Well, dear readers, I first saw the musical Guys and Dolls at Bluth Brothers Theater in Culver City, just a few months before I began doing shows there. It was beautifully cast, fun, hilarious, and I completely fell in love with the show. And that score – even with their three-piece band it sounded glorious. The next time I saw it was the revival that Jerry Zaks did with Nathan Lane and Faith Prince. I wasn’t in love with that production, although I saw it very early in previews before they got their new Sarah. But it was still fun, still hilarious, and still as tuneful as any musical ever written. It’s been done here in LA several times – in fact, it’s about to open at one of the big houses here, a production I really have no interest in seeing for various reasons. But yesterday I saw a high school production at my alma mater – full orchestra and huge cast.
I won’t go into too much detail other than to say the kids gave it their all and there were some real talents on that stage, especially the young fellow who played Sky – terrific voice and not that “today” kind of nasal crap everyone does – a real legit voice in the classic tradition. But, as always, these kids deserve to work with a really good director who will challenge and push them. The person who did this simply doesn’t know how to block or pace a show and that is, I’m sorry to say, kind of the job of the director. You need to know what words to say to young people to get them to up their game. And for a magnet school with some pretty good donors, I will never understand why they can’t have better sets there – I’ve seen a bunch of shows there and it’s always the same, although the stage itself is challenging and always has been. The all student orchestra was pretty good and unless I’m mistaken it sounded to me like the original Ted Royal orchestrations, but I suppose I could be wrong. I am always flooded with memories on the occasions I see shows there – it’s been over a decade since I’ve been back. But the show itself is a marvel and perhaps someday I’ll have my way with it.
I attended with an old school chum of mine, Joyce Stepakoff (now Jenner), her daughter Amy (who I met when she was around eight), and Amy’s son Phoenix. Phoenix was very shy when I was introduced to him, but that went away right away because we just hit it off. It was, I think, his first live show, and he was really a good boy during it, very attentive. After the show, we all went over to Factor’s, which was only five minutes away. My last meal there was not so good, but I’m happy to report they were on their A game last night. I had my beloved lean pastrami, cole slaw, and Russian dressing on the rye bread, with one tiny potato pancake as my side. Amy had soup, Phoenix had silver dollar pancakes, and Joyce had a turkey club, I think. We all had huge fun, and Phoenix and I laughed a whole lot and hopefully he’ll be saying FISH from now on.
Prior to that, I’d gotten five hours of sleep. She of the Evil Eye came and I did a few things on the computer, then went and had some bacon and eggs to tide me over until our dinner. Then I picked up some packages, then came home. Joyce came and off we went.
After dinner I dropped Joyce at her house in Northridge and came home. I listened to some music (which I’ll write about in tomorrow’s notes), and waiting for me was proofer number one’s proofed manuscript. I glanced through it – all good catches, some easy little grammar and punctuation fixes, and just a handful of things to run by Muse Margaret. This proofer didn’t have the very final version, so there were things he called out that actually aren’t in the book anymore or that have already been fixed and adjusted. So, as soon as I post these here notes, I think I’ll enter the first twenty pages of stuff I know I can do.
Today, I will enter the rest of the fixes, run the few by Muse Margaret and we’ll be that much closer to getting this thing to Grant for designing. The Kritzerland show is now fully cast so I’ll begin assigning songs. I’ll eat and at some point maybe watch a motion picture of some sort.
This week is filled with meetings and meals, including one tomorrow evening and I have got to get this piling up merde out of my life.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, enter fixes, run a few things by Muse Margaret, eat, 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, always happy to see Guys and Dolls and go to a deli.