Well, dear readers, we had our stumble-through yesterday and it was priceless, magical, and wonderful, all in the same breath. The only person who fumfered on one lyric was yours truly because for the first and only time I came in earlier than I usually do on a line and it just threw me – I got back on track quickly, though. But these kids are such hard workers, they take direction like the best pros, they are all unique and have their own personalities and I was very proud of each and every one of them. I had only a few notes, most to do with tempo or occasional wrong chords and some arrangement things, and maybe just finessing certain lines for the performers. We ran a few things and that was that. Kay Cole was there and cleaned up You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile, which is way too much fun. In fact, so much fun that I’m having the girls do it in the benefit, as well as having Jenna Lea Rosen do Disneyland in the benefit. Here they all are in front of the home environment.
Left to right, we have Hadley Belle Miller, Oliviana Marie (musical director Tom Griep’s daughter), Carter Thomas, Brennley Brown, Jenna Lea Rosen and dog, Quintan Craig, Sami Staitman, Sarah Staitman and Paige Befeler (daughter of actors Roger Befeler and Kim Huber).
After the rehearsal, I took the Staitmans and Kay out to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. She chose Mo’s. It will probably be my last visit there, because they’ve changed the menu again, without letting anyone know the differences in certain dishes. I ordered my usual salmon and vegetables and instead of it arriving as it always is, it was completely different, with the salmon swimming in some bilious green liquid. I was told that they changed it about a month ago, and my response was, “Please take it back from whence it came and next time tell me in advance if I’m not going to get what I think I’m going to get.” Instead I had the roast half chicken, which was really kind of gross. We did have their pecan pie butterscotch bombshell thing, which was good – pecan pie covered with butterscotch sauce, ice cream, and whipped cream – what’s not to like. We all had lots of fun, and then I came home.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten up at nine-thirty, turned on the heat, and stayed in bed doing stuff on the iPad until eleven. Once up, I finessed the previous day’s writing, futzing and fixing, adding and subtracting, and then I wrote about a page, before it was time to get ready for rehearsal. After I got back from dinner, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture I’d TIVOd entitled The Tall T, starring Mr. Randolph Scott. I chose that because it’s quite short, and I do love the Randolph Scott oaters. I was sure I’d seen The Tall T before but none of really seemed familiar to me. It’s not my favorite Randolph Scott, but it’s enjoyable and features a really good performance by Richard Boone and a really creepy performance by Henry Silva.
After that, I wrote, and I think I ended up doing a total of seven pages for the day and I finished chapter two, so that was great. For a non-Hofstetter book, I’m pleased with the progress. I should be able to print out the first three chapters by Monday or Tuesday and I’ll give those to Muse Margaret, just to make sure I’m on the right track. I then took a hot shower, got a couple of good ideas, then wrote them down, and also added a couple of little things to what I’d written.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. I will definitely jog, I’ll try to write at least three or four pages, and then I go to sound check and then it’s our show. After the show, I’m sure some of us will go over to Little Toni’s for a bite. I will, of course, have a full report.
Tomorrow we have benefit rehearsals for some of the day, and that’s pretty much going to be all week, as well as writing every day. Tuesday night I have a dinner meeting, Wednesday night is our brush-up rehearsal for the revue, which I probably won’t see again until Saturday night. I will also be writing patter for the benefit. We’re keeping it to a minimum, but it still has to be written. And at some point this week I’ll finalize the show order, and then print out a bunch of stage diagrams, so that each performer will know exactly where he or she enters and exits from.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write, have a sound check, and do a show. 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, happy to be working with such wonderful youngsters and happy that our stumble-through was so magical.