9/23 - 9/24 - Days Two, Three and Four of Rehearsal...

09/23/2003

Second day of rehearsal and Deborah's Birthday! She's still deciding what I'm buying her for her present but I get the feeling that it's going to be the total salon visit...haircut, coloring, nails, facial...and you know what, she deserves it. Living with me has gotta age ya, ya know! LOL!

We are today sitting around not doing much of anything. Kathleen works in a very calm, very deliberate way. We start at the top and move through the show. The afternoon is spent talking through the show, scene by scene, and blocking the top of the show. Let me remind you that this is the 2nd day of rehearsal. When Jekyll & Hyde was going into rehearsals at RadioCity we spent the better part of a week learning the music and the same was true of Dance of the Vampires at

42nd St.

Studios. We are moving ahead at the speed of light here folks. Part of the reason for that is that we've gone to work on the show with a very narrow window of opportunity. Our rehearsal time is pretty short and our preview time is the shortest I can remember. Thankfully, we're in a situation where we're not starting from scratch so we can careen along at a pretty good clip.

Kathleen has a very nice and gentle way about communicating her ideas and allowing others to express their take on a scene. had a nice little discussion with Donna Murphy about Stella Adler...more on that later...

09/24/2003

Day 3. Spent the morning reworking and refining the opening sequence ("

Christopher Street

") which basically introduces all the characters living in the neighborhood. I've asked Kathleen for permission to include Nancy's character name, 'Helen', since it's the only one excluded and she had no problem with that. From 1 PM on we're working through Act 1 scene 2 (where Ruth and Eileen make their first entrance).

There's something so great about this process of putting up a show when everyone involved has a clear picture of where we're headed.

Directors are a breed unto themselves. During rehearsals for J&H, our director had some health issues that he was unaware of. I believe he was on the verge of becoming a diabetic and in the mornings he would be an absolute delight, witty, charming and eating donuts like there was no tomorrow. In the afternoons would come the the crash and the process became bitter and quarrelsome. He even stormed out of several rehearsals in a rage when anyone would ask a question. It was high tension. The next morning, all would be well, as though nothing had occurred.

Curious, huh? During Dance of the Vampires John Rando had quite a different problem in that his mother was very ill in Texas during rehearsals and he even had to fly back home several times. She passed away in the process and understandably his focus was very divided.

That in conjunction with the power struggle that was going on made the process extremely fatiguing. And our rehearsals and previews went on FOREVER! I think we actually had more previews than performances.

Conversely, WonderfulTown was thrown together in 10 days in 2000 and now we have the luxury of of working through the show with a little more focus. There may be problems out there in the real New York...but not here...

About that talk with Donna...

We were talking about the show in 2000 and the immense amount of buzz surrounding it...everybody wanted to get on the band wagon and get the show onto Bdwy much as happened with Chicago, but no one could seem to get organized. As more time passed by Donna took up other projects including the TV series "Hack" where she worked with Jennifer Westfeldt. Even after the series ended prematurely there was still talk of WonderfulTown. Then Donna discovered she was pregnant and that was the end of those talks. Finally, recently, the window of opportunity arrived and all the stars aligned and Donna said she felt the pull of the show and thought the time might be right. And here we are...

09/25/2003

Talked to Marty Pakledinaz, our costume designer yesterday and had some ideas for the costume and he asked me to go do some research on the type of jersey I wanted for the show. I hopped on Google and went searching for the right period and style.

Theoretically, the show is set in the 1930's so that's where I went. Bronco Nagurski was the big star then and I thought the style of his jersey would be ideal.

I asked Marty if the color was crucial and he said no so I asked the jersey to be in U. of Texas burnt orange and to look as tattered and well used as we could make it. In his usual dry delivery he asked, "Who's designing this show, me or you?" I batted my eyes and said, "You, Marty, always you..." I'm sure that whatever he comes up with will be incredible.

Just like the costumes from Lippa's "The Wild Party."

The guy's a genius!