The first two hours were spent on music and lyrics. We actually spent an hour on the opening number - we cut a verse out and rearranged some of the song, then worked on the vamps and a dance break and it's much more focused and fun now - I don't think Adryan has seen me at work before in this regard and I think she found it fascinating. I have worked with Shelly so he's used to my methods and he's very quick. We worked on the second song and did the same sort of things, doing a major revision of the end of it. We started on a third song but the author arrived. He and his writing partner did a whole new outline of the show based on my notes. I wish they hadn't, as they made some decisions that should have been chatted about first, but we addressed each of them and came up with some good solutions. There are going to be a bunch of new numbers written from scratch and we'll do what we did today to the handful of other numbers that will stay. I do love the process of fixing songs that aren't quite landing, and also focusing book problems.
As to well-compensated, I'm afraid not. I made a promise to Adryan over a year ago that if she wanted me to direct a staged reading for her that I'd do it for free. And that, of course, is how this started out. But I have a deal that I will receive money when and if the show is financed. They know my time will be what I need it to be and other than the work sessions with the songwriters, the rest can be done via e-mail.
