Yesterday's sessions, which were around 12 hours long, produced some wonderful performances and some excellent playing from the orchestra. I think it will be a really good cast album. It was great to see everyone and I am very happy with what I heard go to tape.
Personally, I left last night feeling frustrated and rather useless. I could have stayed home and the day would have been fine without me. I was a fifth wheel and I can only blame the limited space at the studio for the problem. It's a great studio with friendly staff and I can see why PS Classics lkes using it, but the booth is small, there's liittle room outside the booth for a large group to be comfortable and I had no place to sit, settle, unpack my scores and do what I like to do at a session. I feel I'm there to keep an eye on the music, answer questions or provide speedy solutions, and help things run smoothly for the conductor, basically the things Joshie did accomplish yesterday. I spent most of the day sitting on the arm of Josh's chair in the booth since there was not enough space to seat the guests and the crew.
I was sent into the studio at one point to make room for the producers, press, widow of Burton Lane, etc., to keep an eye on wrong notes but my presence made Rob Berman the conductor, justifiably uncomfortable with me standing next to him; and if I moved around, the violinists complained that I was distracting them peripherally. If I went into the booth, I often got singled out for talking during the order for quiet, even if the discusson prompting my censure was the finish of something about the score that Josh and i were debating or the answer to a question from Red Press - who sends his greetings, BK - and at one point, one of the recording execs rather pointedly told me publicy in a break that I was talking too much, which I sort of brushed off as "well, Josh starts it" since Josh was the person I was talking to when the comment was thrown at me, but that did rankle since I spent the day in state of uselessness and frustration.
On the plus side, it was nice to see people outside the theatre, I got to meet Burton Lane's lovely widow, I gave two of the producers and the stage manager copies of "Christmas Mornings," and the catered meals were quite wonderful, even if the crowded conditions meant dining while sitting on the floor and praying no one would knock over your drink. One of our producers, Mr Kevin Spirtas, showed up and, yes, folks, I'm going to see more of Kevin than I ever expected in his current play this weekend.
