Well, dear readers, I attended the Robby Awards last evening. Even though I was listed in the program as “director”, my contribution to the evening was arriving at four and placing the piano where I wanted it and choosing a pretty white curtain at the rear of the stage for the “look”. And placing the mics. I did talk to Jason Graae, one of our hosts, about a few things, and listened to all the sound check performances. I wish I’d been a bit more involved in the award presentations themselves, because that was the one aspect of the show that didn’t go smoothly. So, if we do it again, that’s something to look at and fix, and it’s pretty simple to do so. There was a powerhouse line-up of performers and presenters – only two of the latter proved to be problematic because those two people made it all about them and simply wouldn’t get off the stage or shut up. It really threw the tempo of the proceedings off and I felt they were both pretty embarrassing. All the other presenters played by our simple rules of keeping things moving. There were some backstage problems with the awards and envelopes when the carefully laid out box of them fell and everything spilled onto the floor. Rob went back and got all that straightened out. Of course Jason and his co-host, JoAnne Worley, kept things light and funny, which was very helpful. But even with the two presenters hogging way too much time, the show still came in at two hours and thirty-five minutes. Without the fumfers I do think we would have been much closer to two hours and ten minutes.
Sami and John Massey were delightful in I’m Past My Prime, Robert Yacko was great doing the Frank Loesser/Sweeney Todd What If, and Heather Lee did her great version of I’ve Gotta Crow. Other wonderful performances came from Kim Huber, Terry Bibb, Eileen Barnett, Michael G. Hawkins, Maggie Roswell and others. It was lovely to see presenter Linda Purl – hadn’t seen her in ages and she is as beautiful as ever. Linda Hart was there, although I didn’t get a chance to say hi to her. I wish we’d had The Flying Spoons but they were booked elsewhere. Jason did his hilarious version of Popular, directed to Rob. And Carole Cook was her usual brilliant self and she, unlike the two presenters who went on and on, kept her stuff short and sweet AND she was hilarious. I wish I could say that Kritzerland won for one of the three shows it was nominated for, but alas, I continue my amazing streak of rarely winning anything. The winner in our category (Sandy Bainum was also nominated in our category) was a double act by David Burnham and Valerie Perri. As you know, Li’l Abner was up for nine Robby Awards and I figured we’d get completely shut out, but happily that was not the case and the wonderful John Massey won for his performance as Marryin’ Sam – well deserved and we were all thrilled for him. I met some lovely people after, and hung out with some folks I know. Jenna Lea Rosen was there with mom Heather, since she was nominated for the Kritzerland shows. Anyway, it was a fun night.
After, Doug Haverty, Adryan Russ and I went to The Federal to have some food. Prior to all that, I awoke at nine but stayed in bed till ten. Once up, I answered e-mails and stuff then went and had some bacon and eggs to tide myself over until the late dinner. Then I came home, the helper arrived and we did our Costco run to get desserts for the show. Then I had just enough time to get ready for the sound check. The helper arrived at five-thirty and picked up the wine. She worked the after party and was very helpful.
Today, I’ll be up early and to the theater by nine-thirty to make sure everything is happening the way I want it to. This day will either go smoothly or not, but it is my intention to have it go smoothly. I don’t know that our costume designer will be happy with me, but I have to have this show work the way I need it to and she simply has too many difficult and quick changes in both acts and that’s going to have to change because I will not allow the scene shifts to run longer than ten seconds tops. None of that will be open for discussion and I’ve already warned her about it. But it’s also the first time we’re having real musicians and we have to get the sound right so the cast can hear them and we can hear them out front. The sound guy is coming at nine to wire everything and get it all working by noon. Then we’ll have a short costume cue-to-cue to see what I’m keeping and not keeping. Then we must start our dress rehearsal no later than one-thirty. After that, we lose one of our actresses (that has been something that has been difficult for the entire rehearsal process, but thankfully that stuff is not an issue after today), but we’ll run musical stuff with our band for as long as people want to.
Tomorrow we have our final dress rehearsal and then I’ll clean and work stuff as I need to. Thursday is our first preview, Friday is our second preview, and we open on Saturday night, and play a Sunday matinee. We have to decide if we’re having a brush-up the following Thursday and that will wholly depend on how everything goes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a dress rehearsal, give notes, clean, eat, and hopefully relax a bit at some point. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite kinds of pastries? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have helped bring the Robby Awards back to LA theater.