Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle smoking Lucky Strikes. I keep telling the gazelle that it’s not good to be smoking so many damn Lucky Strikes but the gazelle just looks me in the eye and says “LSMFT”. How many people here immediately know that LSMFT means? Since I’ve seen many Jack Benny programs and heard many commercials, including ones by Dorothy Collins, I know. Of course, LSMFT can also mean Let’s Steal My Famous Tacos. Or, it can mean Long Shots My Favorite Thing. Or, it can also mean Lovely Salome Meets Frank Thring. What the HELL am I talking about? Don’t I have notes to write?
I got a decent night’s sleep, got up, answered e-mails, then the helper arrived and got some invoices, and then I did the four-mile jog. I then immediately went and had a scoop of egg salad and some french fries for my meal o’ the day. Both were very yummilicious. Then I went to the mail place and picked up two packages, after which I came back home. Then I made a decision to cut what was going to be our act two finale – we’ll now end with Damon’s Make The Most Of Your Music, and I think we’ll add the company into it at the end so we have a big choral sound. I cut the other number because I’m beginning to feel the show will be long – I want it to be two hours WITH the intermission – I don’t mind if it’s two hours without, but in terms of actual show I will not allow it to be over two hours. And, if it’s running over that, then a few other songs may have to go and I’m already figuring out what those might be. Right now there are twenty-nine songs, but that doesn’t include the guest star song – so it’s thirty numbers. Now, most of them are under four minutes, so it’s not that the songs are too long, there just may be too many of them, although they’re all great. We’ll just have to see how much time the patter takes, although I’m keeping my commentaries on the short side.
I then had to go to rehearsal. We worked first with Alet, then Alet and Damon. I got all their numbers blocked except Make The Most Of Your Music. Their first number, our opening, is really fun – I got to do the kind of staging I love to do, so that was a blast. Then I worked with Melody on her solo – it’s something we do in her act (I Want To Be A Rockette) but here we actually get to move around, so that’s fun, too. I ended up staging about eight or nine things – some easy, some a little more. We’re doing Man and Wife and Guess We May As Well Stay Married Now cut from I Do! I Do! and it’s really cute the way we’ve done it. We start with wedding music and three male/female couples come on arm in arm. Then we do a little switching so that the center couple remain male/female but the two side couples become female/female and male/male – it gives it a little something extra and is visually very amusing. That was really fun to stage. So, it was a very good rehearsal and we really got a lot done – in fact, all but about seven numbers are now staged, at least in rough fashion. As people ran stuff we’d staged yesterday, I made adjustments consistently, which I’ll continue to do as they get more comfortable with the material and get off book – then I can add and finesse and clean. One number that we had a grand time with was Sherry – we have a wheel chair for Damon and we did some really cute staging with it. I’m very happy with my stage manager and ASM – very on top of everything and I feel I’m in great hands – the same way I feel about Jose. You can imagine what trying to organize thirty songs is like, especially when some of these charts are not the clearest things in the world.
Now Damon and Will aren’t with us until next week, Will on Monday and Damon on Tuesday, but then they’re here for five straight days and will be with us as much as we need them. My intention is to assemble the show’s components on Tuesday and to begin run-throughs on Wednesday – I’ll read my commentary from the audience so everyone gets used to it. So, I’m hoping we get as many of these runs in as possible, because then Damon is gone for a week and doesn’t get back until tech. He’s very prepared and will be letter-perfect before he leaves, and I’m asking one of our guys to just sit in for him or walk his track for the three actual days of Thanksgiving week that we get to rehearse. I’m feeling we might just pull this damn thing off. We also have our opening night guest star confirmed – Richard Sherman – we’ll cheat a teeny bit and he’ll play a cut song not from a stage show but from Mary Poppins. Gregory Harrison will be doing one if not both shows on our closing Saturday, so we just have to find one or two for Thursday (better if one does both shows) and one for Friday. Hopefully we’ll be able to do so.
Then I came home, where I had no time to sit on my couch like so much fish. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get some sort of beauty sleep, as I have to be up no later than nine.
Today, I must be up by nine. I have two people coming by in the morning, then I must do the four-mile jog, then I must hopefully pick up packages, then I must go to LACC for a one-thirty production meeting, after which I’ll get some food, and then rehearsal begins at four.
Tomorrow we have no rehearsal, so I go to the editing room to finalize the final three episodes of season one. The weekend is busy – rehearsal for most of Saturday, and I have to see some show on Sunday. Meanwhile, the pile of Blu and Rays keeps growing and I really must watch some soon.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have visitors, do the four-mile jog, hopefully pick up some packages, have a production meeting, eat, and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Lost In Boston and Unsung Musicals songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall fall asleep saying LSMFT – Let’s Sleep Mighty Fine Tonight.