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April 28, 2015:

THE PRIVATE READING

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I do believe yesterday and last night were quite fun for me and I’m very happy about that because frankly there have been some days this year that have not been quite fun for me and equally frankly I’ve had about enough of those and need more of these.

Let’s start with the Kritzerland rehearsal.  We didn’t have one of our cast members or our guest star so it was shorter than usual.  We began with Damon Kirsche, that handsome man and glorious singer.  We ran his two solos – Lazy and a put-together of Reaching for the Moon and How Deep is the Ocean.  Then Maddy Claire Parks joined us – she just closed Les Miz and was still tired from all that.  We ran their duet, It’s a Lovely Day for a Walk and then Damon left.  Then we did Maddy’s two solos – a put-together of Always and What’ll I Do, and then South America, Take It Away.  The fun of THAT number, of course, is that Maddy’s grandmother introduced it to the world – Betty Garrett.  After Maddy we had Adrienne Visnic.  First she did Doin’ What Comes Naturally, which she does great.  Adrienne actually came in knowing everything already, which is fun.  I told her to get hold of the encore lyrics so we can also do them.  Then she ran Nobody Makes a Pass at Me, then the put-together of They Say It’s Wonderful and I Got Lost in His Arms.  Then we had young Sydney DeMaria who sang her one and only song, the adorable Be Kind to Your Parents from Fanny.  Then Robert Yacko arrived and sang through his three numbers – the title song from Fanny (which I absolutely love), Two of a Kind (from Gone With the Wind) and finally an epic three-song put-together of Top Hat, White Tie and Tails, Steppin’ Out With My Baby and Cheek to Cheek.  John Boswell, as always, was stellar on the piano.

Then I got everything set up for the private reading of Welcome to My World.  Sami and her mom arrived a bit late, but it gave Alby Potts and me time to adjust some tempos and stuff.  When Sami got there we began.  I was most interested in getting her in the right energy place.  She was still not 100% over whatever’s been ailing her, but there were so many extra words being added to things that after several times mentioning it I kind of blew up a little, which I hate doing but which I felt was necessary to get us back where we needed to be.  This kind of thing is so hard that it just requires 1000% focus and brainpower.  And Sami’s only just fifteen, so I do “get” that.  In any case, we moved right along, read through some more monologues and a couple of songs, got to a happier place with a smiling Sami, which is my favorite kind of Sami, and then we got ready for the arrivals of our hand-picked small audience.

In attendance we had our very own Mark and Amy, we had Richard and Elizabeth Sherman, we had Tom Griep and daughter Oliviana, who is almost as tall as I am, Sami’s sister Sarah and dad Steve, Doug Haverty and our costume designer Natalie and her daughter.  I’m not going into all that much detail other than to say Sami did a heroic and wonderful job for a first reading in front of people.  These are very long and sometimes very intricate monologues and in the script they are sans paragraphs, so you have non-stop words and sentences for pages at a time.  Add to that, she has her notes on those pages, things we’ve discussed, and it’s a lot to take in.  She was pretty much glued to the script, but still managed to play the audience, which was great.  This reading was not for me to get comments and everyone knew that going in.  It was really just for me to hear the thing out loud with people and see how the structure felt.  Other than some minor adjustments, this is basically what we’ll workshop in four weeks.  After THAT is when I’ll take any comments and when I’ll do whichever changes I feel are necessary.  We had some nice laughs, and Sami sang beautifully.  Richard Sherman looked over to me several times to give a thumbs up on a song.  Some stuff was still rushed, but it ran the time I like, eighty-two minutes.  But overall I was very proud of Sami.  This isn’t easy – it wouldn’t be easy for an adult – but she’s my Molly (the character’s name) and she will continue to grow and get better and better.  The staging will help that process, too, because it will clarify where beats are and now the rhythm will go.  Even though there isn’t really a story, it feels like there’s a clear through-line from start to finish, at least it did for me.

After, the Shermans were very sweet and said the really enjoyed both the material and Sami’s doing of it.  Don’t really know what Amy and Mark thought, but they seemed to enjoy it at least a little – it’s always hard for me to tell.  I think Oliviana, who’s twelve, got a real kick out of it, and our costume designer’s daughter I think felt that the mother/daughter relationship in our show somewhat mirrored the relationship she has with her mother, which is funny and fun.  There was one monologue that I absolutely knew made people uncomfortable – you could literally feel it.  That made me happy, actually, because when that monologue finally hits its laugh lines they really landed.  And I think it’s good to occasionally make audiences uncomfortable.  Part of that monologue is about sex education and the fact that they teach it to twelve-year-olds.  It’s all factual and to me it’s really funny and not uncomfortable at all – I mean, they TEACH this stuff to kids and it’s fair game.  At one point I have Molly say, “Is the thought of this making you uncomfortable?  It made ME uncomfortable.”  Which is the point.  Sami did it very well.

So, the next step is Sami learning every word by heart in the next three weeks, so when we go into our one week of rehearsals for the workshop she’s letter perfect, which will enable us to really work on the staging and, more importantly, the acting stuff.  I was very happy after the reading.  Here’s photographic evidence that it took place.  Here I am with Sami.

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Here’s the main team – Sami, Alby Potts and li’l ol’ me.

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And finally, here’s Richard Sherman, Alby, Sami and moi.

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After the reading, Alby and Doug and I went out for a bite to eat.  I had a chili, cheese and onion omelet and an English muffin.

Prior to all that, I’d gotten a little over nine hours of sleep, went to eat (chopped salad, oil and vinegar and a bagel), came home, answered e-mails and went right into rehearsal.  It was my second day of no sugar.

Today, I have a noon o’clock lunch with Kay Cole, then I’m going to meet Marshall Harvey in the editing room to put together a little video.  Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages then come home and relax.

Tomorrow, we have our other Kritzerland performer coming at two, then I’m having a postmortem meal with Sami and mom to talk about the reading and how things will progress from here.  Thursday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal and then we have our ALS postmortem meal at the Smoke House.  Friday I’m hoping to announce something having to do with Kritzerland, and Saturday is our stumble-through and Sunday is sound check and show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch, go to the editing room, hopefully pick up some packages and then relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: Who would you say are your most favorite underappreciated songwriters from musical theater?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the private reading went well and proud of Sami.

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