Well, dear readers, I’m happy to say that the LA show is cast (we’re waiting on one student who has a performance day conflict with a music department concert, but they think that will work out) – fourteen people (ideally I would have liked twelve but that didn’t work out), seven men, seven women, and we’re bringing back two alums, one of whom was the original Narrator/Dr. Leder in The Brain from Planet X at LACC and in the NYMF production. The other is a talented actress for a few years before him. They both have strong voices and that will help anchor everyone else. It’s a very diverse cast, which is what I wanted, and they seem like a fun group to me. I’ll be having a couple of meetings with them over the next two weeks, mostly for me to record their voices so I can start listening and figuring out who’s going to do what. Also, they’re allowing the costume designer of Li’l Abner (who also did Inside Out for me) to come back and design the show, so that’s a good thing.
Yesterday was a fine day. I think I got about seven hours of sleep with some peculiar dreams. Once up, I went to do a little banking that I couldn’t do because I’d deposited the pension check in the machine after ten the previous night – I could have gone earlier and had I all would have been fine, but because I didn’t, it doesn’t process until the following midnight – seems wacky to me. The second pension check did not arrive, which is completely irritating. Then the CD dealer came by and picked up his stuff, then I got ready to go to our final auditions.
There were about six or seven people to see, and out of them one will be doing the show and one will be an understudy. Then we had a meeting, settled on the cast, and then I braved the freeway to come back to the Valley. For whatever reason, unlike the previous week, while it was crowded it kept moving steadily and I was home in about fifteen minutes – not home, but at Jerry’s Deli, where I had a patty melt and no fries or onion rings. The patty melt was excellent.
Then I came home, answered e-mails, did a little work on the LA show, had a long conversation with the costume designer, saw we had one contribution today, small but appreciated. Then I did a jog, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching The Graduate on the new Criterion Blu and Ray. It must be hard to imagine for those young folks seeing it for the first time these days just how radical it was back then. It seems rather quaint now, which is what time does for all things. The most radical thing is, of course, Dustin Hoffman’s casting, but you just know you’re seeing something not only groundbreaking in terms of what a leading man could be, but a performance and casting choice that changed EVERYTHING. It enabled young people who would have been classified as character types to become leading men or to simply work in roles that a year before The Graduate would not have happened. Mike Nichols’ work on the film is breathtaking – his comic bits are still hilarious, and every performance is fantastic from the largest to the smallest. Katherine Ross is luminous as Eileen, Anne Bancroft if brilliant as Mrs. Robinson, Elizabeth Wilson and William Daniels perfect as Hoffman’s parents, and straight on down the line. I saw it during its first week at the 4 Star Theater and you can’t imagine the reaction that the film got. And the brilliance of the Simon and Garfunkel songs cannot be underestimated in how the film works. Buck Henry’s screenplay is incredible, too. I watched a couple of the newly done supplements and they’re fun. Best of all, the transfer is spectacular – The Graduate has never looked good on home video, and this is as perfect a transfer as you could wish for. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I had some carrots and an apple, did a bit more work, and that was that.
Today, I’ll do the banking I was supposed to do yesterday, hopefully the other pension check will show up, I’ll eat, jog, hopefully pick up some packages, and then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which I believe starts at four.
Tomorrow, I have a meeting with the set designer of the LA show, and that’s really about it except for working on the LA show. Saturday is our stumble-through, Sunday I’m not sure what’s what, then we do our show on Tuesday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, bank, jog, eat, have a rehearsal, hopefully receive the other pension check, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that our LA show is cast.