Well, dear readers, first of all, I have just returned from finally having some food. By ten o’clock last night I thought I was going to pass out, so even though I wasn’t really feeling great, I had to eat. We went to the Eclectic Café and I had some risotto with a little chicken in it and it was very good. I’m still a bit nauseous but hopefully that will fully abate by morning and hopefully I’ll keep this food down. And that is the up to the minute nausea/food poisoning report.
Yesterday was an icky little day. I did get nine hours of sleep but I woke up more nauseous than the day before, which means this was not such a little bout of food poisoning. So, I literally did almost nothing other than sip Diet 7-Up and relax. I did do some work on the computer, the helper came by at some point after having picked up no packages at the mail place, and I had a couple of telephonic calls. I also lay down twice just to try to feel better. I also sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday I watched a motion picture entitled Sunshine on Leith, a Scottish motion picture which I mostly got because it’s gotten rave reviews and because one of its stars also was the star of Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun, Freya Mavor. In the latter she plays a French gal and you would never have known she was really Scottish. Anyway, the film is based on a Scottish jukebox musical with songs by The Proclaimers – I gather that’s a rock group of some sort. I didn’t think all that much of the songs, but for the film I will say they’re beautifully orchestrated. It’s a musical and an odd one (critics compare to Mamma Mia, which is stupid), but it’s enjoyable and the actors are all very good and the final number is fun. So, if you like offbeat stuff you might like this. The import Blu-ray looks and sounds great.
Then I got ready and moseyed on over to the theater to see a production of The Fantasticks. I have seen the show many, many times, I love its authors, especially my friend Harvey, and I love the show and have since I took its cast recording into a listening booth at Wallichs Music City in 1961. I saw the show many times here in LA, saw some tour with Jon Cryer in Detroit back in 1966, and finally saw it a few times at its original theater, the Sullivan Street Playhouse, where I used its then current Matt and Luisa for a cut song from the show on one of the Lost in Boston albums. I also saw it when it moved to whatever that teeny-tiny theater on Broadway is. It takes a rare director to screw the show up, and yet I’ve seen productions where that has absolutely been the case, and last night’s was sadly one of those productions. This director, who is not really a director from what I’ve been hearing (she was actually in the staged reading of Nudie Musical as Joy Full and she was wonderful in that). There was no pace, little energy, and the whole thing just felt off. The pianist his so many clams and wrong chords I wanted to brain him. Also curious was the decision to have a few projections, including the moon and sun. Um, what about “cardboard moon” is hard to understand. I mean, honestly. The actors are kind of left to their own devices and that’s not a good thing. I don’t want to dwell on it, frankly, but everyone on that stage needed a director so they were all performing the same show. I do believe it was the longest production of the show I’ve ever seen.
I knew two people in the cast and more than two people in the audience, so that was fun. Then we went to sup.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. If I’m feeling up to it, I’ll then go pay a visit to Mystery and Imagination Books. I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and I’ll hopefully be able to eat at some point. Then in the early evening I have a meeting with our ALS team of producers.
Tomorrow I’m seeing Barry Pearl in the closing performance of the play he’s in, then we’ll eat, then I’ll hurry home for our Annual Tony Awards Bash here at haineshisway.com. Remember, spoiler alerts for the west coast, please. Next week will be putting the finishing touches on the LA show cast album and getting that to the mastering engineer and then the pressing plant. And I should have that packaging to approve by Monday or Tuesday. So, a very busy week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully feel better, pay a visit to Mystery and Imagination Books, hopefully pick up packages, hopefully eat, and have a brief ALS meeting. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite original film musicals? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the little icky day is over and done with.