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December 12, 2015:

THE RECURRING DREAM

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I must try and get a semblance of beauty sleep prior to an early rising. The first thing I can tell you is I had a fitful night of fitful sleep thanks to a slightly upset tummy – I think some butter I put on a matzoh may have been ever so slightly past its expiry date. I didn’t fall asleep until two, was up at four and just stayed very still and kept falling in and out of sleep like too much meat on a sandwich. I was up again at eight, again just stayed very still, and finally fell back asleep for another four hours. By the time I got up, the tummy was feeling quite a bit better. In a real oddity, I kept dreaming a continuation of the dream I’d had the night before, one I thought might make an interesting story. There must be something there and I think I’ll just keep slowly exploring what it might be.

Once up I was up. Being up, I walked to and fro and also fro and to, did some work on the computer and especially at the piano, began choosing material (well, one song), cast a couple more kids (I’m just about done now, but wouldn’t mind one young boy to do a particular song), then went and had a Chinese chicken salad and a bagel. I then picked up no packages and came home. I did more work at the piano and am close to finishing the latest song for the LA revue – that will be four and I’ll stop there until I get everyone else’s material – then I’ll see what we’re missing and go from there. Then it was time to get ready to go to an opening night.

Last night, I saw an opening night of a “musical” about the Righteous Brothers. Our very own Doug Haverty was one of the producers. The production was fine, the actors were fine, but the piece itself, for me, was very problematic for a whole slew of reasons. Biggest amongst those reasons is a lot of repetition – this is a common problem in these bio-musicals, but it’s especially a problem here because the show is simply thirty minutes too long. While we get twenty-two Righteous Brothers songs, what we don’t really get is anything too illuminating, other than the standard bio clichés that seem to be peculiar to all these kinds of shows. I also felt the author hadn’t really made much of an attempt to actually integrate the songs into the show – we just get a scene then a song then some chatter then a song – there are ways to make songs work in different ways and there are ways to have them weave in and out of scenes. Jersey Boys was the first to kind of get that part right, although it’s not a show I love. Better, for me, was Beautiful – that one moves along really quickly and always integrates the music and scenes in a good way. With intermission, the show ran almost three hours.

They had a little after party in the green room – I had a tiny bit of pasta and a sliver of a cake Doug had made. Then I came home and had more of a snack here.

Today, I shall be up early, I’ll go have a light breakfast to tide me over to dinner and to kill time, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then relax. At seven, I’ll mosey on over to the Gardenia, where I’ll sup on something light, and see Sharon McNight.

Tomorrow, I’ll choose songs, gather music, write a bit, but mostly relax. Monday we’ll ship CDs and then I can finally begin winding down and taking it easy and gearing up for the New Year.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully pick up packages, eat something light, relax, and see a nightclub show. Today’s topic of discussion: Of the specious thing known as the juke box musical, which do you think work and why and which do you think fail and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wondering if the same dream will recur once again.

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