Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much leftover fish, listening to the final few Louis Lane CDs – I cannot tell you how great this little box set is and how tickled I am to have such beautiful sounding copies of these albums I’ve loved since I was barely a teen. Finishing up a kind of pastoral album that has Vaughan Williams. Francaix, Satie, and now Delius – so beautiful, so calming, so rejuvenating or, in my case, rejewvenating. Pure pleasure. Even the handful of pieces that aren’t my cuppa ARE my cuppa the way he does this music, especially the Pops-type albums with lots of short selections. Next up is an album of rhapsodies. But let’s cut to the chase, shall we, and talk about another weirdly weird day that was weirdly weird in a weirdly weird weird way. That was yesterday in a nutshell, although what yesterday was doing in a nutshell is anyone’s guess. I got six and a half hours of sleep, but it was really good sleep, so I never felt draggy or logy during the day or evening. I answered a LOT of e-mails, had a lot of trouble getting responses I needed from one person who was not responding to messages, texts, or e-mails, which drives me crazy, and as you know, that’s not a long drive. Then I had several telephonic conversations that were a little unnerving, but we’ll see how it all plays out, which will hopefully be successfully. I did have a very good meal. I’d ordered it early in the day to arrive at noon. The restaurant called but I had the phone on silent so I didn’t know that and didn’t see the message until three hours later. The message was weirdly weird – I’d ordered a chicken salad sandwich, a side of bacon, and potato salad (bacon for the sandwich). The message said she didn’t understand why I kept talking about turkey salad and that they didn’t make that, and she’d cancelled the order. I called and said I had no idea what she was talking about, that I’d ordered a chicken salad sandwich. She kept on about the turkey salad. I said I’d reorder. Then I looked at my order and there was no turkey salad mentioned anywhere so I called her back. After a terse back-and-forth, I finally realized what she was going on about – Uber Eats sent her some order from weeks ago that I’d made with Art’s Deli! Two scoops of turkey salad, one egg salad. We had a good laugh about that. I reordered, and then chatted with some moron about their error – when you outsource to people who clearly do not understand a word of English and who reply with pre-written answers, it’s just too frustrating and I gave up trying to get his idiot to understand what they’d done.
Anyway, my sandwich arrived thirty minutes later, and it was really good. I put the bacon on it and that just give it a little lift. Then, for reasons I can’t really explain, I ended up watching a video of Li’l Abner, my production at LACC, an invited dress with about twenty-five people in the audience. For an invited dress, most of it was very smooth. The band was the worst of it – under-rehearsed, clams everywhere, especially from the fiddle player – just not good. And I vividly remember having a strong conversation with the musical director telling him to fire the fiddle player or to read him the riot act and get him on his game. Whatever was said, it worked, because for the preview the next night, it was a whole different thing and it all sounded great. I also cleaned up a lot of tiny ragged things in the show, got one actress to up her energy 1000%, the usual things you do to keep polishing. I cut two thirds of the overture, so that it was mostly just Jubilation T. Cornpone, and that got us off to a much better start. But what a show and the laughs from even twenty-five people were long and loud right from the start. And the cast – the students really pulled through, but the leads were so perfectly cast that I can’t imagine we could have done better. Evan Buckley Harris was just a great Abner – all the humor, but never making fun of the character or doing winky-winky stuff. Maddy Claire Parks was nineteen at the time and you cannot imagine a better Daisy Mae – luminous, funny as can be, and even touching – not to mention beautiful. John Massey was an absolutely brilliant Marryin’ Sam – every laugh, timing to die for, all of it, just perfect. Barry Pearl, hilarious as General Bullmoose. Student Riley Dandy was a GREAT Appassionata Von Climax (once we got the energy right), the Mammy and Pappy Yokum were really fun, but everyone did a great job. And the role I created for Sami, which was a combination of three roles, was beyond fun and I have to say she was great and very funny.
Tesshi Nakagawa’s set was amazing – black-and-white like the comic strip, which really made the great and colorful costumes pop. A unit set, that had every location covered, including Washington. Beautiful lighting by the late James Moody. And the band really did cook once they got it together. The show on Broadway ran two hours and forty minutes. Our first act ran sixty-two minutes, and our second act ran forty-three – we came in at exactly two hours WITH intermission. THAT is pacing, but it’s also because I fixed certain aspects of the show that just don’t work. So, why don’t people think the show works anymore or is ”dated?” Because they simply do not know how to trust the material or even how to direct the actors. Yes, Li’l Abner is based on a cartoon script, but the characters don’t know they’re in a cartoon script, so you can’t make fun of them or play it like that – as in all good shows, there has to be stakes, you have to believe what’s going on, as silly as it all is. Above all, you have to get the jokes. And the laughs this show got were big, huge, laugh until you’re crying laughs, gut-wrenching laughs from start to finish. It’s one of my proudest moments and it was beyond fun seeing it almost a decade later.
We’re taking pre-orders for the newly beautified version of Benjamin Kritzer, for those who are interested. If you order now, you’ll save four bucks on postage because Doug can’t change it until he gets back on the 28th. Order away – it looks so nice now. Here’s the link.
http://kritzerland.com/benjamink.htm
After that, I had more telephonic calls, including one with dear reader Jeanne, then I watched some stuff on the Tube of You, finally connected with the guy who wasn’t returning calls, and that went well. And here we are at the end of the weirdly weird day.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hope for some modern major miracles on several fronts, I’ll eat something amusing (I’ve been VERY good the last few days), and I just need the modern major miracles to lead to good news on several fronts. I’ll check with the mail place and if anything’s there, I’ll go gather it up. Then at some point, I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, not sure what’s happening, Sunday I have a birthday dinner to attend, and then next week is busy with all manner of things.
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, hope for modern major miracles on several fronts, check with the mail place, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – CD, the last of Lane. Streaming – who knows? Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping for a non-weirdly weird weird day – perhaps a nicely-nice day.