Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Mr. Stan Getz play his saxophone with voices on an album cleverly entitled Voices, with arrangements by Claus Ogerman, a wonderful album. Mr. Getz was very adventurous with his albums, whether his collaborations with Eddie Sauter, or his instrumental Bacharach album with orchestrations by Richard Evans or playing with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler, or his album Communications, with Michel Legrand. It’s very smooth, very silky, very haunting, and very very, not necessarily in that order. Otherwise, I attempted to watch a documentary on the Flix of Net about a woman who was shot by some gang member – but I kept falling asleep and it was just like every other documentary of its ilk and I’m getting burned out on this type of thing. Prior to that, I watched the extras on the West Side Story Blu and Ray, which I’m not sure I watched before. Very interesting in certain ways, because everyone who LOVES the new Spielberg version says how wonderful it is to have the songs back in show order and how that’s what their lord and master Mr. Sondheim wanted and how the original movie screwed that up by rearranging Gee, Officer Krupke, I Feel Pretty, and Cool. Only guess what? There is their lord and master saying he never liked the show order and complained about it when they were writing the show. He said Jerome Robbins called him and told him, “Well, you’re finally getting your wish,” when the movie was made. But that contribution came not from Robbins but from screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who is only mentioned once, in passing, by director Wise at the very end of the featurette. Funnily, because it was pre-woke, no one, not a single person, mentions anything about the Sharks not all being actors of Puerto Rican descent. Funny that. Not ONE. And they ALL praise Natalie Wood’s acting. Richard Beymer is in the featurette – he doesn’t say much, but he seems to have loved Robert Wise and Robbins. There’s some fun behind the scenes footage, too.
Yesterday was slightly weird but okay. I was up at eight-thirty after only five hours of sleep, and then we had our ten to three rehearsal. I had most of the cast, actually, so that was good. We ran the opening number a couple of times and it’s getting better. Then our choreographer staged the Hullabaloo number, which took two hours or a bit more. Then she moved on to the LA Is number and taught everyone the hip-hop steps – so now all she has to do is stage it – she’s available this week, so she’ll come in on Tuesday and do that and we’ll drill the other stuff. She also set The Helms Man for the female trio, so that’s done, and we did the male quartet number. We got all the way through that but we didn’t get to its reprise, although it’s basically the same as what we did. So, a good day’s work, and all there is left is the female septet in Every Wednesday Night, but that’s super easy and I can do it myself, since I did it originally, and then the group stuff in We Look Ahead, but that’s just entering and standing.
After rehearsal, I went to Del Taco – I’d only ordered delivery from there, but I wasn’t that far from it, so I drove up there. But it’s in a very bad part of North Hollywood and it’s not somewhere I ever need to visit again. I got a couple of tacos and their taco salad, came home and ate it. I really do like it better than Taco Bell. But if I want it again, delivery it shall be and it shall be delivery.
Then I did some stuff on the computer, had a couple of telephonic conversations, then watched the stuff I watched and/or slept through. And then it was Mr. Getz and Bacharach followed by Voices, which is still playing.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll mostly have a ME day, I have one little sequence to write in the project with David Wechter, but I’ll just try to take it easy. I think I’ll do a salad from Stanley’s or perhaps even go there and eat it. I haven’t had their Cobb salad in quite some time, so perhaps that will be my choice – the other two options are the chicken Caesar salad or the Chinese chicken salad. We shall see. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is a light day, and then we’re back into rehearsal on Tuesday evening. We have our MD that night, so we’ll play through the solos and teach them, run the dance stuff and finish that all up. Wednesday will be blocking all the sketches and solos – 90% of that is just doing what we did originally, so that should be nice and easy. We’ll do that on Thursday as well, then we’re back on Saturday and we have our MD then, too, so we’ll be able to run everything we’ve done and finish up anything we haven’t, and then we can assemble the show and begin run-throughs. There are also a couple of meetings and meals in there, hopefully Grant will finally get to the book so we can get that off to the publisher, and David Wechter and I will write the ending of our screenplay.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, mostly have a ME day, write one little sequence, take it easy, have a salad of some sort, and then watch, listen, 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, happy to have had a good and productive rehearsal.