Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much tired fish, having only gotten around five hours of sleep due to the quite bad Genghis Cohen food. In fact, I was watching the first episode of season three’s Reacher, a bad series that is, in its way, watchable for some reason I’ve yet to fathom. But I fell asleep halfway through the episode and woke up six minutes into episode two, so I’ll have to go back and see what I missed. Meanwhile, back at the Cat, we had us a terrific rehearsal and we got everything done that we needed to and that was scheduled, so that was a good thing. There were two act two scenes, one very short, and one that had a lot of physical business but that wasn’t too long, and then the really long scene, almost ten pages again – including the song It’s Your Fault and its reprise. I kept the staging of that very simple but simple, as I keep saying, is what you have to do with wordy lyrics. It came out pretty well. And we ran things several times. The real issue now is people have to get off book as soon as possible for the run-throughs. You can’t find the rhythm of the show or perform its staging accurately whilst holding a script. Can’t be done. So, we’ve sent out an e-mail that we wanted everyone off-book by a week from Tuesday. Hopefully, people will do what’s needed. After rehearsal, I thought about moseying on over to the Coral Café for a patty melt, but realized I had the makings at home for Wacky Noodles, so I came home and rustled up a batch of Wacky Noodles and it was quite a good batch if I do say so myself, and I did say so myself. I was quite full of Wacky Noodles and so I waddled about the home environment like a pregnant penguin having quintuplets, if you get my drift. I caught up with e-mails, had a telephonic conversation, and noted the passing of Lynne Stewart who was the BFF of Cindy Williams – all of us were very close in our LACC theater days of old. She was most well known for playing Miss Yvonne on Pee-wee’s Playhouse with Pee-wee Herman. She has a funny cameo in The First Nudie Musical, too, interacting with Ron Howard just before the audition sequence. Hopefully, she’s reunited with Cindy and their having fun in a good place. Oh, I also got an e-mail from Robert Yacko – he’s going to do an audio book of Preview Harvey, so he sent me two minutes of it and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s just finding the right rhythm for Harvey, with his mother’s descriptive word for how he talks being the key: Motormouth, with thoughts coming out of him faster than he can keep up with them, plus barreling through all the repeated words and phrases all having to do with his condition, which, when this book takes place, didn’t have a name other than his mother’s name for it – That’s Just Harvey. Prior to all that, I got the five yucky hours of sleep, got up (barely), answered e-mails, then showered and got ready, after which I moseyed on over to the theater. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by ten at the latest, probably before, I’ll shave and shower, and then Barry Pearl invited me to see a musical he has tickets for in Long Beach, said musical being called Desperate Measures. I know nothing of it at all. Other than the director and casting director, I know not one single person involved. I gather it’s a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. I think we’re supping after the show at a nearby eatery, then I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow must be a ME day, then Tuesday we’re back and attacking the end of what we did yesterday, putting people into one part of what we did yesterday, which involves doing what we do during the overture, but in reverse order. I blocked it, but now we have to put in the others who weren’t with us. Then there’s a big musical number to do and if we have time leftover, we can run stuff we’ve already done. Wednesday, we take on the big final scene of the show, which includes a courtroom scene, a final song, and a reprise of a song. And I have one one-page thing I forgot we hadn’t done in act one. Then on Thursday, we will drill stuff, Cheryl Baxter will be there to finish the last few bars of Wild and Reckless, and hopefully, by the end of that evening the show will be fully blocked. Friday we’re off, then Saturday we assemble act one and I’ll stage all the scene shifts as we go. The nice thing is the stage will be completely open, there’ll be numbers on the stage for the cast, which will make everything much simpler, and the band platforms will be up, and the stage taped out. There are going to be quite a few props, but about 100 less than the original production had.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or before, shave and shower, drive to Barry Pearl’s home environment and then he’ll drive us to the theater in Long Beach, we’ll see a musical the sup, then it’s back to his house and I’ll drive home and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that our rehearsals are still fun and productive. I arrive happy and I leave happy.