Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because it is late and I must be up early and out the door early to go to a dinner theatre where I shall not, in fact, eat dinner, but eat lunch and see a matinee. So, I feel they should call it lunch theatre not dinner theatre because dinner theatre for lunch is a misnomer.
I had a nice day yesterday. I got up too early thanks to some heavy machinery working overtime somewhere in the neighborhood. I did some work on the computer, answered e-mails, had a long telephonic conversation with film restoration expert Robert Harris, and then went out and did some errands and whatnot, picked up no packages and an important envelope, did banking, then came home and went a tiny bit berserk and pulled about twenty Blu and Rays that I know I will never ever watch again, and pulled about a hundred DVDs for the same reason – all will be going in for trade next week. I was a man on a mission and it did clear some space out in the garage, but there are times I just want to get rid of it all. Then it was time for Melody’s rehearsal. She was a little overtired and not her usual bubbly self, but she’s allowed. Instead of running the whole show, we worked on specifics, which was just the right thing to do. We solidified the new patter, smoothed some new bits out, added some really funny new things (small moments but really cute) and ran the numbers that were having tempo problems.
After that, we drove down to the Beach of Long and went to the Claim Jumper for dinner. I don’t know why we really decided to do that, but Melody wanted CPK and, being overtired, really wasn’t thrilled to be at Claim Jumper and didn’t really eat much of anything. We all just let her be because we’ve all been there and there’s nothing worse than people trying to force you to have fun or be personable when you don’t feel like it. Her father had the chicken fried steak – the single hugest portion of food I’ve ever seen in my life – it made the Cheesecake Factory portions look tiny. I was a very good boy – I had a bowl of clam chowder and a chicken salad sandwich on a burger bun, most of which I ate without said bun. It came with thin fries – I ate about half those and Melody finally took a few of those and about half of her father’s biscuit – she ate very little of the little salad she got. By the time we got to the theatre she was back to being her bubbly self.
I saw lots of fun folks I know and serendipity was at work as I ran into actor John Massey (he was in The Roxy and played Mr. Cunningham in Happy Days, The Musical) – I asked him if he wanted to do the next Kritzerland show and the timing was good, so we are now cast. Also seen and spoken to – Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, Musical Theatre West’s artistic director Steve Glaudini and his ever-lovin’ Bets Malone, actor Paul Ainsley, our very own Jason Graae and his ever-lovin’ Glen, and a few others.
Then we all took our seats and watched opening night of Forbidden Broadway. I’ve seen several incarnations of the show and have always found it a bit of a hit-and-miss affair – when it’s firing on all cylinders it’s truly giddy fun and laugh-out-loud funny, but when it misses it just seems repetitive and those moments don’t land at all. Thus it has been, for me at least, and thus it was last night. There were many moments of inspired lunacy and a number of moments that just didn’t play, again, at least for me. That was no fault of the extremely hard-working and wonderful cast of Susanne Blakeslee (this woman is brilliant), David Engel, Larry Raben, and I’m afraid I don’t have the program so I don’t know the other lady’s name, but she was stellar, most especially with her absolutely incredible imitation of Sarah Brightman – that was one of the show’s highlights. Actually, most of act one sparkled. Act two had a few more moments that didn’t, but the stuff that did was cherce and more than made up for the down time. The only thing that really fell flat in a major way was the finale, which I gather is new. They need to fix that, because the end of the show fizzles a little. Still, a very entertaining and fun evening. Favorite performer moments: David Engel’s perfect impression of Robert Goulet, and Susanne Blakeslee’s great Barbra Streisand and Julie Andrews impressions.
After that, we decided not to go to the opening night party and instead drove back to the City of Studio and went to Four and Twenty Pies for some dessert. Melody was completely back to herself by then and realized she was absolutely starving, so she had a BLT with guacamole – her mum had fruit, her dad had cherry pie and I had coconut cream pie. All in all, a lovely night out on the town.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get some beauty sleep before doing a long drive to a dinner theatre for lunch.
Today, I shall be up early and out the door by ten to go to a dinner theater for lunch and a production of The Drowsy Chaperone. I don’t actually think I’ve ever been to a dinner theater, so it will be interesting. I’ll leave directly after the show, get home, and I shall do no work whatsoever – I shall relax, watch motion pictures, and give my weary brain one night’s complete rest.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting with Miss Juliana Hansen – it looks like I may be helping her put together an act. Then I have lots of errands, liner notes to finish, and then I may go to the Musical Theatre Guild’s staged reading of A New Brain – I’ve never seen the show. The rest of the week is filled with meetings and meals and errands and whatnot and hopefully picking up packages, rehearsals, and then, a week from today, the first book signing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up early and see a matinee at a dinner theater for lunch, then I must come home and relax. 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 hit the road to dreamland and then go off to a dinner theater for lunch.