Well, dear readers, I am so happy yesterday is at an end. It could not end soon enough. One headache after another, mostly due to the books not arriving. Oh, books arrived, all right – three packages, but not the hardcovers. I was so furious and I spent the next two hours dealing with it. Most of that time was spent on hold, having people not call me back, until I finally got a supervisor on the phone who was communicative and helpful and nice. She saw that they were supposed to be delivered with the rest but for whatever reasons they didn’t go out for another two days. That meant they were on their way and there was nothing to be done but to wait for their scheduled arrival next Tuesday. I couldn’t believe it really, nor could she and she was very apologetic and said she’d keep her eye on the UPS tracking and call me with updates. She also gave me twenty-five free books, so that part was very nice of her. Still, to sit on hold for forty-five minutes with the people who actually fulfill the orders was entirely unacceptable and she was going to find out why something like that would happen. It gave me a roaring headache and took up way too much of my time. Add to that that I only got about three hours of sleep, well, I was at the point where I was actually going to show off my body. That wouldn’t be difficult since the mothers who are building this sickening house to the east of me now can look directly into my yard and, if the curtains are open, into my bedroom. Yep, you heard that right. I’m going to have the owner’s business manager call the city and see why these people would be issued a permit to build like that when it robs another of all privacy. I don’t think that’s legal, somehow and someone has to finally take a stance against this crap, but it can’t be me because I’m not the owner.
I have gotten so little sleep this week that my voice is thoroughly trashed – weak and tired and I cannot have that, so I must get some sleep in the next few days. It’s not that easy with all the hammering and yammering as well as the yammering and hammering, but I must. At some point, I went and had an omelet and a bagel, then came back home. Then I finally got the three monologues (all spoken by the same person) that go between the verses of one of my songs (about the gay experience in LA, from its “hidden” beginnings to now). It was, as I knew it would be, too long, so we have to make a few more lifts in it, but I think it’s going to work. Positioning it is tough because right now it’s the third to last thing in act two and there’s a really long monologue prior to it by two or three things – that’s a lot of talking in act two, but I think neither the long monologue nor the gay song will work in act one. So, it’s tricky right now and we’ll just have to see how it all plays. It’s followed by a sketch we don’t have yet, and that will inform how the end of the act will work – that’s coming from Bruce Vilanch and I’ve been waiting for it since December. Hopefully it will arrive before we open.
I finessed one of the song lead-ins I wrote late last night, and I asked the song’s composer/lyricist, Paul Gordon, to rewrite two lines because they were show specific to the character that originally sang the song in some unproduced musical – and he rewrote them instantly and it works much better and makes sense now to our show. I’m glad I didn’t give up on it. So, other than Vilanch and the song Grant Geissman is writing music for (I did the lyrics), we now pretty much have everything. Whether it’s too long or too short I won’t know until we’re in run-throughs. When we did the little read-through act two definitely seemed too long at fifty-six minutes, but then I cut a seven minute song, which took it down to forty-nine. But the other two in danger songs are both still in the show, and there’s a Vilanch sketch coming (I’m sure it will be short) and there’s a four-minute dance number in the act, which maybe we’ll make three minutes. I’m fine with a fifty-minute act. We also cut down majorly the long monologue, but when we read the show the three monologues in the gay experience song weren’t there – we’ll see how it all evens out. I do have one sketch I’m not thrilled with – I will stage it and see how it feels when it has actors and timing. But if we cut that that gains us three minutes. I do think act one will run a good length, like fifty-five minutes – it can go to an hour but not over that. I want the show to come in at 1:50 so we’re exactly two hours with intermission. And if it’s 1:45 that’s good, too. I just won’t have a second act longer than act one.
I was way too tired to watch anything so I just zoned out at the computer and that was that.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Obviously I can’t deliver books to Mystery and Imagination. I’ll work on the LA show and relax, then I’ll join Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ for some Japanese food, and then see a production of My Fair Lady.
Tomorrow will be hopefully another good night of sleep, then I’ll do just a little work and a lot of relaxing. I’m told that Monday is a holiday – is it? If so, I’m just having a ME day. Tuesday is the first Kritzerland rehearsal and hopefully book arrival day, then our second rehearsal is on Thursday, stumble-through on Saturday and sound check and show on Sunday. Also on Sunday, the paperback book show – I’m signing there at either eleven or twelve. It’s a pain in the ASS but I’ve done it every year and I’ll just get out of their as quickly as possible so I can come home, change, and go to sound check.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep, relax, do some work on the LA show, hopefully pick up some packages, sup, and see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite songs of the 1970s singer/songwriters? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall hopefully have a day without headaches.