Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, on my way to New York, New York, the city that never sleeps on an aeroplane of the JetBlue variety. I’m drinking a warm Diet Pepsi as everyone around me is jockeying to use the very bathroom that I used a few minutes ago, pre-jockeying. That is because there is no one in front of me, what with me being in row one. There’s also no one in the middle seat and that is very much to my liking. There’s a nice lady in the window seat playing games on her telephonic device. I, myself, was playing games on my telephonic device for the first thirty minutes of this here flight, which was late in taking off because the flight coming to Burbank was slightly delayed. We’re still slated to pretty much land on time. So, let me catch you up on the doings of yesterday – of course I won’t be able to post these here notes until I’m settled into my room at seven in the morning, but at least these here notes will be written and finished by then, and I don’t care who knows it.
Yesterday was obviously a day in which I got ready to get ready. I got ten hours of good sleep, got up, got the most excellent news that we finally have our duet girl – and it was very much someone I was keen on for the past week – just took a while to connect and then deal with agents and such. And since I haven’t really mentioned who any of our cast is besides our regulars, here are some of them in no particular order: our two duet performers are the amazing Karen Ziemba and our new gal, young and talented Allie Trimm. She’s currently a Galinda stand-by in Wicked on Broadway and she made her Broadway debut in the musical 13. Brad Oscar is with us, as are Liz Larsen, hubby Sal Viviano, and son Alex Viviano, Charles Busch, Walter Willison, and a few other NY pals, and then we have other stellar people who auditioned for us. Delivered unto the likes of me just now, a bag of pretzels – A Bag of Pretzels, that’s the title of my next novel.
I answered e-mails, packed the last of what needed to be packed, went to the bank and got some cash, stopped at In-N-Out and got two cheeseburgers to go (920 calories for the two), came home, ate them up – the were very good – shaved and showered, and then at seven was picked up by the Staitmans. Hubby Steve drove us to the Burbank Airport. Check-in was easy, security wasn’t too bad – I was through in about eight minutes from the time I got in line – and then it was just waiting until it was time to board the plane. And that catches us up to date. Mom Staitman is in the row behind me, watching movies. After I wrap up this paragraph of these here notes, I’ll get out my script and begin making diagrams of how to shoot things – just my little stick-figure drawings to help me move along quickly. It’s been a decade since doing a shoot like this, but I’m really looking forward to it, I must say and have said. As wag once said: I shall return.
I have returned and to prove it, I’m here. I’ve gone through all eight episodes and pretty much figured out all the stuff that’s shot in the apartment, which is a LOT of stuff – three days’ worth. But it’s usually the same two areas, and then three other areas for short bits in a couple of episodes. Still quite a bit of flight to go. I may try and shut my eyes for a while. I usually can’t sleep on planes but you never know, especially at my age. We’ll cab or Uber it to the city and I’ll be dropped off first. I’ll need to buy travel-size toothpaste, shaving cream, and some face moisturizer. Not sure where we’ll be eating, but we’ll go around five somewhere. I’d prefer it to be in my neck of the woods since I have to go to the Village for the next three days of shooting. Everything after the apartment scenes is thankfully in mid-town and I can walk, which I enjoy.
Today, I’ll try and get five or six hours of sleep, then we’ll go eat, then I’ll catch up on stuff and try to get to bed early so I get a decent night’s sleep.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up early and to the Village and the apartment. I think the call time is either nine or ten. We have a heavy day of shooting but plan to wrap around five. I’m not doing a lot of takes of a huge amount of unnecessary coverage, so I’m hoping it should go fast. I do think we’ll have to go episode by episode because if we don’t, Sami will be changing clothes after every scene. After we wrap, I’m sure we’ll go grab a bite to eat somewhere – I know we want to go to Katz delicatessen for one meal. Monday, we being the day early at a Mexican restaurant that’s just three doors from the apartment. We shoot there for two to three hours and then we return to the apartment and shoot there for the rest of the day. Tuesday we wrap the rest of the apartment scenes. Wednesday is a big physical comedy scene – we have all day to shoot it, and we’ll probably need most of that time. But it could also go faster than we thing – hard to know. Thursday, we begin in a green screen studio – we have three things to shoot there – two will be very quick, and one is the duet, but that shouldn’t take too too long. Then we have a little break, then reconvene in a recording studio. We have two songs to shoot there, but that should go pretty quickly. Friday, we’re in a club until three-thirty and it’s a very heavy day, but if we get through the first scene in a reasonable amount of time, we should be okay for the other stuff, which is the other duet and a few little bits in the audience after the duet. Saturday, we’re in a rehearsal studio and have two scenes to shoot, both of which have songs. Sunday, we’re back in the rehearsal studio to shoot two more scenes, but no songs, and afterwards we have our haineshisway.com get-together. And Monday we’re at another club to shoot one long sequence and song. And then on Tuesday, I shall be on my way home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to get five or six hours of sleep, eat, catch up on stuff, and then get to bed reasonably early right after posting notes. Today’s topic of discussion: What currently playing Broadway shows would you like to see? And which would you go nowhere near? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, excited to get started on our new web series.