Well, dear readers, shall we continue our look back at 2014? I think we shall. I believe we left off just as I was going to start directing Li’l Abner at LACC. I’d spent a large amount of time making little adjustments to the show so that something that was considered dated would work just fine. I can’t go into what it was I did exactly but it worked really well. Every time someone would do a concert version of the show, it wouldn’t really work and then the people who did it would ultimately blame the show itself and all its dated references. But I knew in my heart that the show could work like gangbusters if one did the right things. The other thing I knew was that I had to instill in our cast that while the show was based on a comic strip and was outlandish and outrageous occasionally, the characters IN the show don’t know that and they have to be played without the actor “commenting” on the character.
I brought in several pros, including our Abner and Daisy Mae, our Marryin’ Sam, our General Bullmoose, our Mayor Dawgmeat and I created a track for our very own Sami Staitman – taking what was one bit in the original show and just keeping that character in that one bit alive throughout the show, including her being one of the Dogpatch wives, which was really funny. One of the boldest decisions I made was for the band – I wanted a hillbilly band, a jug band basically, so I had my friend, the brilliant David Siegel, reorchestrate the score for piano, bass, drums/washboard, guitar/banjo, and fiddle. I hired Wayne Moore to musical direct and Kay Cole to choreograph. Then I cast the rest of the show with LACC Theatre Academy students.
From day one, we were all having a wonderful time. I liked all the kids and their energy, even though right from the get-go we had some problematic cast members in terms of attitude and commitment. We frequently had to send them to a faculty member for a talk or a faculty member would come in and talk to them as a group. We had lateness issues, too, which was irksome, but got better once a faculty member had addressed it. After rehearsals occasionally, I took some of the cast out to eat – House of Pies or Genghis Cohen – it was always a fun group of six or seven people, which usually included a guest artist or two. As rehearsals went on the show began to take shape quickly. I don’t really plan stuff – I just get the thing on its feet and then start to mold it into something fun, always watching what the actors are bringing to the table. I always tried to keep the atmosphere light and fun, which was, at times difficult. And then we had something happen. And while I’m not going to tell that story here and now, it was disgusting and awful and threatened to shut down the show. Once it was decided that we’d continue I had two ways to deal with the ugliness – let it permeate the rest of rehearsals or go the opposite way and just make everything so much fun and so exhilarating that everyone would just have a great time through the rest of rehearsals and the run. I chose the latter and right from that very first rehearsal after the bad stuff, that’s exactly what I did and the LACC kids responded to it and the whole room had a goofy and wonderful energy. I refused to let the disgusting stuff get to me and save for one incident a few days later, which actually sent me through the roof and led to a bunch of conversations where I threatened to pull the show, I just did my job. Thankfully, one of the faculty members, who was extremely apologetic about what was going on, calmed me down. I will say that two staff members (not faculty) behaved so atrociously that they should have been fired, and if there’s anything I can ever do to help bring that about you can be assured I will do it. I did get unending support from two of the acting faculty members as well as the president of the LACC Foundation.
The sitzprobe was really fun. David Siegel came in and we had him adjust a few things and the music end was really coming together. Run-throughs were very smooth and the comedy was getting really funny. Because Kay cracked a rib early on, I ended up staging a few numbers – the opening, the ballet that ends act one, Past My Prime and Put ‘Em Back. When Kay came back, we showed it all to her and she was very happy with everything and just tightened and cleaned it all up. Her other stuff was working great.
We had our first dress rehearsal. The overture was too long and not quite working the way I wanted it to, so after the dress, I made one big cut at the top of the overture, and moved one bit involving Sami to the very end, which finally made the bit work perfectly. The next night we had our first audience. The minute the overture began (the band was onstage) I knew we were okay. You could just feel the energy in the air and when Sami did her bit it got a big laugh. Then It’s a Typical Day began and everything got laughs and the number landed incredibly well. Then the scenes began and the laughs were huge throughout the whole show. Every joke landed, nothing didn’t land because it was dated. The cast, to a person, completely stepped up to the plate and the show was theirs. We opened, and the reaction was great for every show, and consistently so. At one of the performances, every single entrance in Typical Day got applause. The costumes, sets and lighting were all top-notch, too. We got love-letter reviews from all the critics who saw it. I could not have been happier, and if it hadn’t been for the stupid and completely unnecessary stuff that was going on, it would have been one of the best experiences I’d ever had in the theater.
Once it was over, letters began to fly back and forth about the bad business, but it would literally take almost six months to reach its conclusion. Everything about it was handled incorrectly and, more importantly, illegally, and it’s all documented very carefully on our end. Interestingly, only once did the school admit to wrongdoing – we considered that a very nice minor victory, although everything at every step of the way was mishandled and done incorrectly. And scene. I was very proud of the kids and our guest cast was terrific – Evan Harris and Maddy Parks were ideal as Abner and Daisy Mae, John Massey was a great Marryin’ Sam, and Barry Pearl had great fun with General Bullmoose.
I had no time to dwell on anything after, because there were always more Kritzerland shows to do, along with a ton of other stuff on a daily basis. I’d forgotten to write about recording And the World Goes Round at the end of January. That was a very difficult and crazy session due to a whole lot of things that I don’t need to go into except to say none of them had anything to do with me. I got us through everything and we did have a wonderful cast. But I told the money people at the end of the final session that we would be back doing a lot of fixes. What should have taken three days to mix took over two weeks, almost three. John Adams and I spent hours upon hours trying to save as much as we could. After the mix, I listened to everything and had the musical director listen to everything, and then I made a list of things we absolutely had to rerecord, this time with musicians of my own choosing. We brought in my regular guys – one trombone, one reed and one trumpet, and in one three-hour session we did all those fixes. They didn’t need to rehearse, they just came in and nailed one thing after another – for those sessions we had a conductor who’d listened to everything, and that was helpful. We inserted all those fixes into the mixes and then listened to everything again. And I determined that the good stuff now sounded great so that stuff I’d been willing to live with before that I felt should now also be redone. So, we reconvened one more time, did a two-hour session and fixed another bunch of things. All in all, I’d say we fixed about 70% of what we’d initially recorded, but what a difference and I knew that we finally had an album we could all be proud of. Mr. Kander listened and was very happy with it and that was blessing enough.
We’ll continue through the rest of the year in tomorrow’s notes. Yesterday there really wasn’t much that happened. I got about seven hours of sleep, I relaxed, I went and had a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of chili for my meal o’ the day, then came home and sat on the couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture entitled The Grand Budapest Hotel, a Wes Anderson movie. I really had no intention of watching it, as I’m just not a fan of Mr. Anderson’s arch moviemaking. But I put it on, and I kind of liked it – it moved right along, had some good laughs, and was like a sophisticated Coen Brothers film like Raising Arizona – obviously its polar opposite, but I mean in terms of quirky visual style and humor. The performances were all terrific and no one mumbled. That was worth it alone. And it had an absolutely marvelous score by Alexandre Desplat. They’re going to try and give it to him for The Imitation Game, a score I enjoyed but that sounds like way too many other scores – this score is really colorful and like no other score of the last few years in terms of its colors and bravura and melody. So, all in all, I can recommend this film. I believe it’s already out on Blu and Ray.
I then buckled down, Winsocki and finished the commentary, then did a little work on the new novel in terms of noting ideas and writing a rough up of its opening few paragraphs. I also did a bit of other writing and some work at the piano. And that was about it.
Today, I have a ten o’clock breakfast meeting about our upcoming Kritzerland Theatre Camp for young people, then the rest of the day is mine all mine. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll do a spot of banking, and I’ll relax.
Tomorrow I have an early lunch and then work session with Sami, and then the rest of the day is mine all mine. Wednesday is a ten o’clock work session with the musical director of the Kritzerland show, and then we have our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right here at haineshisway.com and you won’t want to miss one second of the merriment and mirth and laughter and legs. And then I’ll do the thing I do just before midnight, then I’ll toast in the New Year with a sip of champagne, and the following morning I’ll start on the new novel, then attend a partay at Barry Pearl’s.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a breakfast meeting, bank, hopefully pick up packages and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite films of 2014? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall greet the day with a smile and a laugh and good cheer.