Well, dear readers, it is late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry. I shan’t waste time being pithy in this first paragraph – pith will have to wait until later in these here notes. For now, I must dive in and write like the wind. Yesterday I got around seven hours of sleep. There, that was written just like the wind would write it, in exactly the wind’s style. Once up, the helper came and we did the Costco run – we were in and out of there in ten minutes – all I needed was waters and Diet Cokes and Pepcid. Then I came home, did some work on the computer and at the piano, then Robert and Alby came.
We did a complete run-through without any stops. Like everything I seem to do, the show is running the same exact time each and every time we do it: Sixty-five minutes, which is just right. I was happy to see the slightly revised order played perfectly, so that was good. I took more performance notes, some arrangement notes, and some patter notes. I gave all those, we smoothed out some arrangement things, smoothed out a couple of set-ups and on Monday we’re going to try a couple of new patter things to see if they’re fun and work. It’s all coming along very nicely, though, and Robert is getting the hang of how to do this – the pacing, the energy, how to get from thing to thing and always keep things moving and fresh. It’s a fun act and fun to watch.
After that, I had some shrimp cocktail shrimp – no real calories in that and I knew it would tide me over until after the show. I found out early in the day that the show was completely sold out, so I wasn’t interested in standing and watching it so I decided to show up around 9:45. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday I watched more Hitchcock Hour episodes. I actually skipped through most of them – two I’ll go back to at some point because they had interesting directors. The only one I watched start to finish was An Unlocked Window, simply one of the best hour TV shows in history. Wonderfully directed by Joseph Newman, well written by James Bridges (from a story by Ethel Lina White, the writer of The Lady Vanishes), and starring Dana Wynter, John Kerr, Louise Latham, and the astonishing T.C. Jones, who should have won an EMMY award for this portrayal. The only sour note in the entire show is, for me, the overdone performance of Louise Latham – she’s just too big and over the top but then she’s sedated and we don’t have to see her again. The whole show (about three nurses alone in a big house with their sick patient, with a nurse killer nearby and on the prowl and coming) is hugely suspenseful and the ending is both shocking and a corker – I honestly don’t think they could quite get away with it in today’s world, at least not all of it. Some of these Hitchcock shows really pushed a lot of envelopes, I must say. If you’ve never seen this episode, seek it out – it’s absolutely brilliant and brilliantly photographed by Stanley Cortez, the man who shot The Magnificent Ambersons.
After that, I watched a 2014 documentary on the Flix of Net entitled Afraid of the Dark, about the wonderful singer/pianist Nat “King” Cole. I loved his singing and this was a very interesting documentary and well worth watching. Then I listened to some music until it was time to go to the theater to meet up with some folks.
I arrived and indeed every seat was taken. I was told that it was a quieter audience than the previous night (frequently the case on Saturday night performances) but you would not have known that from the cheering during the curtain calls. Then Doug, my friends, and I went over to the Coral Café for some food and what in essence was my first food of the day. Well, I ate more food than I should have – we ordered the nachos for the table and I ate a few of those, then had a big breakfast plate with eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, and ham and two pancakes. I feel like I ate a continent. I only could eat about one pancake, if that, the eggs and meatstuffs, some of the hash browns and none of the toast. We all had tons of fun, and the minute I got home I chewed on a Pepcid.
Today, I’ll try to jog before going to the final performance of Dial ‘M’ for Murder – I’m assuming it will either be sold out or really full. I’ll say goodbye to my cast, then Doug, his ever-lovin’ Dorathy, and hopefully daughter Hartley will venture forth to Genghis Cohen to celebrate our closing.
Tomorrow we do our run-through of Robert’s show and I have a ton of other stuff to do. Tuesday we do our run-through for about ten people. Then I have constant meetings and meals for the rest of the week until I leave for Coachella, wherever the HELL that is. I’m sure I’ll spend the evening there, and then drive home around noon on Saturday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, attend our final performance, sup, and relax. 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, having completely forgotten to add the missing pith.