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[George]

PAGE FIVE DANCE!!

[George]

She had relatives seeing the show.  As is the custom these days (not at MY productions, I can tell you), they didn't open the doors until about five minutes before curtain.  So, curtain was actually ten minutes after the two o'clock start time.

As an usher (even if there are no assigned seats), I hate it when that happens! (The not opening the doors until about five minutes before curtain, that is.)

[bk]

I listened to some interesting classical music first, but my two favorites this evening: the soundtrack to How Sweet it Is by Patrick Williams - wonderful late 60s Mancini-like stuff plus two Jimmy Webb songs.  Love it large.  And then a Jackie Gleason two-fer which shares the same name - How Sweet it Is, one of his trademark sayings.  Lush, romantic - when I was a young lad I would play his albums and imagine standing in the rain with someone, having a kiss.  I couldn't imagine anything more romantic than that.

[bk]

When I began going to the theater regularly in 1961, doors opened promptly one half hour before curtain.  And the people entered the theater an hour before if they so chose.  A half-hour meant you could get your seat and read the program from cover to cover - that was part of the experience for me.  I can't stand the idiocy on Broadway now, where they make you line up in front of the theater and don't open THOSE doors till half hour, if that, so there is just the craziness of everyone trying to get to their seats - HATE IT.  Don't know exactly when they started doing that nonsense but it's within the last decade, maybe not even that long ago.

[George]

Fortunately, most of the local theaters open their lobbies at one hour and the house at half hour.

[George]

One theater sometimes doesn't open their house until about 20 minutes before curtain (even though they don't have an actual curtain), but they have a small-ish house, so it's pretty easy to get everyone seated in time.

[FJL]

When I began going to the theater regularly in 1961, doors opened promptly one half hour before curtain.  And the people entered the theater an hour before if they so chose.  A half-hour meant you could get your seat and read the program from cover to cover - that was part of the experience for me.  I can't stand the idiocy on Broadway now, where they make you line up in front of the theater and don't open THOSE doors till half hour, if that, so there is just the craziness of everyone trying to get to their seats - HATE IT.  Don't know exactly when they started doing that nonsense but it's within the last decade, maybe not even that long ago.

The first line like I stood in that was for "The Full Monty" in 2000 (which was inexplicable as it was not a huge hit though ab terrific show) and I recall being mystified by its the weather was not that great.   Then for 'The Producers" in 2001.   With "The Producers,' the lines of people being artificially backed up to get into the theater ended up in the papers and on TV as if they were the old-fashioned lines of people trying to het tickets. As computer sales were really taking hold, people didn't need to line up down the block any more to buy tickets in general (except for the rush lines). 

 This was happening months and months before Sept 2001, but lore has attributed it to searches needed starting after Sept 2001.

[FJL]

Crazily, the August Wilson Theater had us wait in line in the rain before "Groundhog Day,' (which also was I thought a terrifically entertaining show that just didn't catch on, and caveat:  A friend was exoectinf me or I might have said "no way" to that line without cover in the rain. - but had a great time wet as I was).  It reminded me of the joke in City iff Angels, there won't be a dry seat in the house - as it happens, at that same theater in the more civilized 1990s.

but you could go bowling in parts if the theater and not disturb anyone once we got in. The line made no sense except that lines were what were done, and like standing Os, lines became part of the experience.

[TCB]

Good evening.

[TCB]

Hello, jan.

[TCB]

Hello, Fred.

[TCB]

Hello, George.

[TCB]

I went to Tacoma today to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law, my great nephew, and his girlfriend for pizza at the Cloverleaf Tavern.

[TCB]

Still my favorite pizza, but definitely an acquired taste.

[TCB]

I have managed to not finish off my leftovers, so I will have some for breakfast tomorrow.

[TCB]

So, instead I am nibbling on some snack size Reese’s Peanut Butter Ghosts.

[TCB]

The sacrifices I make for having a good breakfast.

[TCB]

Tomorrow (between football watching) I am going to try an switch-over to my new desk top.

[TCB]

Oh, and squeeze in a little housecleaning, as well.

[FJL]

I promised to make up for having been E&T.    I didn't want to get concerned calls of why I haven't been lifting my posting burden.

Anyway, I finally got all this stuff together, as for years, my dad had asked me not to bring any charges if my brother and nephew were going to be embarrassed while he and Mom were around, since the Viertels being involved could get any charges being filed covered.    But once they leveled the fake violence claim against me and Dad realized it had to be my sister-in-law who was the source of what my brother had done being attributed ti me (Dad knows my brother has that history where I never did ever), Dad just said he won't stop it now that he's 99.  None of us get why the amount of money from me being family executor could matter so much to Lady Joann Macbeth that she started plotting this in 2008, since they're very rich - many time what my folks have.

 Dad is horrified that Hilary and Joann are paying lawyers about his and Mom's assets in any way.  Quite rightly, he feels they have to know it'snot theirs until he and Mom are no longer with us, and hope that will be far away.  It feels like Lady Joann has been making charts and tables and been in death wtach since Dad turned 90, since I see computer runs going back to 2009.  My brother said once that I'd done  them, since they came from my fax, but I corrected him since they were sophisticated in a way I don't know how ro do - and I'd just faced to his office schedules I'd gotten from the two if them years earlier.   

 Mom still refuses to believe they've ever had.a lawyer against my interests, let alone the lawyer who is advising Skip's collaborator's company!!!  (They don't know from Encores or Jujamcyn, but they know Jack Viertel's name very well as Skip's co-writer of Time and Again since they came to pretty much everything back in the 1990s that either of us did, to show support, and Access-a-ride was great back then.)

[TCB]

Well, I guess there is enough of my soliloquy for one page.

[George]

Hi, Tom.

[FJL]

So, instead I am nibbling on some snack size Reese’s Peanut Butter Ghosts.

Is this like Ibsen's "Ghosts?"  or for Halloween?

[FJL]

I ain't afraid of no Reese’s Peanut Butter Ghosts

[George]

I promised to make up for having been E&T.    I didn't want to get concerned calls of why I haven't been lifting my posting burden.

Anyway, I finally got all this stuff together, as for years, my dad had asked me not to bring any charges if my brother and nephew were going to be embarrassed while he and Mom were around, since the Viertels being involved could get any charges being filed covered.    But once they leveled the fake violence claim against me and Dad realized it had to be my sister-in-law who was the source of what my brother had done being attributed ti me (Dad knows my brother has that history where I never did ever), Dad just said he won't stop it now that he's 99.  None of us get why the amount of money from me being family executor could matter so much to Lady Joann Macbeth that she started plotting this in 2008, since they're richer than my parents.

 Dad is horrified that Hilary and Joann are paying lawyers about his and Mom's assets in any way.  Mom still refuses to believe they've ever had.a lawyer against my interests, let alone the lawyer who is advising Skip's collaborator!!!  (They don't know from Encores or Jujamcyn, but they know Jack Viertel's name very well as Skip's co-writer of Time and Again since they came to pretty much everything back in the 1990s to show support - and thought they were both very social back then, Mom especially loved that the parties  always seemed to be lots of fun, and Access-a-Ride made getting Manhattan so easy back then.)

Fred, we could be on page 87 if you broke up your stories into more smaller posts!

[George]

As to Quilters - not really my cup of tea.  Maybe it was this production, which had no pace at all was one of the problems.  The director had acted in a production at the Laguna Theater in the 1980s, with Teri Ralston.  Three of the ladies from that production were in attendance.  I know the show has its devoted devotees - I found it too long and repetitious, and even though it calls itself a musical it really is a play with music, sans plot.  It did well in its premiere in Denver and then at the Taper here in LA - a perfect theater for this kind of show - after a couple of other engagements, it went to Broadway, where it instantly folded after twenty-four performances.  Interestingly, it was nominated for six Tony Awards, but the 1984/85 season was one of the all-time lowest for musicals.  There were only four best musical nominees - Quilters, Grind, Leader of the Pack, and the winner, Big River.  For the first time in Tony history, three major categories had NO nominees and no awards were given - best actor and actress in a musical, and best choreography.   So, the show gets to brag it was up for six Tonys but all those nominations were to pad those categories.  It's somewhat popular in stock and amateur productions - a good show for the six ladies (I gather you can do it with more if you like).

I remember seeing a production of Quilters at my high school after I graduated, and absolutely loving the show and the production.

[George]

I don't remember a thing about it now, other than it had only women in the cast and that I loved it when I saw it.

[George]

Today, I went to my sister's.

[George]

She had asked me to help move a shelter that she had made, so I helped do that.

[George]

But then she "needed" me to do some other things, but I didn't do all of them...I needed to go to my parents'.