Well, dear readers, can it really be the end of January? Can tomorrow really be February already? Well, let me just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that February will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
Yesterday we began assembling our show. I could have gotten over nine hours of sleep if I had actually been able to fall asleep – overall I probably got seven. We began rehearsals at the top of act one and three hours later we finished that act. Considering I stopped on every musical number and cleaned up, and then we ran those numbers an additional two or three times, that’s pretty good. One duet we hadn’t staged at all due to one actress having been gone the day we were doing that, but we sketched it out. I think the cast began to get a sense of how the show flows, and what its internal rhythms are and how its motor has to work. Because some of the dialogue contains throwaway lines, sometimes energy flags – it’s that fine line between realism, naturalism and theatricality and we just have to find the theatricality in terms of vocal energy. Everyone is beginning to find interesting stuff in their characters. And one of our cast members and I had a long chat about this one duet – she was struggling with it, but I said a few things that changed the way she was looking at it and it really freed her to go in a new direction that both of us think will work really well. I was really pleased with all the musical staging, I must say. But now it’s all about pace, rhythm and finding the beats that make the show funny and touching. Our ladies are still not secure with the tracks we’re using and there is ongoing discussion about that. We finished at two (we only did three hours today, due to a late start and the Kritzerland rehearsal) – the final hour after I left was used for costume fittings.
I came directly home and at two-thirty the wonderful and lovely Jean Louisa Kelly arrived and we ran through her three songs. Since she’d missed Monday’s rehearsal we gave her an hour yesterday. But you know what? She came in letter perfect and completely prepared. We set the keys for her and then she sang her three songs – The Folks Who Live on the Hill, Cleopatterer and Yesterdays. Jeffrey Todd, who’d been with us the day before, too, did his three songs – She Didn’t Say Yes, a put-together of Let’s Begin and Sure Thing, and The Way You Look Tonight. Everyone else did well, but some people have a LOT of homework to do in terms of getting their lyrics down. Boswell, as always, was easy and superb. It’s going to be a very nice show.
Then I went and had a cup of chicken soup and a chicken salad sandwich with no fries or onion rings. Then I went to the store and got some of that Sambuco stuff, then came home. I then proofed about forty pages and only have about twenty to go. It was then too late to watch anything, so I just relaxed, did some work on the computer, read through the commentary and made some futzes and fixes and that was that.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Depending on how I feel, I may or may not go to the book fair. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, and then I’ll be seeing a production of Company.
Tomorrow, I’ll be able to rest until the stumble-through, then after I’ll go eat something. On Monday we don’t have an Inside Out rehearsal because they can’t work more than six days in a row and since we go right into our long weekend rehearsals at the end of the week, we had no choice. But that gives me a chance to relax on Monday right up until our five o’clock sound check. Show is an hour later than usual, at eight o’clock, but it’s not that long of a show. Then on Tuesday we resume our rehearsals and we have to finish casting the March Kritzerland show, which I’ve just figured out. I think we’re going to have a rather amazing cast for this one and I also think it will be an instant sellout. The rest of the week is all rehearsals, run-throughs, work-throughs, polishing and honing, and then on Friday after rehearsal we paper tech the show, then Saturday and Sunday are both long days for run-throughs (two on each day) and fixing any tech problems.
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 can-can, because today is the birthday of our very own dear reader Michael Shayne. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear readers Michael Shayne. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER MICHAEL SHAYNE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully pick up packages, maybe go to the book fair, relax, eat and see a production of Company. Today’s topic of discussion: What flop musical would you most be interested to see done on stage or have seen during its original run? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have begun finding Inside Out.