Well, dear readers, we found our cast replacement, someone I’ve worked with quite a few times, Dennis Kyle. It’s a real slog for him to get to us but he really wanted to do the show. He came to rehearsal and we actually got him blocked into all of act one, and he learned all the numbers he’s in. Rather than do a run-through, we began by teaching him stuff, and then we ran act one straight through, but with me stopping to clean and to actually direct, especially with the sketches. I’d spent no time on them and the timing and rhythms are integral to them working well so I worked on that and each one of them really improved hugely and now will continue to improve. I also made a couple of small cuts to one of the longer sketches. The big numbers look really good and now I’m just concentrating on performances. The other really cool thing was we got all our risers today, so I was finally able to see how the levels were playing, and they work really well and we had no mishaps with people not getting where they needed to.
I made one change in terms of who’s doing what. Because the actor Dennis is replacing had missed so many rehearsals I just stopped using him in stuff, so I wanted Dennis to have a little something more. There was the three-page monologue of Doug Haverty and it’s been hard as hell to learn and we hadn’t even begun doing actual work on it, so I gave the actor doing it the option of not doing it. I think he was taken aback at first because he’s put in a lot of time learning the thing, but I left the decision completely to him, and given his schedule with other stuff and the fact that he has quite a bit to do in the show, in the end he opted out and gave it to Dennis, who will now have to learn it. But even when the actor told me that, I told him he didn’t really have to decide until today if he wanted more time to think about it, as I wanted him to be totally comfortable with the decision, but he said he was fine and we made the change and now Dennis has about the same amount of material as everyone else.
Prior to that, I’d gotten around five hours of sleep, and spent the morning dealing with trying to find the replacement. I had some long telephonic calls, finessed the commentary, and then did some banking, took about three months of laundry to the dry cleaners, and then went to the House of Pies and had eggs benedict again – better this time. Then I went to rehearsal.
After rehearsal, I stopped at Gelson’s and got some salad. I came home and used my super low-cal Eyetalian dressing (25 calories per tablespoon) – it was very good. Then I caught up with e-mails and Internet stuff.
Today, I have to be up early as I’m getting a haircut at nine. Then I come right home and get ready for our second Kritzerland rehearsal at noon. As soon as that’s done I must be on my way to LACC to meet Dennis at three so we can go over his long monologue, which I’ll block in a way that may help him remember what goes where. Since our shared actors have a matinee and evening performance, we won’t see them at all, unless they feel like stopping by between shows, but it’s not required. So, without those actors, I’ll just do detail work – on the musical numbers (our choreographer will be with us) and especially the monologues and sketches, mostly for rhythm and especially for tightening so that everything is really crisp and on point.
Tomorrow we have our full company for a full six hours, so that’s really great. We’ll work stuff in the morning, drilling and getting things tight, and then I think at one we do the designer run-through. When that’s done, we’ll continue doing detail work and I’ll have had another chance at seeing what needs my attention the most. Saturday we have a two-hour morning rehearsal, mostly for music, but also for the staging of the bigger numbers. It’s really the last chance to work things out. Then we have our stumble-through. Sunday is, of course, sound check and show. Then on Monday we have our full cast all the time – we’ll do a run-through every single day and Monday I might even try to get in two. Tuesday after our rehearsal, we have a band rehearsal, which I’ll of course attend. Wednesday is a run-through and then our sitzprobe directly after. Thursday is our final day to run before tech. But I’m hoping tech happens as I like it to, without many stops. Friday is a cue to cue day, but I’m somehow hoping we can also get a run in.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get a haircut, have a rehearsal, have another rehearsal, and then eat something. Today’s topic of discussion: Since folks have been reading my latest tome – what are your favorite Hollywood novels and movies and plays? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have our new actor.