Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle in church eating borscht. We had a nice-sized house for the matinee yesterday – the biggest house of the three shows. Lots of elderly people who were very quiet during act one, almost unsure of whether they should laugh or applaud loudly, but you could tell they were enjoying it. Then, oddly, they seemed to jolt awake for the end of the act, the big wrestling match – which got laughs and a huge reaction at the end. Then act two it was like a whole different crowd, with laughing and even some cheering. Go know. Big curtain call applause, too. Many nice comments after. Sandy Bainum was there with Dana Meller (both did Inside Out), and two gals who graduated high school with me were there – I recognized their names, certainly. I didn’t see them at intermission and after the show I had some stuff to do backstage. Anyway, three really good shows and now it’s on to our closing week. I think we could probably extend a week or two but I’m pretty sure we’d lose a couple of actors and I’m not putting in that kind of work to get replacements up to speed and it’s also very expensive to run the show due to the band. After the show, the couch pick-up happened, so that’s done. And then I had my favorite pasta dish from Stanley’s, and it was excellent and that’s all I ate all day – no bread even. I tried to watch something, but I fell asleep for about forty minutes, so I just shut it off and instead listened to conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos do his magic. As I said, there’s a lot of non-standard repertoire and that’s just really fun. My favorite pieces, a couple of which were new to me, were Chopiniana, arranged by Dimitri Rogal-Levitsky, a wonderful, fun piece, and I enjoyed Busoni’s arrangement of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnol. But my favorite new discovery is Henri Rabaud, a composer I’ve never even heard of, and his piece, La Procession Nocturne, which is very beautiful and wonderfully performed. There’s a raucous Le Boeuf sur le toit – lots o’ fun – and a great Milhaud arrangement of a Couperin overture. Also great is what I have to imagine was the first recording of Menotti’s Sebastian ballet suite – it’s great. The transfers are getting better – I think we’re still in 78s land, but we should be to tape soon, hopefully. Some of the 78s simply aren’t in good repair, so the sound is pretty sketchy, but Sebastian sounded good and so does the currently playing Massenet piece, Scenes Alsacienne. Anyway, I’m really enjoying this set so far and there are a lot of goodies still to come. I’m only on CD 7 of 69.
Yesterday was fine. I got six hours of sleep, showered, then moseyed on over to the theater. I gave a few small notes to our new gal, and she did very well at the matinee. And the rest you know, so I shan’t repeat myself.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll write some liner notes I forgot about, I’ll do some work on the project with David Wechter, I’ll hopefully pick up the other important envelope and, if so, I’ll do my banking, then I’ll eat something reasonable and not more than 1200 calories – in fact, I may go back to the California Pizza Kitchen to have that small pizza and salad thing – it was really good last week. Then I’ll come home and after a time I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same and then on Friday we begin our final weekend of performances. I was just told that this weekend was our best, financially, and I’m hoping next weekend also does as well or, hopefully, even better. And then I have to start planning the June Kritzerland show, which is coming up sooner than I like to think about. I’ve already set three cast members, so that’s moving right along.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Monkey, for today is the birthday of dear reader FJL aka Freddie. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader FJL aka Freddie. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER FJL AKA FREDDIE!!!
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, write, hopefully pick up an important envelope and, if so, do banking, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What do you like on your pizza and where have you had what you feel is the best pizza ever? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a splendid three-show weekend.