Well, dear readers, it is November. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is November and it is my fervent hope and prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. So it is written, so it shall be done. Please send all excellent vibes and xylophones for a smooth and wonderful month because there’s so much going on that I need all the HHW TLC I can get to get through it all in high style.
The last of October was okay. I got eight-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, did the usual morning things, did some work on our next release, then got ready to go to the Shermans. I turned left onto Coldwater Canyon to go over the hill to Beverly Hills and was greeted by a traffic backup that went all the way to where I’d just turned. I called the Shermans and said no way to get there and turned right around and came back home. I looked online and saw that it’s probably more work they’re doing only now on BOTH sides of Coldwater – pre and post Mulholland. What these jerks do to traffic and the extent to which they don’t care is astonishing and frankly it should be outlawed. If they can’t figure out a way to not cause people this kind of grief in the middle of a workday then they should not be in a position to make this kind of trouble.
I did some work on the computer, wrote a bit more commentary, and then moseyed on over to LACC for a production meeting and an in-person meeting with my sound designer, a very nice and very young man. After the meeting he was walked around the theater and shown everything. I then went across the street to Café 50s and had a really good sandwich (turkey, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing on grilled rye) and a few fries. Whilst eating I did a little prep work on the finale of the show.
Then I walked back and we began rehearsal at five with the staging of the finale. That took me about a half-hour and then we went back to the beginning of the show and began assembling its parts. I think we actually would have finished assembling were it not for the between scenes set moves – we didn’t have the set pieces when we blocked all of act one, so there was much confusion and that just ate up a lot of time. So we got through all of act one and the first two scenes of act two, so while there’s quite a bit to go, we’ll finish it up today. I’m hoping the staging and flow will start to stick with the cast (it isn’t now) and they all really need to get the scripts out of their hands, but then again, we’ve only really been working on the staging for seven days and only at four hours a day, save for five on Friday and Saturday. I can’t really work on the acting stuff until they free themselves from their scripts – and there’s a lot of work to be done.
Afterwards, I dropped Lanny Meyers off by where he’s staying (he was with us to help our sub pianist, Alby Potts, in case there were problems), then I stopped at the mail place and picked up mail (no packages), stopped at Gelson’s for a little mac-and-cheese for my evening snack, and then came home. I answered e-mails, listened to version two of our next release, approved it, and then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, we may or may not take the book room bookcases over to the new house and get them installed. If we do, we’ll also take four or five boxes of books over for me to begin unpacking at some point when I have a minute or nine. Then I have a meeting with the costume people to look at sketches and what they’re already building, and then at five we have rehearsal. Kay will have sixty to ninety minutes with her second act number, and then we’ll resume and finish the assembling of act two. I’m sure it will be intense, but we have to get through it no matter what. I think the rest of the set may just be finished and ready for us, too, so that will be helpful.
Tomorrow we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, and then I eat something and go to rehearsal, which is actually a designer run – I’m hoping it won’t be TOO rough and that we can at least get through it somewhat smoothly – but they all know it’s rough and it’s mostly for the lights and costumes to see the lay of the land in terms of what happens where, when, and how. I’m sure it will be an exhausting day. Friday we have a five-hour rehearsal and I really hope to not only have a run-through but to start smoothing everything out, getting the performances where they need to be, and getting the flow exactly as I want it. Saturday is another day of lunacy – our stumble-through at eleven-thirty, followed by a five-hour rehearsal for Levi, after which I will come home and plotz, oh, yes, I shall come home and plotz. I’d love to sit on my couch like so much fish and I could, but there would be no point since there are about fifty boxes piled in front of the TV. Sunday I’ll sleep in as much as I can, then we do our sound check, then we do our show. The following week is all run-throughs, every day, followed by working scenes and numbers until they’re tight and exact.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, perhaps take bookcases to the new house, I must eat, I must do some banking, I must have a meeting with costumes, and I must rehearse. 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 welcome in a little month I like to call November – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.