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January 8, 2019:

MUSE MARGARET CALLS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, we had a fun first rehearsal for the all young people Kritzerland show.  It was a VERY long rehearsal – well, not that long but just late because the kids need to come from school and we have several Orange County kids.  First to arrive was Ellie Birdwell.  She’s doing a put-together of two Mamma Mia songs, although we had to make a slight change so she now has a duet to do, too, so I may just have her do one of the Mamma Mia songs.  But we won’t decide that until Thursday.  The songs are The Winner Takes It All and Thank You for the Music, the latter in my special ragtime arrangement I did with John Boswell.  Then we had Marissa Margolis and she ran her solo, Anyone Can Whistle, and then her part of the duet – my song Pals, which she’ll be doing with Ellie now.  After that it was Hadley Belle Miller – she ran Never Never Land, which is really fun because she played John in Cathy Rigby’s last tour, so it’s a natural.  Then Sam Herbert arrived and they did their duet, You’re Just in Love – super cute.

Sam then did his solo, Half the Battle, from Ben Franklin in Paris.  I ask you, what other cabaret show in LA is doing a Ben Franklin in Paris song?  I happen to love the song and Sam is doing a great job with it.  The most shocking thing about Sam is he drove himself to rehearsal.  Peyton Kirkner was next – first she ran I Want to Be a Rockette, which will be fantastic, and then Autumn Jessel arrived and they ran their duet, If Momma Was Married.

Next up was Alexa Giraudon, who ran her solo, Starfish, from La Strada.  Then Olivia Knox arrived, and they did their duet, Applause, which we put together in a really fun way and as soon as they’re off book I’ll stage it.  Then Olivia ran her solo, When She Loved Me from Toy Story II.  She’s really grown since last year.  Then it was Juliette Boland.  First she did Times Like This, a perfect song for her, and then my put-together of Beautiful City/Day By Day.  And finally we had Mackenzie Wrap.  First up for her was my put-together of How Lovely to Be a Woman and One Boy, and then her other solo, The Life I Never Led from Sister Act.  By the time we finished, it was close to nine.

Prior to that, I’d gotten up at nine o’clock, answered e-mails, didn’t have more sweet to combat the sour so we really strongly need that ASAP, and then I futzed and finessed, adding, subtracting, and writing an addition quarter of a page just so it had a natural place to stop.  That took almost ninety minutes, then I printed out the eighty-seven pages – not bad for six days – then I took them to Staples and got them Xeroxed.  I drove from there directly to Muse Margaret and delivered them.  We had a fun chat which, I must say, was very curmudgeonly and funny, complaining about everything going on in the world of today.

Then I left there and went directly to Taco Bell.  When the gal totaled up my order she told me she’d given me the senior discount?  Say what? I must really look old right now. But I graciously accepted it because, why not?  I came home and ate it all up, and then I wrote a page.  I have trouble mushing on until I’ve had the Muse Margaret phone call, so I didn’t really write more than that.  Instead, I shaved and got ready and the Muse call came around four-thirty and it made me very, very happy.  She loved everything – she laughed, she was intrigued, she loves the characters and only had a handful of typo fixes and one request to add a little more physical description to two people, and then to explain a ceremony because she didn’t know what it was.  That’s easy to do.  I really could not have been happier with her reaction.  But there was no time to pick up the writing, and we didn’t wrap rehearsal until around nine.  At that point, I went to Gelson’s and got some salad from the salad bar – all veggies, came home, made some Good Seasons Eyetalian dressing now that I finally have a cruet, and I ate the salad all up.  One of the parents had brought me a belated Christmas gift – one piece of See’s Candy and an In N Out gift card.  Very thoughtful.  Then I finally started writing and did about six pages and then it was time to write these here notes.  But I’ll write at least six more before going to bed, maybe more if I’m up to it, although I really don’t want to get in bed later than three.

Today, I can have an all writing day.  I need some sweet in a major way, and at some point I’ll eat (maybe more salad from Gelson’s but with some shrimp or something), hopefully pick up packages, and write, write, write.  Depending on how much I get done, I may watch a motion picture entertainment for a couple of hours in the early evening.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, same for Thursday until it’s time for our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which is starting a bit earlier and therefore ending a bit earlier. Friday is mine all mine, Saturday we have our stumble-through and then I’m having a nice meal afterwards.  Sunday is our sound check and show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have an all writing day, with brief time outs for food, mail, and perhaps a movie.  Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite performances by young actors – both stage and film, male and female?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a fun first rehearsal and more than happy at Muse Margaret’s first phone call.

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