Well, dear readers, it is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. Yesterday’s notes were quite long so therefore it follows that today’s notes shall be quite short. So it is written, so it shall be done.
Yesterday was a perfectly okay day. I didn’t get enough sleep again, about seven hours, but I had to get up so seven hours was going to have to do. I had a couple of telephonic conversations, showered, and then was on my way to the theater to let in our lighting guy. I then went to a nearby coffee shop I’d wanted to try called Lancer’s. I had eggs benedict and hash browns – not the best I’ve ever had, but they were not bad at all, and even a bit better than the Coral Café’s eggs benedict. The median age of the other diners seemed to be somewhere around 103 so I was the spring chicken, baby.
After that I went back to the theater. Our lighting guy made a beautiful wash of lighting for Sunday’s performance – it made everything look very nice. Then our set guy came and jerry-rigged two things on wheels to represent our full-sized dummies on wheels that will be, when we do it right, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. He put their faces on and it at least gives an idea of what we’re doing.
Then our helper Greer arrived (she’s Grant Geissman’s darling daughter and she’s been great for us to have around) and the lighting guy showed her how to do the three and only cues there are, all of which happen in a row in the first twenty seconds of the show. Then Sami and her mom arrived, we got everything ready and we began a run-through of our show. I had no idea what to expect at our first full-out run, but Sami came on and for the first third of the show did a great job. Good energy, lots of life and fun, and really understanding the storytelling – and her voice sounded strong and wonderful. She’s doing a little head tripping about what monologues come where, but that was to be expected the first time through. She just asked Alby, our musical director, and he threw her a line and she was back on track. The second third of the show wasn’t quite as sharp or focused, but still had good moments, but she forgot a little more in that third, including some blocking (she actually did great on most of the blocking and when she forgot something, no one would have ever known). I think the logic of the way I block stuff has finally come through to her – once you understand that logic it’s actually pretty easy. The final third was the most interesting. I’ve been telling her all along that this show is like a sporting event you have to train for. It requires incredible stamina. And she began to wane in the final third, the monologues became repetitive in terms of delivery and the storytelling became perfunctory. I think she could feel it. The good news is that even with those problems, she got through it and she’ll just keep getting better and more comfortable with each run. And I know when we have our real rehearsal period of three weeks, we’ll find lots of fun little moments that we haven’t had the time to seek out and/or discover.
I gave notes, and then we drilled a few things that had gotten off track and cleaned up stuff. Then I headed to a Subway and got a Subway Club and came home and ate it whilst sitting on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching the Chuck Workman documentary about Orson Welles. It’s perfectly well done, has some nice interviews and archival footage, but the whole thing just never caught fire and seemed rather perfunctory. I’m glad I saw it, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Then I watched an episode of The Honeymooners, the first true bomb of the ones I’ve watched. Everyone seemed to be off – the timing was lax, the writing wasn’t as sharp as it usually is, Art Carney really worked up a genuine flop sweat he was working so hard, and Gleason just wasn’t inspired as he usually was. I think it was mostly the lame plot about him getting a letter to report about his tax filing. It just didn’t go anywhere and had no payoff at all and the final shot was on some under five line actor.
After that, I listened to music and did stuff on the computer.
Today, I’ll be up early, put some gas in the motor car, do some banking, and then we meet at noon to begin the first of our two run-throughs. I’ll give notes, we’ll drill stuff that needs to be drilled, we’ll take a little break, and then we’ll do a second full run-through. I’ll give notes again, we’ll drill and run things for the rest of the afternoon, and that should really all be helpful. Then we’re all going to have a treat – dinner at The Smoke House. We deserve it. Then I’ll come home and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax until it’s time to go to the theater. We’ll run stuff and get Sami warmed up, and then we do our performance. I think we’ll have a pretty full house – right now there are only twenty seats left to fill. Next week is Kritzerland rehearsals, several meetings and meals, sound check and then, on one of our rare Monday nights, our show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get gas, do banking, do two run-throughs and drill stuff, sup, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite MGM musicals? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy our first real run-through was not only not a disaster, but really not bad at all.