Well, dear readers, I hope we’re all ready for another fabulous Oscar Bash here at haineshisway.com – it’s always the best Oscar partay anywhere. Here we have the dishiest dish on the pre-show red carpet, on the fashions, on the show itself, and I suspect this year’s show will be perfect fodder for you dear readers. I just have a suspicion it’s going to go in certain directions. We shall see. I presume the fun begins around three PST.
Yesterday was a crazy little day. Once again I didn’t fall asleep until three and once again I was up at ten after seven hours of sleep. I went and did a little errand and then came back home and got ready to attend a matinee performance. I left the house at 12:10, giving myself way too much time. But I’d a) forgotten how far the damn theater was, and b) that this is LA and the traffic would be unbearable for no reason whatsoever on a Saturday at noon. And so it was – the traffic was so ridiculous I couldn’t even believe it. Getting to the 405 wasn’t horrible, but the transition alone took ten minutes. Then the freeway was disgusting from there all the way to the airport. Amusingly, as I passed Sunset Blvd., suddenly you could go eighty miles an hour, just like that. That lasted for about a half-mile and that was that. Of course, for the last five years and a gazillion dollars later, this drive is supposed to be easy because for five years they made everyone’s lives misery while they widened both sides of the freeway. For all that money it was supposed to alleviate this kind of traffic, especially on a Saturday. But, nooooo, apparently a gazillion dollars and five years later it hasn’t helped at all.
Once I finally got to the exit, I guess I thought I’d be there in short order, but the theater is almost ten miles from the exit and the traffic on those ten miles was as bad as the damn freeway. And I just kept driving. I thought it would never end. When I passed the damn Pacific Coast Highway, I finally called Barry Pearl, who told me I was getting close. I couldn’t believe it, still further to go, Palos Verdes to be exact. When I finally got there and parked, I told Barry that he was the ONLY one I would endure that torture for. I arrived at 1:40, a ninety-minute drive. Unbelievable.
Barry’s soon to be bride, Cindy, was there and we all sat together. It was a light house, a bit less than half full. Now, I don’t think it’s much of a secret that I do not like this musical – 13. I find it smarmy and off-putting in many ways. Some of the songs are fine, some are less so, but for me the book is very problematic. The show didn’t last in New York and I suspect it’s for similar reasons to the way I feel. If the show were called 15 I might be able to buy it, but having this show be about barely turned 13 year olds and having everything be about getting tongue and getting further than tongue, well, I know it goes on, but do we really think that all this sex stuff with thirteen-year-olds is a good idea? I don’t and so I just don’t respond to the show. I also have a problem with the lead character, who’s moved to a new town. He meets a nerdy girl who is super nice and friendly and he instantly betrays her because he wants to be with the cool kids. Yes, he redeems himself at the end of the show, but I don’t like him up until then, and that’s a problem with the hero of a show. The show isn’t REALLY about 13 year-olds; it’s about a Jewish kid, his Bar Mitzvah and him wanting to fit in to this new environment. All the characters are stereotypes, which doesn’t help things. The score certainly has an energy to it, but it always feels like older people writing to try and sound like teens. It’s hard, and I’m sensitive to it, since I’ve written so many young characters – I think I do it well because I become them – I don’t stand from afar and write like an adult writing a kid – I literally am the kid.
Barry directed another youth production of the show, which I wrote about back when I saw it. It’s wonderful for these kids to get to work with a pro and he should be proud of himself. Anyway, it was two hours in and out and I always enjoy watching young folks give their all to what they love.
I left right after the show. Traffic was still horrid but it only took an hour and fifteen minutes to get home. I literally just stopped at the house, checked e-mails, and then moseyed on over to Muse Margaret and hubby Richard’s home environment. It was my favorite kind of evening – spent with two wonderful, warm people who are smart and fun. It didn’t hurt that the dinner itself was, as always, warm and cozy and great. We had Margaret’s Chicken (the recipe appears in Murder at the Hollywood Division), asparagus, smashed potatoes, salad, and biscuits a la Red Lobster. Everything was wonderful. For dessert we had a homemade fruit tart with berries and mascarpone cheese in a crust with a sliver of chocolate. It was also great.
Then we chatted, laughed, watched a little video, and then I moseyed on home. I answered e-mails, caught up on stuff and that was that.
Today, I shall definitely do a jog of some sort, I’ll go to Gelson’s and get some fun but light foodstuffs for the Oscar Bash, and then I will be attending our partay and I hope all of you dear readers will, too, including the people who are usually no-shows. I guarantee a fun time for all.
Tomorrow, I was supposed to have final auditions for the LA show, but the Kritzerland rehearsal got moved up an hour, so I can’t – we’ll do those Wednesday instead. So, I’ll work at the piano on the LA show, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and then we have our first rehearsal, which I’m really looking forward to.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, auditions, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, our stumble-through, and then we have a couple of days off, then we do the show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, go to Gelson’s, and attend our Oscar Bash. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that I do not have to do that awful drive again because drives like that drive me crazy.