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 all too soon she of the Evil Eye will be here. First things first: Someone forgot to mention to LA that it is no longer summer. And yet, this entire week we have had temperatures of 100 and over. Are there really any people left who don’t think there’s something seriously wrong with our planet? But that is neither here nor there or ever there nor here, other than allergies are running rampant.
The good news was that I got nine hours of blessed sleep, which I desperately needed. The helper came by and helped and then I had to mosey on over to Tallyrand, a Burbank coffee shop, for a meeting of enormous magnitude. I had a chicken salad sandwich of enormous magnitude and then we discussed the details of what is hopefully an upcoming project I’ll be directing in January, a musical by Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ. Lots of things to work out, of course, but we’re hopeful everything will go according to Hoyle and that we’ll be doing it.
After that, I picked up two little packages and then came home. My intention was to rest my voice for the rest of the day and evening and that I pretty much did, although it doesn’t feel very rested, some of which I think is due to the LA air. I had some low-cal ice cream and a couple of other tiny treats, because as of six I began the Yom Kippur fast – I usually don’t do it, but because I won’t eat before the Kritzerland rehearsal I figured why not. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a documentary entitled Bananas Is My Business, about Carmen Miranda. It was a very strange documentary, with recreations and actors and way too much about the woman who directed it – that was all the rage back in the 90s, to make a documentary about a subject but make it all about the director making the documentary. I would much rather just see a really well made documentary about Miss Miranda. There was some nice stuff in it and some interesting clips, but the “filmmaking” kept getting in the way.
I then watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Innocents, directed by Jack Clayton, written mostly by Truman Capote, photographed by Freddie Francis and starring Deborah Kerr, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin and Michael Redgrave. I’ve really only seen the film once before and I enjoyed it, but this time around I really thought it was brilliant – it does help that it’s a phenomenal transfer – the acting, the direction, the music, but mostly the extraordinary black-and-white scope imagery. It’s really a one-off – there’s never really been anything like it. As you might surmise, this is highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I just did stuff on the computer, listened to some tracks that may or may not end up on Kritzerland, prepared the announcement for Monday’s release and relaxed and kept my mouth shut.
Today, I shall really try to jog in the morning, then I’ll go do some errands and whatnot, then come back home and get ready for the Kritzerland stumble-through. After we’re done, some of us will go out and break our fast. Then I’m in for the evening, resting my voice – so send excellent vibes and xylophones that my voice is in good shape for Sunday’s show.
Tomorrow I’ll jog, then we have our sound check and show, after which a few of us will go out to eat. Monday morning we announce our new title, which will hopefully be a quick sellout – we really need one. Then the rest of the week is meetings and meals, finishing casting the Kritzerland show and finishing choosing songs and gathering the music and getting it to the cast, and seeing a couple of shows, I think. We also have to prepare for the And the World Goes Round launch party here on October 20.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, have a stumble-through, break a fast, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite Jerry Herman songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the weather cools off and that I have no problems of enormous magnitude.