Well, dear readers, we had our first long rehearsal day yesterday – it was daunting – staging the complicated end of act one. While I’m not willing to go into what it is thanks to prying eyes who do so love to flatter by imitation, it involves a song, a few talking bits, and a major and difficult piece of staging. I let everyone warm up, and then we ran our opening number, just because it energizes the room and the cast, and happily we actually had everyone but one actor for the first thirty minutes. Then I just dove in to the big act one closer, starting with the musical portion. I found a fun way to stage the beginning (it actually starts with a little scene with two of our ladies, then segues right into the song). It’s staged on the high stage right platform, and then Robert Yacko has his bit of that sequence on the high stage left platform. Right after the main part of the song (which has some really funny visual bits that happen during it), we actually transform the front part of our stage into something and that’s really fun. Then Robert has a little scene with another actor, and that leads directly into the big part of the sequence.
I worked very slowly and methodically, and every time I staged a new part of it my instructions were always “Be controlled, don’t be loose, stop if you don’t remember what we’re doing and be careful” because if the two actors involved aren’t careful and if every minute of this thing isn’t done on counts and beats it can be dangerous. It took about ninety minutes to finish at least a rough draft of it, and then we ran it several times. Some of it is really funny, some of it is just fun to watch, and certainly some can be finessed and better. But despite all my repeated warnings, one of our actors just got very into it and in a very rehearsed fall got to energetic and uncontrolled and hit his head on the mat we’re using at this point – thankfully the mat absorbed most of it, but he was in some pain and dizzy, so we had someone take him to the on campus nurse, who thought he was okay but suggested a visit to urgent care but the actor didn’t want to go. We took an hour lunch break (normally it would have been thirty minutes on a six-hour day), and when we came back, he felt up to at least slowly walk what we’d done, but you could tell he just wasn’t up to his usual self and he stayed for about thirty minutes more while I did more work on the song parts, and then we sent him home. I’m pretty sure he’ll be just fine by Monday.
I continued to finesse and add to the musical portion of the sequence, then staged the musical ending to the entire sequence. I think it will really be fun, and the two actors who do the actual lion’s share of the staging will now perfect it on their own, then show it to me for clean up and any additions or subtractions. After that we spent the rest of the day working on music stuff as the staging of the solo songs is just point and click stuff that will take me ten minutes to do all of them. We still have two long monologues to stage, but again, those will just be simple crossing here and crossing there things, then there are three quick blackout sketches to stage (easy) and two longer sketches, also pretty easy. And that’s about it. I also staged the finale, which, staging-wise is an exact repeat of the last forty-five seconds of the opening number with new lyrics. Of course, our choreographer has three numbers, maybe four, to do.
We finished at four and I immediately got on the horror show known as the Hollywood Freeway to drive all the way out to Calabasas. I knew it would be bad and it pretty much was. Getting through Hollywood was very slow going, then it improved a bit but got horrible at the 405 interchange and stayed really bad until almost to Topanga Canyon at which point all signs of traffic magically disappeared. I met Sami’s mom at Maria’s Kitchen for supper – the entire drive, which normally would have taken about thirty-five minutes, took an hour and ten minutes. I had a really tiny Caesar salad to start, we shared one of those silly flatbread pizza things, and then I had some pasta with sausage and peppers. I left a substantial portion of it, as I was quite full and also had a little headache. Then we went to Calabasas High to see Sami play Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family.
Now, I’d never seen The Addams Family before and only knew one of its songs, Pulled. I don’t think it’s a great song, but it’s fun if it’s done well. But before I talk about The Addams Family, let me just say that Sami did great, she sang the hell out of Pulled, and besides her there was some really good talent on that stage. The show is way too long for its own good, and this school always goes all out on sets, which were very good, but perhaps too heavy for what should be a show that never stops. The costumes were fine, too. It was, overall, a very nice production for high school – I’ve seen a lot of high school shows and this school is one of the better ones – some are insufferably bad (like Sami’s former school), but it’s nice when the goal is to present a smoothly done show.
But then there’s the show itself. I understand that it ran on its star power on Broadway, but I do believe it still lost a considerable amount of dough, and despite changes made for the tour, I don’t believe the tour was successful. Well, I thought it was a terrible show. A contrived plot, just so they could have a plot, and then contrived conflict, just so they could have some conflict – you know, strictly by the numbers stuff – not one original thing in this show. There are a few laughs but the problem is that the jokes were especially tailored to the two New York stars. The only really savvy thing on the stage is the opening of the show, the TV show Addams Family theme – that gets everyone in the right mood, certainly, but when that’s the best music you’re going to hear, well, you’re in trouble. The score was/is, for me, dreadful. The music all sounds the same, the lyrics are pedestrian (and I like Mr. Lippa as a person and he’s written some okay stuff), and the songs just sit there and are frequently sung by characters we don’t even care about. The low point is Fester’s song about the moon – oh, dear Lord, that was just one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. In the end, just not a good idea for a musical, and a crass idea at that, solely designed to play on baby boomer’s nostalgia for the TV show. All that said, it’s proven immensely popular with high schools.
I saw Sami after the show, and told her she did a great job (very hard to get used to her in the black wig), and then I headed home – by that time my headache was huge. I took two Excedrin and that was that.
Today, I can’t sleep in as I would like to, since she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early. I’ll go have a light breakfast and do some stuff, then come back home and plan out the Kritzerland show – it looks like we’re just one shy of being fully cast so I can at least choose all the songs for those four performers, plus Sami will come do Pulled for the show. After that, I’ll relax.
Tomorrow I have to prep our new release announcement and finish those liner notes. Then I can relax. Monday we begin another week of rehearsals – our choreographer is with us four out of the six days. And I’ll have to have a work session for the Kritzerland show, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a light breakfast, do stuff, choose songs and get singers music, finish liner notes, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Reading can be a very emotional experience – what books have actually moved you to tears? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have the big act one finale out of the way, and hoping my actor is resting and will be fully recovered by Monday. He’s a good egg AND Norwegian.