Well, dear readers, we had our first rehearsal for the Kritzerland third-year anniversary show and I must say it went very well (as first rehearsals go) and it’s quite a cast and everything seems like it will work, although I have two songs – one that may go, and one that may get added whether the other one goes or not, so both will be in at Thursday’s rehearsal and both may be in at the stumble-through, and then I can decide. The song that may go, interestingly, is my own Three Friends. I really like the song and REALLY like what it says, but I’m nervous about the tone of it working at our show – we’ve certainly done dark ballads before, but our kids usually do bright up-tempo stuff, and this song about three teen friends who have horrible home situations is a little dark although the song is positive in nature. It’s a tricky one, because I don’t want it to seem maudlin or soap opera or melodramatic – I do want it to be touching and sweet and real. Sami and Sarah were too big the first time through so I toned them way down, and Jenna just “got” her verse and that was very touching. The last time we ran it it was much better and it has nice harmony at the end – so, we’ll see how that goes. The song that may get added is Two’s Company from The Magic Show, which I recorded with Emily and Alice. I’d asked the Staitman girls to learn it and they have and it’s really cute, but I don’t want to overload the show with one song too many. We’ll see how I feel after Thursday, and I may just keep both songs in for the stumble-through and see how they play – it’s easy to cut one or both at that time.
First up was Valerie Perri – we’d never met but she’s just terrific. She did her three songs, all of which she’s done for years – Buenos Aires from Evita (she played Eva Peron for several years here at the Shubert Theater back in the day), Time Heals Everything, and As If We Never Said Goodbye (she just did Sunset Blvd. at Musical Theatre West). Next up was Dan Callaway, who ran his three numbers, The Kid Inside, You Must Believe in Spring, and a put-together of I Met a Girl and Long Before I Knew You, both from Bells Are Ringing. After that it was Joshua Finkel – he did his three songs, Second Chance (from Steel Pier), The Yiddish Sondheim (this is basically a duet with Josh and Jane Noseworthy, with brief appearances by Kay Cole and Dan Callaway), and finally She Touched Me from Drat! The Cat!
Then it was Kay Cole’s turn. It’s such a pleasure to have her singing again. She ran her three songs – One Boy (she was in Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway and understudied Kim), Why Can’t I Forget (we just recorded that song with Sandy Bainum and I thought Kay would do it nicely, which she does). Then Jane Noseworthy arrived and she and Kay did their duet, Every Day a Little Death. Then Jane ran her other two songs – her portion of The Yiddish Sondheim, and Getting Married Today, which is going to be amazing. We’re doing it in a way that hasn’t really been done before and as we were running it down we came up with one really hilarious vocal thing – I love letting Jane be funny and she’s doing this brilliantly already.
Then our three youngsters arrived. First up was Three Friends, which we worked on for a while. Then the Staitmans did Two’s Company for me to hear, then they did their part of The Yiddish Sondheim (I’ll assemble that whole thing before we do the stumble-through), and then Jenna did her solo, Dear Mr. Gershwin from Radio Gals, complete with tap solo. Adorable.
Prior to all that I’d had a long but fruitful day, although ironically I had no fruit. Go know. I was up at six to announce our new title. And I must say orders came in fast and furious and also furious and fast. But I went back to bed and slept for an additional three hours, which was very helpful. When I got up I had a very large number of orders to print out and it took me over an hour to do so and even then I didn’t finish. Then I went and had a ham and Swiss on rye. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a sandwich in a restaurant and I have to tell you it was great and I’ll be ordering that a lot from now on. I also had a small thing of onion rings just because I thought I deserved a treat. I picked up no packages or mail because I didn’t even get over there.
I came home, printed out lots more orders (we’ve sold almost 1300 of the 1500 run and I haven’t even heard from some overseas dealers who, if they wait much longer will be out of luck), and then it was time for our rehearsal. After the rehearsal, I finally did a three-mile jog, planked, and did thirty sit-ups. I didn’t feel like going out for anything to eat, so I just made some low-cal popcorn and put a little high-cal butter on it (I had about five hundred calories to play with) and that was my evening snack. Then I got a call from the lovely Elizabeth Sherman to make dinner plans. We’ve been trying to do this for ages, and it’s finally happening. It will either be tonight or tomorrow night and we’ll be supping at Genghis Cohen. And I thought of something very clever indeed and I don’t know why it’s never occurred to me before – I’m going to have Richard Sherman sign my very rare first editions of both the UK and US Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The UK first edition of Chitty is actually in three volumes, but I think he should just sign the first volume. The US puts the three UK volumes into one.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, then at some point I’ll be seeing the Darling Daughter for a little while, I’ll do a jog, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll begin prepping our next release (I’ll actually prep two because I don’t know which it will be), and I have a lot of other stuff to do. Then it may or may not be dinner with the Shermans.
Tomorrow will be dinner with the Shermans if that doesn’t happen tonight. Otherwise, meetings, meals, our second rehearsal on Thursday, when we’ll also have our guest star, Sharon McNight with us. Friday I may just try to have a ME day because I won’t be having another for a while because September is a VERY busy month. And someone please tell me exactly how September is almost here. Saturday is our stumble-through – the people in The Yiddish Sondheim are coming an hour before so we can put that all together. Sunday we have our sound check, show one, and then show two. Then we’ll be going straight to Little Toni’s where I shall eat any damn thing I please.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, have a visit with the Darling Daughter, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, prep releases, and maybe sup with the Shermans. Today’s topic of discussion: What one dish that you’ve never made would you like to make? What one dish that you’ve never eaten would you like to eat? And what one dessert you’ve never had would you like to have? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after a lovely day of releasing and rehearsing.