Not sure I understand the question about real time. But one of the worst musicals I ever saw on Broadway featured a huge clock on the set. I kept staring at it thinking “That can’t be the real time; some crew member must have control of how slow that clock turns.” Longest hour I ever spent.
Such Good Friends is nothing like that.
On rehearsals: for way too long the creative team consisted of no one but me. Director Marc Bruni joined in June and then the retooling was attended to by the two of us. Now, we have the great minds of ten brilliant comic actors. And that’s a lot of minds with the musical director and choreographer. 14, if you’ve kept count. Any given wrinkle gets ironed out by a dozen or more solutions. And today, the stage manager threw in a very good idea. So 15. Marc and I get to pick from an embarrassment of riches.
Each day requires me to make tons of little adjustments. When a scene is being staged, there’s all sorts of discussion of motivations, subtext, the reasons every step is taken, every word is said. There’s a lot of comic invention. “How about if we try this?” And one change often requires another. A line must go, or be moved, or a new one must be written. Music cues are constantly being adjusted. It’s a lot to keep up with.
No one appears to be calmer than my musical director. He’s got an amazingly easy-going nature about him. When Marc asked for added excitement in the final verse of a particular song, Michael instantly came up with the idea of taking ten bars or so in double time. Another modulation? Natch. While he was entering that change on his laptop, I was writing out a new set of harmonies. Not on music paper, mind you; I had none with me. I just wrote down the letters of what all the men should sing. And I’d done this in the wrong key, since we’d just decided on that extra modulation. So, a few minutes later, Michael taught the men their harmonies, and they sounded like the barbershop group from The Music Man. Our exciting ending had arrived in short order.
I love these days, and am not looking forward to the upcoming day when I’m told the script must be frozen. But how wonderful to have actors who are so willing to process new pages, to roll with the punches, and to offer brilliant suggestions: Liz Larsen, Brad Oscar, Jeff Talbott, Lynne Wintersteller, Dirk Lumbard, Shannon O'Bryan, Joshua James Campbell, Blake Whyte, Laura Jordan and Michael Thomas Holmes.
There's a Matthew Murray interview with me at
http://www.broadwaystars.com/matthew/2007/09/september_songs_from_imagined.shtml