places and it’s hard for the cast to know just when to come in. I understand the reality, but the reality is it just sucks the life out of the music. The second downside is length. On Broadway, the show ran without intermission and it was perfect – my memory is the running time was about two hours and fifteen minutes. People cry about sitting in a theater for that long, but they certainly sit in movie theaters for that long without an intermission, so I’m not sure why they can’t sit for that long for a stage show. A Chorus Line ran two hours and ten minutes without intermission, Follies ran the same without intermission.
Now it’s fashionable to insert intermissions in these shows. I’ve seen A Chorus Line done that way and it’s AWFUL. Follies NEVER works with an intermission – the original creators tried putting an intermission in several places, but in the end there was no REASON for one and it interrupted the momentum of the show just when it shouldn’t be interrupted. It played beautifully that way. Every subsequent production I’ve seen puts in an intermission. Sorry, it doesn’t work. It’s STUPID. STOP. The new production has the intermission. BAD. And they now have an intermission in most productions of 1776. It doesn’t work. It’s STUPID. STOP. The intermission comes right after Mama, Look Sharp. What compelling reason is there to have an intermission there? None. Then we come back and all the momentum that’s been building up is gone. Kaput. The poor actors have to work really hard to get us back. Trust the material, trust the way the original creators wrote it – they knew what they were doing, and these shows were designed to play sans intermission. It does mean people don’t get to have their gummy candies or drinks, but either you respect the integrity of the show or you shouldn’t be doing that show. In any case, they had the intermission and it was probably good they did, because the first act ran an hour and forty-five minutes. I felt the pacing could have been quicker – had it been I think you could have knocked twenty minutes off that act and skipped the intermission. End of intermission rant.
It was, however, fun to finally see it on stage again and it remains a brilliant work. I’d been invited to see the show by an actor named John Butz, who was playing Benjamin Franklin. He’s done the show a lot, playing many of its roles and he was terrific – very low key, letting the humor work subtly, which is the best way for that role to work. The John Adams was good. And I met Michaelia Lee who played Martha Jefferson – I hired her for our next Gardenia show because a friend recommended her highly and I saw a You Tube video – plus, she’d just played Luisa in The Fantasticks, and since two of her songs would be from that show it seemed like a natural fit. She’s really good, too, so that’s nice.
After the show, home I came. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get some semblance of beauty sleep and I am already overtired in a major way. So, Supernotes will continue in the next section.
Today, I shall be up early, I shall do the four-mile jog early, I must hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope (which didn’t arrive yesterday), I must have a rehearsal with Melody, I must eat, and I must write and really try to get to bed early tonight.
Tomorrow, I will do more writing, then I will be seeing some singer at Vitello’s and then I’m getting to bed early because I must be up at six on Monday morning to announce our new title, and at eight-thirty I’ll be back at the lab to see some stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, I must hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, I must stay as far away from the scummy Hollywood Show as I can, I must rehearse, I must eat, and I must write. Today’s topic of discussion: I don’t like comedy much these days, but I don’t really know any of the current crop of funny people – so, who of the current crop do you think are really funny? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having finished Supernotes in record time.