Well, dear readers, I suppose the good news is that we’ve only heard back from one cast member who tested yesterday and came up positive, but that was followed by another home test which came up negative, so this morning he’ll have a PCR test and will get those results pretty quickly, I’m told. And I tested yesterday and came up negative, so that was good. And so, we’ll try to mush on. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, of whom I know absolutely nothing, and their entire output for Deutsche Grammophon, some 55-CDs of musicmaking. They’re very good and the upside for me with a set like this is that I know very little of the music. Oh, there’s some Prokofiev, Britten, Bizet, Bartok and the like that I know, but there’s also a lot of Handel, Haydn, Mozart and others, that I don’t know at all. So far, it’s very enjoyable. Currently playing is Bizet’s Symphony in C. Prior to listening, I watched. Well, I watched after I dozed off for an hour. What I watched was one of those cheeseball Roger Corman Z films from 1955, this one entitled The Day the World Ended, starring Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, and Touch Connors (later Mike). It’s basically all set in a house, save for a couple of sequences outside the house. It’s quite bad on every level, but there is high comedy in the fact that poor Lori Nelson is forced to utter “Rick! Rick!” about forty times. Just like that – “Rick! Rick!” Amusingly, Richard Denning never seems to hear her. I’m guessing his character’s name is really John. Anyway, despite the Wikipedia and imdb telling us that the film was released at the end of December of 1955, it was actually released on January 4, 1956, citywide. In fact, it played the huge Academy Theater in Pasadena, the very theater where The First Nudie Musical held its first sneak preview. It played on a double bill with Phantom of 10,000 Leagues. Andrew Lloyd Webber was keen to make a musical of Phantom of 10,000 Leagues, but couldn’t get the rights, so he turned to Phantom of the Opera instead, and the rest is history. Here is photographic evidence of that citywide release here in Los Angeles, film capital of the world.
Yesterday was not much of a day. I did get a little over eight hours of sleep, arising at one. Allergies have been terrible, and part of the problem is that CVS was out of my usual 24-hour Claritin-D and I had to get the eight-hour version, which simply doesn’t work as well – very slow to kick in and then over too quickly. I think I’ll pick up some of the 24-hour version today. I answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, and then ordered food from Mel’s Diner – a BLTA with potato salad on the side. It got here thirty minutes later, and I ate it all up – not quite as good as the Coral Café’s version, but fine. The potato salad wasn’t bad. Then I did a first pass at the flap copy for the dust jacket of the new book. It’s not very good, but I’ll finesse it – just had to get it done to be able to fix it.
Then I moseyed on over to the theater and did the rapid test and it was a very positive thing that it came up negative. After that, I came right home. At some point, I ordered my Cold Stone ice cream thing that I enjoy and that came soon thereafter. But I saved it until after I finished the movie. Then it was another telephonic conversation, and then listening to music. Now playing, a Vivaldi cello concerto, which is lovely. I must say, these recordings are excellently recorded and sound great. I’ve never heard this cello concerto, and I quite like it – baroque, you know. And sometimes you just have to go for baroque.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll finesse the flap copy, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then we have some sort of rehearsal. I’ll probably try to run the show, despite the fact that we’ll be missing at least two and maybe three people. Then I’ll come home and relax.
Tomorrow, I have to do some kind of interview thing for this book thing I contributed to, about game-changing musicals. That’s on Zoom. Then I think I’m meeting our lighting guy to go over “looks” for the show, then we have our rehearsal and hopefully we’ll be down to only one missing person. Thurday is another rehearsal, Friday day we write the light cues, then Friday night it’s a complete run with hopefully the entire company and a light-over. Saturday is a cue-to-cue, a dinner break, then a complete run-through. Sunday is off, Monday is a sitzprobe, after which I’ll work problem stuff, Tuesday is our one and only dress rehearsal, and then Wednesday we play a preview, Thursday we do the same, and Friday, God-willing, we open our show.
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, finesse, do whatever needs doing, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, have a rehearsal/run-through, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Roger Corman and other cheeseball films of the 1950s? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream I’m saying, “Rick! Rick!” over and over again, to no avail.