Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I must be up all too early to be on my merry way. Now playing is Christopher Gunning’s seventh symphony – I didn’t love the sixth, but this one’s really good. Prior to listening, I finished the last half of Hotel and I just loved it as much as always. Wendall Mayes’ script is so compact and concise, especially given the number of subplots and all that’s going on, and his dialogue is terrific. For those who don’t know Mr. Mayes’ other screenplay credits, they include a few little movies like The Spirit of St. Louis (THE most underrated of all Billy Wilder’s great movies), Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent, In Harm’s Way (those three are Otto Preminger-directed movies), The Poseidon Adventure, and Death Wish. Others, too. Richard Quine’s direction is perfection, and every performance is a winner. You already know how I feel about the score, and Edith Head’s costumes are gorgeous. It’s all so glossy and pretty to look at and now we’ll hope for a Warner Archive Blu-ray. Who knows if they’ll ever get around to it, but it deserves the best treatment. They sure don’t know how to make ‘em like that anymore, and movies are the worse for it. The closest we’ve got to a director who understands that style is Todd Haynes. I could watch this movie over and over again. After I finished, I got the best surprise – the new galley of Benjamin Kritzer and hold your hats and hallelujah, it finally looks like a real book. Just four or five things to adjust. It’s about nine pages shorter but that’s because the original is pretty much double spaced. It’s now just under 200 pages. I could get it to about 202 if I moved all the chapters down by two or three lines, but why bother? Anyway, it was thrilling to see it looking like a book. Prior to all that, I got eight hours of non-consecutive sleep, was up at eleven-thirty, answered e-mails, had some pizza slices for food, and then we did the Zoom thing with Brent Barrett and our musical director and that went very well. After that, I had to do a few things on the computer, and then I hunkered down and watched the rest of Hotel. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up at eight and out the door by eight-thirty, after sending in the little fixes for Benjamin Kritzer. I’ll go somewhere and have a light breakfast, then I’ll pick up a little package from the mail place, then I may go to Macy’s to kill some time, and I’ll do a Gelson’s run, then come home. Then I’ll relax and rest my voice until the first Kritzerland rehearsal, which begins at four-thirty and goes to seven. After that, if I need something to eat it will be something light, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have two people rehearsing at three o’clock, otherwise it’s a free day. Thursday is completely a ME day, Friday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Saturday is a ME day, Sunday is our stumble-through, and then the Tony Awards Bash here at haineshisway.com, and Monday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at eight and out the door by eight-thirty after sending in the fixes for Benjamin Kritzer, have a light breakfast, pick up a little package, browse at Macy’s, shop at Gelson’s, come home, relax and rest my voice, have the first Kritzerland rehearsal, have a snack, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite classic glossy melodrama movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy to see Mr. Kritzer looking so very spiffy, at long last.