Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the final Brahms symphony, number four, another tuneful and masterful symphony. The performance is, of course, of high quality – what else would one expect from Mr. Ormandy and his world class orchestra? We did play our second to last matinee of our show – a little too much fumfering in act one for my taste – same thing as Saturday night – so that the act got mostly chuckles rather than the solid laughs I prefer. But as with Saturday night, act two was much better, with solid laughs throughout, so that was good. The fumfering doesn’t really hurt the production or the pacing of the show, but in subtle ways it makes the audience uncomfortable – not something that’s conscious, but I know how it affects me when I see a show in which it happens. So, I’ll write a little company note and hopefully next weekend we’ll have three strong shows, the kind we had on Friday night. Dear reader Jeanne was there, and it was nice to see her out and about – she sat on the aisle in row four, audience left, which is where I watched it from on Friday night. That’s just about the best seat in the house unless Tommy Tune is sitting in front of you. The show ran what it always runs – it’s amazingly consistent – act one between 53 and 55 minutes, and act two between 43 and 45 minutes. We had several youngsters in the audience, all wearing cute little bunny hats or ears. I knew a few others there and there were lovely comments afterwards. I didn’t feel like going anywhere, so I just came home. I ordered my favorite pasta dish from Stanley’s and that arrived twenty minutes later. It was very good, but I must say that nothing has really tasted great to me for the past week. I have no idea why. I’m not sick, other than the persistent allergy issues, so what is that about? Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and dozed off for about thirty minutes, then watched a motion picture that came out at the end of January entitled Companion, yet another AI robot movie – I’ve lost count of how many of these things there have been in the past couple of years. My favorite of them was the big hit, M3GAN. This thing got pretty great reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), which makes me think that even the better-known critics have all lost their marbles. Not one of them even mentions a single other AI robot movie, like this thing was something unique. The handful of awful reviews all mention it’s just one more of these things. And it is. First of all, whatever pleasures it may or may not have, the writing/dialogue is awful. I cannot stomach movies that begin with that awful kind of narration they do these days, but that’s what we get. It’s competently directed and the lead gal, Sophie Thatcher, who I enjoyed in Heretic, is fine. The rest of the cast is less fine. There’s not an original idea in this film, and there’s not a thing you haven’t seen in other films, even if the details are different. I didn’t hate it, but I sure didn’t like it much and I sure would not recommend it other than for the performance of Sophie Thatcher.
After that, I had some Milk Duds for a sweet treat. As I ate them, I began to wonder where the name Milk Duds came from, as you must admit it’s an awfully wacky name for a chewy candy. Let’s find out, shall we? Okay, I’m not sure I buy this, but the Milk is because it originally had milk as an ingredient, as in milk chocolate. And the Duds is because they were trying for a spherical shape and couldn’t ever achieve it, hence Duds. Well, that was riveting, wasn’t it? Everything you always wanted to know about Milk Duds but were afraid to ask. I always thought it had something to do with moms who couldn’t breastfeed. We don’t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com
Prior to all that, I got seven hours of sleep, got up, shaved and showered, and then moseyed on over to the theater and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat something amusing, and then I have a ton of stuff to catch up on. Of course, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is booking the two Kritzerland shows, meetings and meals, I have to turn in a little Broadway World interview I did, and then we play our last three shows. This is one I will truly miss.
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, eat something amusing, catch up on a ton of things, pray for a modern major miracle, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite robot movies of old and your favorite more modern movies featuring AI created human robots? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know the derivation of Milk Duds.