Well, dear readers, I must be up early and therefore I shall write these here notes in a hurry so I can get a semblance of beauty sleep. Therefore I shan’t go off on external tangents or even internal tangents or any tangents for that or any other matter.
The first thing I can tell you is that I didn’t get enough sleep. I tossed and turned and also turned and tossed, mostly due to a bit of an allergy attack, and then my brain was abuzz with this new What If I’ve been thinking about. I slept fitfully and maybe six hours at the most. Once up, I wrote down a lot of the What If lines I’d come up with, answered e-mails, and learned that the person I cast the day before was dropping out, most likely because they realized they didn’t have time to learn three songs. I don’t know – three weeks is a LOT of time – whole shows are put up in less time, but what can you do? So, I’m back on the hunt and have a couple of asks out – it would be easier if I didn’t want someone who could do Sunset Strip 1965 – that requires a performer of a certain age. And we STILL don’t have our final guy – I hate this part of our shows, HATE it.
Then I moseyed on over to The Federal for a lunch with our general manager and one of the authors of the musical. It was nice to meet him and we had a really nice lunch and conversation. I had regular mac-and-cheese – it wasn’t huge or anything and it was quite good. Once we finished lunch, we all went over to the El Portal Theater so he could get a look at it. It’s a really nice space for this show.
After that, I picked up one package and came home. I did some work on the computer, and then our musical director came by and we chatted for about an hour – just about the way I like to work and the kind of collaboration I like. I think he’ll do a wonderful job on this and we’re very much on the same page about the “sound” of the show. After he left, I went and printed out the latest draft of the musical script, figured out the sides for this week’s auditions, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish, where I ate some cashews and a few gummy things.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled 36 Hours, a film of George Seaton during the period where I was quite fond of Mr. Seaton’s work. And yet, somehow I missed this film in the theaters, despite it having actors I really liked. Since then, I think I’ve only actually seen it twice and I frequently get it confused with another James Garner film from that period, Mr. Buddwing, which is odd since they are about 5,000 miles apart. 36 Hours has a great concept, an occasionally overdone script, in terms of really explaining everything in interminable fashion. But the majority of it is very good, always holds the interest, and the plot is just very clever – from the middle of the film on it becomes a little more standard issue, but I thoroughly enjoyed this new Blu and Ray from Warner Archive. The black-and-white scope transfer looks great, although the Tiomkin score sounds very tinny. But about that score – it just doesn’t work for the film at all. In fact, on many occasions it actively works against the film. I kept thinking how great the Jerry Goldsmith of that period would have done, or even Herrmann – actually almost anyone else.
After that, I had an egg and tortilla thing for my snack, and then I had a telephonic conversation, did more work on the computer, put the motor car in the garage and then relaxed.
Today I shall be up around eight. I’ll be at the audition studio at nine-thirty for our ten o’clock start. This is the only day where there’s an actual lunch break built in to the schedule – one hour, so not a lot of time, but there’s a good Mexican jernt just a block away and I assume that’s what we’ll do – or bring sandwiches in – we shall see. Tomorrow is the longest of the days – ten to six, and the EPA, the Equity open call auditions. I’m certainly hoping to see some folks I know. Of course we have no idea how many folks will show up – it could be forty or it could be four hundred. After we finish, I’ll come right home. The helper is picking up whatever mail there is and will leave it in the garage.
The rest of the week is auditions, every day seven hours a day, maybe eight and that goes through Saturday. Sunday will be a ME day no matter what.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, attend auditions, eat, and attend more auditions, after which I shall come directly home. 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 have gone off on no external or internal tangents.