Well, dear readers, it was another mostly choreography day, so I mostly just got to sit and watch our spirited cast work with Cheryl Baxter-Ratliff. She started out not with the 60s dance number, but with the second number in the show, which is a trio of gals singing a song called The Helms Man. Just prior to beginning that, we had our full cast for a short bit of time, so I had them do the opening number so Cheryl could see it with everyone in it, and they really did it great – it’s just a really fun way to open the show, and Robert Yacko is priceless in his opening narration, which, due to prying eyes, I shan’t say anything about at this time. We actually had the full trio girls for about twenty minutes and they learned the first half of the number – then we had to alternates step in and they learned the rest of it and we filmed it for the other two. Everything in the show is now fully assigned so that’s good. The trio is adorable and I have to say it’s a perfect second number for a musical revue and it’s VERY short, running just a 1:35 seconds, but it’s a good and perky 1:35.
Once that was done, she moved directly on to the 60s number. Thankfully we had enough people to fill in for the missing people so that Cheryl could actually stage it with the proper number of bodies. We ended up using all but one of the gals and only two of the guys – that just worked best. I think the participants in the number absolutely LOVE doing it, and it’s really good. It took her a couple of hours to do it and finesse, and it runs about two-and-a-half minutes now and is such a fun energy boost. While the dancers were learning it, our MD was working with the singers who were available to run their solos and duets, so that’s a good thing. For the last half hour we worked the male quartet number and that’s really fun now – and we also blocked out the reprise version. So, slowly but surely it’s all getting done. Cheryl has two more numbers to do – one very simple one involving one guy and two gals, and one involving most of the cast and some hip-hop stuff. Filming all the stuff has been VERY helpful.
Prior to that, I’d only gotten about six hours of sleep thanks to the morons hammering again – we’ve had several days of peace and quiet but that’s over now, I guess. I sent in the packaging for approval for the new CD release, and we’re actually announcing that at the same time as the notes going up. It’s the last of the Bernard Herrmann at Fox titles we’re releasing and it’s one of the best: Jane Eyre. It’s a stunningly beautiful score that I recommend highly. Here’s the cover.
Then after doing a lot of stuff, including prepping the release announcement, I moseyed on over first to Bird’s for lunch – I had a chicken Caesar wrap and a tiny side of mac-and-cheese. It was really good. Then I put some gas in the motor car and then went to LACC for our rehearsal. I’m always there an hour early in case anyone needs me for anything, which has frequently been the case.
After rehearsal, I stopped at Gelson’s and got some salad from the salad bar, and I also bought several low-cal dressings from the dressing section. I got a low-cal 1000-Island, a low-cal cheesy Eyetalian, and low-cal something or other I can’t remember. I went with the cheesy Eyetalian, which only had twenty-five calories per tablespoon – it wasn’t half bad, nor was it half good. Then I answered lots of e-mails, we are FINALLY fully cast and all but five songs are chosen and those will be finalized this morning. This May show has been a killer for me and not something I want to go through again. I got the eBlast prepared and had some telephonic calls, plus did the Facebook event page for the Kritzerland show.
Today, I shall hopefully print out a LOT of orders, I’ll do the morning stuff, then I’ll eat a little something, then we have our rehearsal. Cheryl isn’t with us, so my intention is to first review everything from yesterday while we hopefully have most of the cast in the first half-hour. Then I’m going to stage everything that’s left, even if people have to stand in for others. I want all the solos and sketches done by the end of today.
Tomorrow we’ll keep reviewing and then I’m going to try and begin assembling everything, but we also need to keep musically working numbers. Friday is our long day and I’ll have the full company for at least four hours – so Cheryl can do her two numbers and I’ll keep assembling the show, so that come Monday we can start roughly getting through it from start to finish, then do cleanups. I do have the full cast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so that will be very helpful. We have a designer run-through on Thursday, then another long day on Friday, which will have the full cast for. Then we have a week of run-throughs, perhaps two per rehearsal, and then we go into tech. Whew!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, eat, have a rehearsal, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be moving right along with the LA show.