Well, dear readers, yesterday was much more Christmas-like, due to a terrific performance, a great dinner, a fun dessert, and even some relaxing time during the day. But now it is late and these here notes should have been up almost an hour ago, so I must get with the program, I must set pen to paper, keyboard and computer-wise, I must get crackin’, so to speak. And so, I shall, not necessarily in that order.
Yesterday was a fine old day. I was up early, went to audition one person at ten o’clock, then headed over to Gelson’s, where I did the majority of my Christmas Do shopping. I still have about six items to buy, but those are things I’ll get later tonight. Then I came home and immediately relaxed. I listened to some music (I’ve been going through the ten Eduard Tubin symphonies – an extraordinary composer), then I watched a couple of the extras on the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Blu-ray. The one on the “meticulously” researched production design, wherein Mr. Tarantino put to rest any nonsense that the incorrect details were okay because of the fairytale title, where everyone pats him on the back as an LA native who really wanted accuracy in the details, down to the smallest thing. But, sorry, it’s not hard to research this stuff and I’m an LA native that knows a lot more about Hollywood and this city than he ever will, and all one needs to do is read any one of my books to know that. He wanted every detail to be accurate to LA 1969 – and yet, there was no Pussycat Theater on Hollywood Boulevard until 1974, there was no Peaches Records on Hollywood Boulevard in 1969, the Playboy Mansion didn’t belong to Playboy in 1969 – Hef wouldn’t buy it for several more years – and there’s a rather extraordinary series of shots where Margaret Qualley is at a bus stop flirting with Brad Pitt, who’s in his car. In the angle facing him, you can clearly see the Capitol Records building through his car window. In the angle on her, she’s in front of Pandora’s Box on Sunset Boulevard, which is nowhere near Hollywood and Vine where the Capitol Building is (north of the boulevard on Vine). Not only that, but Pandora’s Box was torn down in 1967. So much for verisimilitude. So, at least own up to the fact that you’re just indulging your fantasies of what you’d like LA to have been like in 1969.
Then I watched about forty minutes of the new cut of The Cotton Club, called The Cotton Club Encore. Mr. Coppola, looking rather horrible, pontificates about the turmoil on the film and how this cut is what he really wanted the film to be – twenty minutes of additional footage. Now, I don’t really remember much about the original release version other than I didn’t hate it and thought it was well made. But the opening forty minutes are so choppy and weird that I would like to see the original again. I’ll finish it up this evening, perhaps.
Then it was time to get ready, which I did, then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a package (more Pepcid), then moseyed on over to Spumonte, a wonderful Eyetalian jernt not so far from the theater. I went with Peyton and her mom. I had their amazing penne with sausage and red onion in a pink sauce – it was fantastic. After that, I went right to the theater, chatted with some of our actors, then they opened the house and Peyton and mom got the seats I’d held for them. I sat with them for the show. I gave the pre-show speech and then the show began. It was the polar opposite of the previous evening – everyone had energy, the timing was mostly spot on and the audience ate it up – many huge laughs throughout both acts one and two. Then act three began, and the first visual gag, which I guarantee you no one has ever done in a production of this show, got a humungous laugh that just went on and on. And then came Barry Pearl and it was pandemonium. He was brilliantly funny with so much great energy. And this cream puff gag, which I also guarantee no one has ever done in the way we do, was a textbook lesson in how to get a huge laugh, keep it going, double it, triple it, quadruple it, until tears were running down everyone’s faces. Even fumfered lines were played with great energy and it was much fun to watch. It was about two-thirds of a full house tonight, so this will be a strong weekend of box-office for them, as I think we have quite a few coming to the matinee today.
Many interesting folks in the audience, including my old pal Ann Hearn, who I met during the filming of The Creature Wasn’t Nice. I don’t remember who brought her to the set, but the day she was there, Cindy had left early, not feeling well. I needed an insert of Cindy’s hand next to Max the computer, and so Ann was her hand double. Ann was with her hubby, the wonderful character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. Peyton loved the show, as did her mom.
After the show, Leslie and her two daughters and Doug and I went to the Coral Café, where I had some weird dessert thing and then, for some inexplicable reason, a side of potato salad. Perhaps I’m pregnant. Then I came home and the rest you know and you know the rest.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, I’ll get ready, then mosey on over to the theater at noon to read two actors. Then I’ll just hang out until show time. I’ll do the pre-show speech again, then I’ll probably stay for the matinee, unless I get antsy, in which case I’ll leave. After the show, there’s a cast party at Doug’s house, so I’ll be at that for a few hours and I’ll eat there. After that, I’ll go to Ralph’s for the rest of my Do stuff, including paper plates, plastic cutlery, and the other foodstuffs I need.
Tomorrow, I will be doing absolutely nothing. I’ll relax, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something very light, and then watch something and listen to music. In the evening, I’ll prepare the two batches of tuna pasta salad, and do all the slicing and dicing and mincing for the spaghetti sauce. Tuesday is, of course, the day of the Do and I will be Doing all day, getting everything ready and putting stuff away so it’s clean here. I’m not sure how many will be here, but that’s part of the fun for me, frankly. You never know if it will be five or twenty-five, although we haven’t had that many in quite a while, and I prefer a slightly smaller group anyway. Then people will arrive and we’ll do the Do. The rest of the week is mine all mine and I don’t care who knows it. I’ll do a bit more prep work on the 2020 book, and I’ll spend my usual contemplative New Year’s Eve. And then it will be 20/20.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, audition two people, see the matinee or not, and then attend a cast party, after which I’ll get the rest of my Do stuff. 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, happy to have seen a textbook example, which I always try to instill in my actors, of how to double, triple, and quadruple a laugh.