Haines His Way

My favourite opening nights have usually concerned my own plays.  It was a great joy to see my Thin Man pastiche mystery, WHODUNNIT, DARLING? (which I wrote with pal, Larry Drake)  play before an opening night crowd, hearing them laugh in all the right places and generally seeing it work just as I suspected it would, reinforcing my own sense of dramaturgy and that I knew what the Hell I was doing.

Likewise with my Sherlock Holmes play, THE EBONY APE.  I had originally written the play to be done at my old alma mater at UK, but it was rejected by the head of the Theatre Department at the time, for what I found to be reasons that were utter flummery...most glaring of which was that it's huge two-story main set couldn't be designed and mounted on the university stage.  

This I knew to be nonsense since I had performed in plays there that had had much more daunting sets.  I also had a ground plan of the theatre and stage and had consulted it when writing my play.  The theatre had plenty of wing space for everything.  The shop was right off the stage.  Many's the time we rolled multi-leveled wagon units on and off stage during a performance.

Anyway, the local theatre company decided to do it, were eager to do it; I produced with them and directed.  We also got some grant money. We had the largest turnout for auditions ever! We got unprecedented media coverage both paper and TV.

We ended up mounting the show in The Opera House...the major theatrical house where all the touring shows played (This was a grand old theatre which in the old days the Barrymores and others had toured in.  During my college years, it had been a 65-cent,  second-run, double-feature house where I had spent many an hour watching an odd assortment of films like The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; Royal Hunt of The Sun; The Fixer (on a bill with Tarzan and the Great River); Support Your Local Sheriff, etc.).  Shortly after I left school, they had re-done the place and the first legit theatre piece to play there was Belle of Amherst with Julie Harris.

We ended up using a designer from the University theatre department to design the set that the dept. head said couldn't be done (the designer had his own things to prove to the head) and the play opened to great acclaim and went on to have a successful run.  We could have held it over, but the theatre was already booked.  

The opening night party was a flurry of effusion and compliments. I got blissfully giddy on champagne.  And the head of the University Theatre Department came up to me to congratulate me and tell me how well the "impossible play to mount"  had played.  I love vindication.  We got a huge amount of press and publicity that could have been the University's had someone had the foresight to see the advantage of built-in  "successful alumni comes back to his school to do his play" publicity.  But too many petty issues and ego got in the way and deprived the University of that moment.

And, if the gods of the theatre are smiling on us, I'll be able to experience my first Broadway Opening Night on April 13 with Lestat.  -Heck, I know I'll be giddy on March 11, our first preview - which will be my first Broadway First Preview.

And now I'm actually trying to remember if I've ever attended an actual Opening Night - rather than being a part of one, being in the show...  Hmm...



*I know I've done a bunch of final previews, however - the current revival of Sweeney Todd being one of them.

BK - Continued Broken Legs Vibes for your Opening Weekend!

*And Friday night audiences truly are always weird.  Enjoy tonight.  And even though he probably does not remember me, please pass on a greeting to Mr. Sherman from me.  Meeting him last summer at the opening night of What If? wasis a very special memory for me.

A CHORUS LINE was also a show that had memorable opening night reactions both times I did the show. The first time, the electricity in the audience was really palpable up on stage. Another of those shows that you feel so exhilirated once you've performed it each night.

Have to go take care of a few things now before noon.

WBBL.

I remember the reviews for WHAT IF... being  generally very good to overwhelmingly excellent!

Weird opening night:  I MD'd the premiere performance at Portland's swank Brunish Hall in the equally swank Center for the Performing Arts.  Anyway, it was three cabaret artists, including Susannah, whom I was MDing for (the two others had other people, damn them, damn them all to hell).  Anyway, they had asked me to play a little "seating" jazz, and Susannah and I had a funny "bit" about cell phones worked out (more about that in a mo).  So's, anyway, there I am playing some "cocktail piano" getting ready for our "bit", when one of the other singers pokes her head out from the wings and does one of those hilarious stage whispers that she thinks no one can hear, but of course everyone can.  It turns out her pianist had forgotten his music at the hotel and they needed me to "vamp" until he returned.  So of course I'm pulling tunes out of the vast recesses of my increasingly addled brain until I get the "OK" sign from them several minutes later.

Which brings us to the "cell phone bit."  Susannah thought it would be hilarious (as did I) if I set my cell phone on the piano during my "Seating Music," and she would then call me from her cell phone from the green room, interrupting my playing.  She would have her mic on, and would start "yakking" at me whilst I protested that I was trying to play, and we would get the "turn cell phones off" message delivered in a clever way.

Well, it was a brilliant idea save for one fatal error:

Susannah forgot to turn her mic on.

So, I'm playing, the phone rings, Susannah starts talking in my phone, but I can of course hear that her voice is not going out to the house.  So there I am, to kind of quote Comden & Green, "Talking to Myself," and trying, ever so subtly, to let Susannah know to turn on her friggin' mic.

The show went much better than the pre-show.  

elmore, thanks for the lovelier than lovely flowers - everyone thought they were beautiful!  I got one other thing of flowers, but the card wasn't signed.

elmore, thanks for the lovelier than lovely flowers - everyone thought they were beautiful!  I got one other thing of flowers, but the card wasn't signed.

I can't believe they didn't include my card with those!  

elmore, thanks for the lovelier than lovely flowers - everyone thought they were beautiful!  I got one other thing of flowers, but the card wasn't signed.

Well, you deserved them!  I'm not only a friend but a fan, and I wish I could get out to see it.

The most exciting opening night I was ever a part of was FOREVER PLAID. After the show, we were swamped by people who weren't familiar with it, didn't know exactly what it was they were going to see, and were enchanted by the whole enterprise. My entire PLAID experience is probably the most fulfilling and rewarding experience I've ever had on stage: comedy that always worked, hugely enthusiastic audience reaction to the music and moves, and sentiment of the piece.

That was how I felt, Matt H, when I first saw it. I didn't want to even go. Plaid? I only went because my friend and I had season tickets to the community theater.  Before the first song was over, I just KNEW DR Sandra would love it. So I bought another set of tickets and took her to see it.

By the way, we'd love to see your photos.

I'm going to do my best to get down to LA to see "Deceit", most likely the last Friday night as I have a show between now and then.  If the school I work at on Fridays has that Friday off, then it will be easy, if it doesn't, it will be a challenge.  More later....

The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf was special to me not only because the show was fabulous, but because it was a triumph for one girl in the cast.  I'd taken a chance in casting a girl who wasn't having the greatest year, academically, socially and at home, in a leading role.  It was a huge character role and she really struggled and was very unsure of herself.  She ROCKED the audience on the night of the performance.  I had teachers and staff coming up to me for weeks afterward saying they couldn't believe it was the same girl.  I can't think of an opening night better than that.

Your story's very edifying and moving!
Thank you for sharing it with us!