I had a rather large contretemps with the author of the only musical. He's a big, huge bully boy, totally irrational, and crazy as a bedbug. Everyone on the creative team has had to deal with it - it's like he has to have a villain every day. Well, today, he totally took an amusing and completely innocuous thing I said and had an unbelievably embarrassing fit in front of everyone in the room - the composer, the lyricist, our star, and someone who's doing our private reading. I should have just sat there and let him do his things, but after having seen him do it so much to so many I blew up. At one point, because he wouldn't stop, I threatened to knock him on the ground and let me tell you had he not stopped I would have. Then on our next break, I took him in the other room alone and told him this could never ever happen again. It's what I should have done rather than blow up, but we're all slaves to our buttons and emotions. I'm sick to death of his drama and I told him so. And he's never wrong - it's always someone else's fault. He agreed to not do it again - I told him that if he EVER has a problem with anything I say or do all he has to do is pull me aside and mention it, out of earshot of others.
Then, after the session, I talked to the lyricist and we both feel that it's time to really dress this guy down and we're going to do it (along with the composer) after the reading on Friday. Before I step one foot in a rehearsal room with actors, I want his assurance that nothing like this will happen, and my collaborators want it, too. One of them was the victim a couple of nights ago and she called me to tell me she was close to walking away - I told her I wouldn't blame her.
