Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and it’s late and I am beyond the valley of the tired. The reason for said tiredness was and is two-fold: One-fold was something irritating that happened just before I went to bed – no need to really yak about it, but just send all your strong and excellent vibes and xylophones for no more irritants. So, I couldn’t fall asleep and then on top of that I couldn’t connect to this here website or the Kritzerland site. So, at two in the morning I called the emergency line of our web host, planning to leave a message. But someone answered, so obviously it wasn’t just our sites – they’ve been doing all this catch-up work since they moved all the stuff to a new data center, and last night’s was dealing with e-mail. Now, that doesn’t affect me or the sites, but it was so immense, this update they were doing, that it literally slowed down all the sites they host to a crawl. Happily it was the middle of the night and he said it would be done in a couple of hours and everything would be back to normal and then, for them, everything is finally transferred and up to date. I didn’t actually fall asleep until after four and I got up at nine-thirty, not exactly a good night’s beauty sleep.
Once up, I was so groggy and disoriented that I really couldn’t do much of anything, and it was overcast and kind of chilly out so I didn’t feel like doing an early jog either. In fact, I pretty much decided after no days off from jogging in the last fifteen weeks that it was both high and low time to take a damn day off, and I’m really glad I did.
The helper came back into town and came directly here to get invoices, and then we did a needed and necessary Costco run, where I got waters and Diet Cokes and a few other things. I picked up one package and no mail, which meant, once again, no replacement debit card. I fear it really will be another two to three weeks. I then had to answer a plethora of e-mails, and had a telephonic conversation about the irritant of last night and that went fine. By then it was already late afternoon, and Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy picked me up at four-fifteen and we began the long day’s journey into Fullerton. What should normally be a fifty-minute ride took two hours and fifteen minutes. It was disgusting and frustrating and from now on if I want to see this group’s shows I’ll do so during the week they play in Redondo Beach, which is a much closer and more pleasant drive.
Once we finally got there we went to the restaurant Barry had chosen – I think it was called Stubrik’s or something like that, a steak house. Our waitress was great and understood we needed to be out of there in one hour in order to get to the theater. Barry ordered a filet wrapped in bacon, Cindy had crab cakes, and I ordered the salmon in a light lemon/butter sauce with rice and veggies. We all ordered small Caesar salads and there was some garlic cheese bread, too – quite different to The Smoke House garlic cheese bread, but very good. The food was excellent as was the company and conversation. We were out of there in an hour and then went to the theater and picked up our tickets for Funny Girl.
Last night, I saw a production of a musical entitled Funny Girl. I have only seen Funny Girl onstage once, its national tour starring Marilyn Michaels, Anthony George and Lillian Roth. Of course, I’d played the cast album to death, loved Streisand, loved the Jule Styne/Bob Merrill songs and especially loved the overture. The show had a troubled out of town tryout with Jerome Robbins coming in to doctor and whip it into shape, but even though it came into New York much improved and was a smash, they never really did solve all the book problems. I enjoyed the tour but it never really came to life for me in the way I’d imagined the show in my head while listening to the cast album. It certainly was fun, and Miss Michaels did her best, but something about it just didn’t get to me. Then the movie version came and I thought that was amazing and that it fixed all of the show’s problems, cutting some unnecessary time waster songs and really keeping the focus on Fanny and then Fanny and Nick. In the play, there are just too many exposition scenes with the mother and her cronies, and the sidekick character of Eddie just gets irritating after a while.
This production didn’t make me change my mind about anything. It was perfectly fine (it’s gotten raves from all the usual people who rave), and the Fanny was, at times, quite fetching and fun, but whether it was direction or whatever, many of the show’s laughs weren’t landing as they should. It was interesting – some of the pacing was too fast in terms of the dialogue and song tempos, while some of the pacing was too slow in the transitions and the scenes with Fanny’s mother. But the book remains clunky too much of the time and we lose sight of Fanny too much, which is odd. There were some other curious directorial choices that didn’t work for me – Cornet Man having Fosse-like costumes and chairs ala Mein Herr, several Fosse-like back-lighting things that were really out of place in a show that takes place in vaudeville – just an attempt, I suppose, to be modern and with it, but, again for me, didn’t serve the piece. But it’s always fun to see the old musicals in full productions and I’m glad I saw it.
After that, we said some hellos backstage, then came home.
Today, I shall be up early and out jogging early, then at some point I’m dining with the Staitman clan. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages and hopefully I’ll get some rest.
Tomorrow, I’m really hoping I can sleep late. Then I’ll do the commentary (I still haven’t started it), and then I’m seeing a singer at The Federal, where I’ll also dine. Next week is a slew of meetings and meals and meals and meetings, plus we announce our new title on Monday and can actually begin shipping it that very day. Love that.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Hokey-Pokey, because today is the birthday of our beloved dear reader Laura. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our beloved dear reader Laura. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR BELOVED DEAR READER LAURA!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine, do a jog, sup with the Staitman clan, hopefully pick up some packages and most importantly write some commentary and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Barbra Streisand movies and Streisand vocals? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully come back from beyond the valley of the tired.