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May 22, 2014:

THE OPENING OF ABNER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, we have had our opening night, and, in the scheme of things, it was pretty amazing.  Sure, some opening night jitters here and there, but mostly everyone hit it right out of the park and it is everything I hoped it would be.  When you’ve waited this long to do something that’s been in your head forever, it’s always worrisome whether it’s going to be what you wanted, whether it will land exactly the way you intended.  But from the very start, the audience was completely with us – I designed the opening of the show, which is the overture, to set the tone for what’s to follow – so our band is front and center playing and Sami’s part of it got a huge laugh, just as I hoped it would.  Typical Day was perfect – laughs, smiles and a big applause at the end.  The lines by Panama and Frank got consistently large laughs.  And the cast was ready for them and only once did a laugh get stepped on, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.  Both Jubilation T. Cornpone and The Country’s in the Very Best of Hands did what they were designed to do – stop the show.  The Sadie Hawkins Day ballet got a wonderful reaction.  And all of the touches that I’ve brought to it really worked well and kind of make this a unique production of this show.  The first act ran its usual seventy-five minutes, and the second act its usual forty, so just under two hours.  John Massey as Marryin’ Sam got one of the biggest laughs in the show at the top of act two, when he timed a gag differently than he’s been doing – the laugh was huge and being the pro he is he then built on it.  I cannot say enough about our Abner and Daisy Mae who are, after all, the heart of the production.  I’d given Daisy a note at our preview and she really took it to heart and was quite brilliant last night.  Barry Pearl got lots of laughs – we’re still struggling with one costume problem, but that will hopefully be righted for today’s matinee.  But I knew the pros would all deliver.  What really made me beam, though, were the kids – there was such energy and such heart from them and the audience ate them up.  Many people told me it was the fastest-paced Abner ever.

We had a mostly full house – in fact, it would have been completely full if some of the folks who actually bought and paid for tickets had bothered to show up.  That kind of thing is just beyond me.  We had some fun folks in the audience, including some LACC alums, the LACC Foundation president, Richard and Elizabeth Sherman and Disney’s Howard Green and some of his friends, including Mark Evanier, who is a huge Abner expert and who contributed to the Kitchen Sink publication of the daily comic strips.  Our Now Playing critic Rob Stevens was there – I think he enjoyed it, but won’t really know that until his review is posted.  The band sounded great, too, and it was just one of the most gratifying opening nights I’ve ever attended of something I’ve been involved in.  Here are some photographs for your mental delectation.  All photos by Michael Lamont.  First is our beautiful Daisy Mae, Maddy Claire Parks, who is perfection.

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Here’s John Massey doing his opening verse in Typical Day.  He, too, is perfection.

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Here’s John and Sami Staitman about to launch into Jubilation T. Cornpone.

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Here’s Evan Buckley as Abner along with John Massey, doing The Country’s in the Very Best of Hands.

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Here’s Evan and Maddy, Maddy chasing Evan in the Sadie Hawkins Day race.

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Here’s our band and Sami doing the entr’acte.

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Here’s Barry Pearl as Bullmoose, Riley Dandy as Appassionata Von Climax, and Evan in the society ball sequence.

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Here’s the whammified Barry Pearl.

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Here are the Put ‘Em Back wives.

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Finally here are Abner and Daisy doing Love in a Home.

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Prior to our opening night, I’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, then did some work on the computer, after which I moseyed on over the hill and got my haircut from our very own Teddy, who did his usual great job.  Then I went to the nearby California Chicken Café, where I had a chicken wrap.  Then it was over to LACC, where I handed out a LOT of opening night cards.

After the show, we hung out with the Shermans and talked to a lot of people, then a few of us went over to Palermo and had a proper dinner.  So, it was a wonderfully wonderful opening night, and here’s hoping the rest of the run is equally magical.

Today, I shall write more of the Kritzerland commentary, I shall write more questions for the Richard Sherman interview, then I’ll attend both our matinee and evening performance, after I pick up a Fed Ex package.  Not sure if we’ll go out after the show or not.

Tomorrow I have a work session for the Kritzerland show, which I’m hoping won’t take more than an hour.  I’ll finish both the commentary and the Sherman questions, so that I can start on a set of liner notes.  Then it’s the Friday evening performance, then two on Saturday and that’s the end of this part of this journey.  I’ll have a day of rest on Sunday and then we start the busy Kritzerland week.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, pick up a package, and then have a two-show day.  Today’s topic of discussion: What was the most exciting opening night you’ve ever attended?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall bask in the glow of an over two decade dream finally coming true, and coming true so wonderfully.

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