Well, dear readers, tonight we opened Drat! The Cat! and I finally go to fulfill my long-ago promise to Ira Levin that I would direct a full production of the show someday. Oh, how I wish he were here to see it – to hear the laughs and applause. We were completely sold out and we could not have asked for a better audience. I don’t put much stock in standing ovations, but we got one and that was lovely. Usually, on a sold-out performance at this theater, you end up holding the curtain five or ten minutes, but somehow everyone arrived on time, and we began right at eight and came down a couple of minutes before ten. The cast did wonderfully, as did the band. I just want to give the cast the shoutout they so deserve: Sydney DeMaria (she was the first and only person I thought of for this role and boy was I right), Alec Reusch(he did L.A. Now and Then for me and he was my one and only choice for this), Lloyd Pedersen, Connie Mellors, Doug Haverty, Rob Schaumann, Melissa Strauss, Angie Lin, Lareen Faye, Amy Goldring, Savannah Mortenson, Lee Grober, April Audia, Nicole Slatin, Hisato Masayuma, Steve Young, Maxwell Oliver, Ben Anderson, and Riley Croman (doing double duty as dance captain and keeping everyone on their toes).And a shoutout to our incredible team – Gerald Sternbach(Musical Director), Audrey Szot (set), Echo Brejcha (lights), Robbie Myles (Lighting Consultant), Shon Le Blanc (costumes), John Harvey (Sound Design), Cyndy Payo(Assistant Director and without whom none of this would have happened), Terrie Collins-Grant (props), Maxwell Petrie (Stage Manager), Cathy Tomlin (Sound Mixer, and last but not least, the wonderful Cheryl Baxter(choreography), whom I adore.
One of the lovely things that Group Rep does for opening night is a free after-party for the entire audience. Anyway, I’ll have some photographs soon. Well, here’s one I have that’s handy – left to right – me, Jerry Sternbach, critic Steven Stanley, and director Cate Caplin.
I lasted about fifteen minutes at the party, then headed home.
Prior to all that, I got ten glorious hours of sleep, answered e-mails, had California Chicken Café for food (one chicken breast, one wing), I relaxed for a bit, shaved and showered, and them moseyed on over to the theater at six, handed out my note cards, friend Marshall Harvey came, and the rest you know. Amazingly, the only technical mishap was a mic gone wonky – unfortunately on the actor who does the first solo in the show – but it still got huge laughs and hopefully the audience was forgiving.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll just have a nice, relaxing day, and then I’ll see the evening performance. I think some of us will go out for a bite after the show, probably the Coral Café.
Tomorrow, we have our sold-out matinee and a talkback afterwards. Then I’ll come home and get myself ready for the eye doctor appointment at 9:45 Monday morning.
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, have a relaxing day, see our show, then go out afterwards. Today’s topic of discussion: What one show would you have loved to have been there for opening night? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that we had such a nice opening night.