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April 14, 2015:

DRAMA WITH A CAPITAL D

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, there’s drama and then there’s drama with a capital D and yesterday was one of those capital D days pretty much right into the evening.  It began with a very long e-mail volley about which I will not go into detail, other than it had to do with the ALS show and it went on for HOURS.  In the end, it didn’t really matter, but I felt there was some behavior that wasn’t pleasing and I said so.  But I have the ability to move on very quickly and after all was said and done, I did so.  In the midst of all this I got the surprising news that Petula Clark was suddenly available to do the show.  I had been working on that possibility for weeks, relentlessly.  I rarely call in favors like that, but I did.  We knew she wanted to do it, but there were some obligations in France and her husband was just not moving quickly to see if they could be moved.  We finally had to give them a deadline of last Thursday, but she still hadn’t heard and so we moved on.  But apparently whatever the France issues were they are no more and so yesterday I got the news she could come if it wasn’t too late.  From my point of view, it is absolutely not too late, but I am not writing the checks for the show.  The producers and I were very strong about trying to make it happen, but we’re being met with great resistance about them spending the dough to do it.  We all feel the upsides far outweigh anything, but it’s complicated.  That said, when the main chapter came to us and wanted to partner this year, it was discussed right from the get-go that there would be dough to bring in some A-list folks.  And at some point they forgot that, so we have been reminding them a lot.  It will get resolved today and we’re praying they’ll do the right thing and fly her and her musical director in.  It’s surprising to me that they don’t have a deal with an airline, but we’re making some calls in the morning about that and seeing what we can do.  But she’s agreed to fly JetBlue because of the lateness factor, and we would of course get her the extra legroom seats, which are very comfortable and which put you in the front of the cabin.  Anyway, it just went on and on and on and was very draining.  I’d say over 100 e-mails were sent during the day and evening.  We’ll see how it all plays out.

I did get just eight hours of sleep, so that was good.  I really did not deal with anything else during the day, except getting the rough draft of the ALS script to everyone, and cleaning up the new monologue.  And suddenly Sami and her mom were here and that part of the day began.  We first went to Hugo’s, where I had a small Caesar salad and some pasta papa.  Sami had the mac-and-cheese and boy did she like it and eat every single bite of it.  She also said something that really tickled me when I was telling her about the new monologue, which is one of three about boys.  We were joking about this guy she thinks is cute and she used an expression that made me laugh and I wrote it down and then later inserted it right into the monologue.

Then we came home, warmed up with a couple of songs, then did the remaining monologues.  She’s getting better every time we run them.  Several of these were very long, and she’s now slowing down a bit and being more conversational and every time she does, we laugh because the laugh lines are suddenly clear.  I did read through one of them just so she could hear the rhythm of it and where I was taking pauses, slowing down, and leaving beats between storytelling points.  This part is fun because the growth is so apparent.  I have actually had a theater offered to me for free – only has forty seats or so, but that might not be such a bad thing in terms of filling them.  Filling 99 is daunting in LA.  I’ll take a look at the theater, but if we end up doing that deal, it may well just include a few weeks of a run in New York – if we can lock THAT down, I’ll probably do it, because we definitely want to give Sami the opportunity to have the New York folks see her.  Then they left.  I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I intended to watch a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled Night Train to Munich, a motion picture starring Rex Harrison, directed by Carol Reed.  I’ve never even heard of it let alone seen it.  I watched the credits and the first three minutes, which were very much in the style of early Hitchcock like The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps.  But I had to stop there because the e-mails started flying again, and our producer finally wrote a very eloquent and impassioned e-mail about the Petula business – we’ll see what the response is.

Then I got one of the charts I was waiting on, proofed it, he made the corrections and now we’re down to the final chart, which I hope to have this week.  I also finished choosing all but two songs and we’re trying to lock in our final gal and guest star.  But I already sent several of the singers their music, so that’s almost done now.  And I’m really happy that John Boswell is with us for this show.

Today, we have a couple of ALS folks between ten and noon.  Then I’ll go eat something light and frivolous, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, then I’ll come back home, do some ALS work, and then Sami and mom come at four to work with our MD, Alby Potts.  We’ll go through everything except the one chart we don’t have, and I’ll play that one just so he can hear it.  Depending on how long that takes, we may also read through some stuff.  The evening should be mine all mine.

Tomorrow I think we have more ALS rehearsals, Thursday as well, and then Sami comes again and we’ll start at the beginning of the show and go straight through now that I have it in kind of a tentative order and structure.  That will tell me if I need to move anything around, we’ll see how long we’re running, and I hope to have both of the new monologues completely finished and finessed by then.  Friday I think we have ALS stuff, Saturday not sure what’s the haps, Sunday we have one rehearsal and I will definitely be relaxing that day, and them Monday is the lunacy day, which starts at eleven and is non-stop for me right up until show time.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, eat, hopefully pick up packages, write, have a work session and then relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: Because Sunday was free-for-all day, we didn’t really get to talk about video games.  What was the first video game you ever played?  Which early video games were your favorites?  What was the first game console you had at home and which game cartridges did you play?  And do you play any of the new-fangled games of today?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the drama with a capital D is done with a capital D.

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