Well, dear readers, yes, these here notes are late in going up because just as I was about to post them at one-thirty in the morning, all the sites went down. They remained down until I could take it no more, which was three-thirty. Our web guy was dealing with the data center (whose fault it was) and told me he’d stay on it until it was up, and I went to bed. Just up at six-thirty and checked and we’re up (went up around an hour ago.
Last night, it was another op’nin’, another show last night, when we opened Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ’s musical Inside Out. We had an almost sold out house and we couldn’t have asked for a better audience. And it wasn’t a fake audience – while there were obviously friends and some family there, they reacted honestly, never forced, and the applause was genuine rather than any of that silly fake whooping and hollering. So many lovely people came up to me after to tell me that they’d loved the production – the look, the staging, the pace, the movement of it – and that made me very, very happy. There were many big laughs, and the number that’s been truly stopping the show every night, I Don’t Say Anything, sung by Adrienne Visnic, REALLY stopped the show cold – the reaction shook the walls of the theater. It was amazing. I’ve heard the song done many times by many people and no one has come anywhere near Adrienne, whose version is, for me, absolutely definitive. Part of it is because she is so completely lovable in the role, and because she brought so much to the table in the first place, I was able to build on it and she would take that stuff and make magic out of it. That is my favorite kind of actor and our cast was made up of such actors. Adrienne is that rarest of rare things – a natural-born comic singer/actress. Our very own Sandy Bainum has really grown into what is, for me, a difficult role. She got some pretty big and unexpected laughs last night and that means we’re doing something right. Leslie Stevens is simply a superb actress, and is so raw and real in this – it’s very moving. I simply loved working with her – she’s incredibly smart with incredibly good instincts. Stephanie Fredricks also has a tough role, but she’s just wonderful in it and is also getting big laughs now. She has two lovely solo song moments and she does those wonderfully, too. Dana Meller – one thing I was adamant about from the beginning was that I did not want to use anyone who’d done the show before. I felt they would bring the baggage of whoever did that production or reading with them. Dana had done two readings, both of which I’d seen, and both of which I could not stomach (not because of the casts). But eventually I came around to changing my stance and am I glad I did because Dana is spectacular in her role and she brought NONE of the baggage of those readings with her. Again, she’s the kind of actor who I can give any bit of business to and she can run with it and make it great. In fact, one of her biggest laughs is a bit I gave her with her chair and no one could do it better than she does. She also has a great voice, a beautiful smile and I just adore her. And last but not least, Cynthia Ferrer, who, as the leader of the group, is the rock of the show. I’ve seen Cynthia in a lot of shows, and she’s done several Kritzerland shows – I knew I wanted her for this from the minute I said I’d do it. In fact, she was the first person I went after and I’m so happy the timing worked out. She is not someone who really does Waiver theater, so it was great to get her. She’s so warm and funny and real and her character kind of has to drive the show, and she does it brilliantly and she sings beautifully, too.
Despite a funny hiccup in the first scene, where about two pages of dialogue were dropped, there were no problems at all. The set looked beautiful, the lighting looked beautiful, the costumes are great fun, and Alby Potts is just the most wonderful, calm, and talented musical director one could hope for. I shudder to think what this would have been like if we’d had to keep using tracks.
We had a lot of lovelier than lovely folks with us and the show ran exactly what it runs every night – one hour and fifty minutes plus a ten-minute intermission. All in all, a grand night for singing and you all need to see more photographs from the production so here are a few. Here’s four of our ladies – left to right it’s Stephanie Fredricks, Dana Meller, Leslie Stevens and Adrienne Visnic.
Here’s Stephanie, Adrienne and Sandy Bainum.
Here’s Cynthia Ferrer, Adrienne, Sandy, Leslie (behind Sandy), Stephanie and Dana.
Finally, here’s Adrienne in the middle of her show-stopping number.
The after-party was what it was. There were little cakes and big cakes, some cheese and crackers, and soft drinks and waters. After that, Doug and I went to a coffee shop in downtown Burbank – we rather liked it and it, like the Coral Café, is open twenty-four hours. I had a sandwich.
Prior to all of that, I’d actually gotten eight hours of sleep. I answered some e-mails, had a brief visitor, then went and had a patty melt, after which I came home. Then I just played on the computer until it was time to go. We were, of course, having huge problems with this here site, but it got sort of back to normal by the end of the day, and we’ll be on a new server soon enough.
Today, I have to be up by ten-thirty and to the theater by eleven-thirty to work with Leslie’s understudy, Jill Marie Burke, who’ll be going on for the matinee (Leslie had three performances we knew she’d be missing, as she’s in the opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion). I’ll work with her for thirty minutes, then the rest of the company shows up and we’ll just quickly run all the stuff that has actual staging. Happily, sixty percent of the blocking is sitting in a chair. Then I’ll watch the show, then some of us will go out for a nice, leisurely meal.
This week is all Kritzerland all the time, plus some meetings and meals and a couple of things to see.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a put-in, watch a matinee and then have a meal, after which I shall relax. 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 postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland happy that our opening night went so very well – we even had a heartfelt semi-standing ovation.