Well, dear readers, we had our second Kritzerland rehearsal, although we were missing three singers (two come this morning and the other comes early on Saturday before the stumble-through), but it was really fun. People do Sondheim evenings all the time in cabaret, but not like this one. I gave some more staging on the Nightmare Trio, and John Boswell and I talked about Send in the Clowns, and he jokingly played the vamp of Giants in the Sky and started singing Send in the Clowns and it was so funny and somehow worked that I suggested we do the entire song with him doing famous Sondheim vamps in the accompaniment all the way through – and so he’s going to come up with that and I think it will work splendidly. If not, he’ll just do it straight, which is also fine. But anytime we can be wacky I’m all for it.
Prior to our rehearsal, which only lasted two hours, I’d gotten about seven hours of sleep. I woke up feeling very stressed and irritated over the lack of ticket sales for The Brain concert, so I did an eBlast and a Facebook post – I was nice but made my points. At the end of the day that resulted in one additional ticket sale despite about ten people telling me they were going to reserve. Sometimes it seems almost willful that people just want to wait until the last possible second to reserve, to which I say it’s giving me heart palpitations and so just reserve already and take some of this stress away. At this point I’ll be happy if we have 150 people but we’re nowhere near that. I could start giving away tickets but that’s not what this is supposed to be about. I raised four grand to pay for the band and the sound and the fact is I could have just given that money to the department, because at this point they’ll be lucky to clear a thousand dollars. It’s really disappointing, and especially disappointing with the alums, all of whom who are in LA should be supporting this. They love to make with the Facebook posts about how much the department meant to them and now that was the best time of their lives, love to reminisce about how much pot they smoked and all that crap, but when it comes to giving back they simply don’t. I just don’t get it, frankly.
All that just put me into both a foul and fowl mood, so I went and had an omelet and an English muffin, picked up some packages, then came home. I finished doing the program information and got that off, did more Brain work, and a two-and-a-half mile jog. Then we had our rehearsal, which finished at seven. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching the 1961 Japanese motion picture, The Last War, a polemic on the dangers of nuclear war – kind of a what if picture along the lines of On the Beach. Its message is delivered in a very heavy-handed, preachy way, but was and is still an important message. The film has at its core a thinly disguised conflict between the US and USSR with Japan caught in the middle. The final fifteen minutes feature some great special effects by the man who did all the Godzilla films. I kind of enjoyed it despite the soap opera stuff. And the score by Ikuma Dan is a plus. The home grown DVD is in scope from a faded whatever (still some color, just not enough), but it’s the original 111-minute version with English subtitles, as opposed to the dubbed version which runs all of seventy-nine minutes and has a terrible narration throughout. Oh, and in the original version at the end the children sing a New Year’s Day song in Japanese – in the English version you’ll never guess what they sing: It’s a Small World. Think they cleared that? Doubtful. Oh, and the American “actors” in the film are all completely terrible and amateur – it’s painful. All the Japanese actors are very good. I’m glad I saw it.
Then I listened to Elgar’s first symphony, a wonderful work, then went back to the great Walton first symphony with Previn conducting – generally considered to be the all-time finest version of the symphony – it’s great. It did calm me down, as did our good rehearsal. At some point I went to Gelson’s and got two tiny chicken tenders and a couple of tiny egg rolls for my evening snack.
Today I’ll be up by nine-thirty, we have a Kritzerland rehearsal for an hour at eleven, then I’ll run and have a bite to eat, come right back home, shave, shower, hopefully pick up packages, and then I’ll mosey on over to LACC at two-thirty. The musical director and I are getting there ninety minutes before the rehearsal as are a few cast members – we have no formal music rehearsals so I thought some of our cast would like the extra time to go over their stuff. No one really has all THAT much to sing in the show – I think Fred and Joyce and The Brain have the most with three songs, although they’re also in the group numbers. I am slightly terrified at the amount of work ahead, but am also looking forward to seeing this wonderful cast in action and getting the show back on its feet.
Tomorrow, I have a lot of stuff to do prior to the Brain rehearsal, including getting a haircut, then we have our second Brain rehearsal. Saturday morning we have our third Brain rehearsal, followed by our Kritzerland stumble-through and then hopefully a few of us will have dinner. Sunday is sound check and show, then Monday is our sound load in, band rehearsal, then our dress rehearsal with the band, and then it’s show time. And then I’m sure I’ll be ready for the loony bin but I won’t have time to go there, since I immediately have to prepare for the Tom Sawyer audio commentary with Richard Sherman.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a brief Kritzerland rehearsal, eat, hopefully pick up packages, then have our first Brain rehearsal – no time to really jog unless I do a late jog after rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite war or anti-war movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still baffled by whatever the psychology is behind people intending to come to a show but not reserving.