Well, dear readers, it is Sunday, sweet Sunday, my one day with ME. Yes, Sunday shall be a ME day and I will do only ME things all the livelong day and night. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad. And now let me just say that there are some musicals that baffle me. Actually a lot of what call themselves musicals these days baffles me. Back in 2001 a musical opened called Urinetown. It was a small show that somehow made it to Broadway – kind of a spoof of Kurt Weill/Brecht stuff, and a very self-referential show that took every opportunity to let the audience know it was a musical and sending up musicals in general. Certainly it wasn’t as “old” then as it is now, but every clip I saw from it I loathed. Maybe as a ten-minute sketch it might have been amusing, but it was just so smarmy and self-aware and kind of obnoxious, but I thought maybe as a whole it might work – certainly it won awards and audiences of the day kept it open for three years. So, when my pal Christiane Noll asked me to come see the national tour when it played here, I said okay. Well, I hated every minute of it. The actors were all fine but the material was like a bunch of college kids got together and thought they were being oh so very clever, but, for me, seeing collegiate shows in a college is fine – on Broadway or a national tour, not so much, at least not for me.
So, last night I had to endure the show again, and it was just as painful. This was a high school production. They have a beautiful theater and do good work there and I have no complaints about the kids and their performances – one wishes stuff outside of their control were better – pacing, detail work on performances, and especially lighting. But for a high school, they’re on the higher end of the spectrum. But the show, for me, is strictly from hunger. I think the score is just terrible – they either do the Kurt Weill pastiche or gospel pastiche (the Gonna Build a Mountain rip-off is kind of nauseating), but they just all sound the same. The book, for some, seems to be a brilliant satire of something or other – for me, it falls flat straight down the line, especially the musical theatre in jokes, which I find a complete bore. The audience was strictly friends and family, so there was a lot of the usual hooting and hollering in excessive amounts. There were a couple of very talented kids in the show, and of course our very own Sami Staitman did a good job, but part of me just wishes she wouldn’t do these high school things and I feel that for a whole slew of reasons. But she loves being onstage and she likes being with her chums so there’s that. I always wish for young performers to work with people who really know how to communicate with them, push them, stretch them, and teach them. There was one choice that really had me scratching my head – ripping off the “Whaaaaaat” bit that the Adolpho character does. Here the entire cast does it repeatedly. I don’t believe it’s in the script and to make sure I skimmed the You Tube video of the Broadway production. But I will always support Sami and send her good and positive energy, even having to sit through an awful show.
Prior to that I was up early, did a two-and-a-half mile jog, went and had a bacon and cheese omelet and nothing else (no bread, no potatoes), picked up a package and came home. I did some work on the computer and heard from a couple of singers who are going to be out of town and therefore unable to replace my lost singer. So the search goes on. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray, one I’d somehow missed, even though I pretty much saw every movie like it back in the 1970s – it was called The Friends of Eddie Coyle, starring Robert Mitchum and a whole slew of wonderful actors. Well, it’s just a terrific little picture, directed by Peter Yates, and Mitchum is great in it, although I pretty much enjoy him in anything. And the transfer on this Criterion blu-ray is beautiful – it instantly brings back what these early 1970s films looked like. And Alex Rocco, Peter Boyle and especially Steven Keats are just wonderful. I would say this is definitely recommended by the likes of me.
Then I got ready to mosey on out to Calabasas. I looked up the traffic on the 101 north and it said clear sailing all the out – 65 miles an hour the whole way. Funny then that for eight miles of the journey I was going twenty. Funny. But I got to Maria’s Eyetalian Kitchen right on time and supped with Sami’s mom. I had a really tiny Caesar salad (I mean TINY), and this really good little sandwich that had a little salami, pepperoni, capicolla, peppers and an olive aioli – I enjoyed it very much. Since I’d basically jogged off the omelet, I’m sure the sandwich and tiny salad weren’t more than 1000 calories and if it were more then it wasn’t by much. Then I saw the show. After, I said hey to Sami, and then headed home.
Today, as mentioned, will be a ME day, a day of ME and nothing BUT ME. I shall sleep in, I shall jog, I shall eat some light but amusing foodstuffs, and I shall catch up on my motion picture viewing.
Tomorrow we begin rehearsals for the Michael Sterling anniversary show. Those go through Thursday (the show is on Sunday). I also have some ALS rehearsals, several meetings and meals, and lots of other stuff, so a very busy week indeed.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, do a jog, eat light but amusing foodstuffs, and watch motion pictures. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall have me a ME day.