Well, dear readers, we have survived April Fools Day, although some of us will continue to be foolish for the entire month, just because that is our nature and no matter how hard we may try, we cannot change our natures. I was quite foolish yesterday, but cannot remember exactly what I did that was so foolish. Oh, I got nine hours of sleep – that was not foolish, but it was necessary. Once up, I did work on the computer, I had some telephonic calls, and then we had a short rehearsal with Brittney Bertier, who was under the weather on Monday. She ran her three songs – It’s a Perfect Relationship, It Might As Well Be Spring and The Life I Never Led (from Sister Act) – she’s just terrific. After that, I did some more work on the computer, then Sami and her mom came by and we went for a bite to eat, and I asked lots of questions about Sami’s school and friends and people she doesn’t like and things to give me ideas for the remaining monologues to be written. I had a cup of soup and a chicken salad sandwich.
Sami went off to a tap lesson (she will have to tap in this show), and I came home, did some work at the piano and made a plunk tape for the new song, which helps Sami learn it. I made some adjustments to the Kritzerland patter, did some more thinking about this thing I’m going to do in the next couple of weeks, then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the first two-thirds of The Tales of Hoffman, a new 4K restoration (the Blu-ray is from the UK) of the Powell and Pressberger film. It’s not my favorite of their films, but this restoration is kind of jaw dropping, from the same team that restored The Red Shoes and Colonel Blimp. The color is unbelievable (in a good way) and the clarity is amazing. More to say when I finish it.
Then I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Interstellar. This film polarized the critics, with some loving it and some loathing it and finding it balderdash. I mostly enjoyed it. It gets a little thick with all the scientific dialogue, and it’s a little long at close to three hours. Matthew McConaughey is fine, but he has either been directed to or has chosen to mumble and speak so quietly that you literally cannot hear a word he says. If I were an actor in a scene with him standing one inch from his face, I would yell, “Speak up!” It’s such actor horse manure. Michael Caine is always fun to watch, there’s a weird cameo by a well known actor (I won’t spoil it for you), Jessica Chastain is very good (but even better is the little girl who plays her at ten – I had no idea who was in the film, but when the ten-year-old came on I thought, oh, Jessica Chastain must be in this thing because the young girl is a dead ringer for her), Anne Hathaway is okay, and the voice of the bot is Bill Irwin and is fun. The effects are as amazing as $160 million will buy, but the film kind of lurches from thing to thing in an unwieldy fashion and the technical mumbo jumbo is stultifying at times. But in the end, it all kind of is okay and oddly satisfying and even a little emotional. It’s the kind of film that Steven Spielberg in his prime probably would have done better, as his sense of story is so good and I’m sure he would have removed some of the verbosity and fat. I was surprised to enjoy the Hans Zimmer score as much as I did. Of course, as with every film of this type, it owes a major debt to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
After that, I wrote a bit of a monologue, then just relaxed.
Today, I have to be up early and to a meeting at the Pasadena Playhouse by ten. It’s a production meeting for the ALS benefit – lots of details to cover. That should last about ninety minutes, and then I’ll try to grab a quick sandwich somewhere before our two-thirty Kritzerland rehearsal. Then, I go directly from that to a meeting at the Group Rep theater. We’re talking about a potential production I’d direct there and we just have to talk through some stuff – not sure it will happen, but if it does I think you’ll all be fascinated what the show is. Then I’ll come home and finally relax.
Not sure what’s happening tomorrow, but Saturday is our stumble-through, after which some of us will go eat some food. Sunday is our sound check and show and I will, of course, have a full report for you. Then it’s full steam ahead to the ALS benefit.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, go to an early production meeting, grab a bite to eat, have a Kritzerland rehearsal, and then have another meeting. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite motion pictures that involve space travel? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland happy to still be foolish after all these years.