Well, dear readers, today we do our first casting session for The First Nudie Musical, the new stage version. I’m quite looking forward to it. Back in 1975, right about now we were in our final phase of rehearsal and about to begin filming (we started shooting on May 5). It’s so hard to believe it’s that long ago. It was so interesting to go into our offices every day and know that we were actually going to be making a real-live motion picture, in 35mm, a musical comedy. We knew it because it was in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter’s films in production. We’d had a couple of other opportunities to make the film, but Mark Haggard and I had held tight to keeping the directorial reigns, which was a good thing. A little known fact is that we actually met with director George Sidney, who Mark and I were both fond of (he directed the film of Bye Bye Birdie) – Mr. Sidney was certainly interested, but, being young and filled with confidence, we weren’t. Just where this confidence came from is anyone’s guess, since Mr. Haggard had only directed a couple of soft-core porn films and I had directed a few stage shows. However, being insatiably curious, I always watched how the TV shows I acted in were shot. I asked the cameramen questions (they liked that – no one ever talked to them about their work), and I observed how scenes were shot. We rehearsed for a week at the place where Jimmy Kimmel now shoots his TV shows – irony? You tell me. The actors and I would block out a scene and Mark would show me drawings of where he intended to put the camera, and I’d make comments on that and we’d adjust shots and we were very prepared. For the musical number The Lights And The Smiles, we went to Hollywood Blvd. and chose the locations for each section of the song. We planned each shot meticulously – we even had a wheel chair and a viewfinder for the dolly shots. It must have looked very odd, me sitting in the wheelchair being pushed while framing the shot in the viewfinder, with someone walking the singer’s track. We’d prerecorded all the musical numbers – I wish I’d known then what I know now, because some of what I hear is just embarrassing to me, and if it were now I could fix it so easily – but then, this was all new to me. I remember we had to fire the actress playing Joy Full – she was also supposed to be tap dancing in the finale, but never showed up – she finally told us she was shooting heroin in her toes. That’s all I needed to hear, and it was bye bye her. She went on to become a full-fledged porno star named Serena. We were up against a wall, time-wise, when in waltzed a gal named Susan Stewart (have no idea if that was her real name – we really wanted to find her for the DVD documentary but had no luck). The minute I saw her I knew we’d struck gold and then she read and was hilarious and that was that.
The first scene we shot was a lesson in how not to schedule a first day. It was the scene with Mary La Rue in bed with George Brenner, both nude, where things blow up and end in a fight with Harry and Rosie. The actress playing Mary immediately had issues and I can’t really remember what they were, although I know the nudity was discussed – I think it was the number of people on the set, and I know it took about twenty minutes of calming the waters (which I think I did) and then we began shooting and it was all fine. But we should have never started with a scene with nudity. We should have scheduled something easy that we could have nailed in a couple of takes. That gives everyone confidence and you go on from there. I’ll never forget the thrill when after the second day’s shooting we all went over to the place where our dailies were going to be screened, and we saw our first day’s shooting – and it was good! I was a movie director – or co-director, even though I was the only one who directed the actors, and I was involved in all the camera shots, too, at least as far as approving them. And as shooting progressed, I became even more involved. It was a wild and crazy time – lots of pages to be shot every day, no time for relaxing ever, but a great sense of fun and frivolity prevailed, despite having to do an extraordinary amount of work every day. Our rehearsals really paid off, as everyone was very prepared. Still, there were things that happened on the set that were priceless – happy accidents, like my coming into the office set to do my first scene and seeing the chair I was to sit in all the way across the room, really far away from the desk. It had been established there in the first scene of the film, so it suddenly couldn’t change. The line “pull up a chair” was in the script. We discussed whether to just move the chair close to the desk, but I had an inspiration and I said no, don’t, leave it where it is. And it gave birth to a huge laugh in the film, where I literally “pull up a chair” across the long room. Happy accident. In the same scene, when I’m leaving, just before we were to shoot, we ran the scene for the cameraman – and as I stood at the door I mispronounced the name Schechter as Schechner – it just happened, and it was funny so we kept it, and then it became a running gag that really worked. Happy accident. Another almost unhappy accident occurred when I finished doing my speech to the cast, the one where I string a whole bunch of curse words together. I finish, walk back to my chair, sit, and immediately I and the chair fall over. I love doing that kind of stuff, and we’d rehearsed it and it was easy and painless. Except that I hadn’t rehearsed it whilst wearing all the viewfinders and lenses around my neck. I sat, the chair went over and I went with it, and the very heavy viewfinder flew up and smacked me right in the mouth, right up against my front teeth, actually. Luckily, nothing happened – no blood, no cut, and no broken teeth. I still have a hairline crack on one tooth.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must abed soon for my beauty sleep.
Yesterday, I got up early, did the long jog, did work on the computer, and then had a two-hour rehearsal, which went much better than the previous day. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I finally ascertained that the singer had not, in fact, done what I asked her to do over eight weeks ago, which was to run the show in its entirety once a day, out loud, everything, songs, patter, energy, the whole deal. If she had, we would not be having the problems that surfaced two days ago – what came to light is that she’s been running it in her head, which is hardly the same thing. So, she’s now doing what I asked and will run it once a day on her own, maybe twice. After the rehearsal, I picked up some CD-Rs and tapes for an upcoming Kritzerland release, then went to the mail place and picked up packages and whatnot, then got a Subway foot-long Eyetalian sandwich, then came home and stuffed it down my gaping maw. I then officially announced House Of Flowers, gave the rest of my notes on the long musical, and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Hommes/Femmes: Mode d’Emploi, a French film from France by Claude Lelouch. Yes, it’s another wonderful Lelouch film, filled with his usual ruminations on fate, love, and death, beautifully and uniquely told, with a great score by Francis Lai, and terrific performances by a large cast of players. The box copy would have you believe it’s a comedy, but it’s not – it’s rueful, sad, bittersweet, a little funny at times, and very heartfelt. Transfer is decent – anamorphic scope with excellent color.
This morning, I’ll have to do the long jog very early, then do an early errand, and then get ready for our three-hour plus casting session. I will, of course, have a full report for you. Tomorrow it’s more of the same – early jog, a morning work session with the composer and lyricist of the long musical, and then a four-hour casting session.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, do an errand, have a casting session and then, most likely, go out for a meal. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could take the haineshisway.com Time Machine back in time and be a fly-on-the-wall for the creation of any musical or play or film in history, what play, musical, and film would you choose and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland and ready myself for a Nudie Musical sort of Tuesday.