Walking the Streets... on Broadway....
Oct. 6th, 2004 05:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrdreamjeansI've done a lot of walking today. The subway was overly crowded and delayed this morning. I left the same time as yesterday and it took 50 minutes longer. Despite the cool weather, it was hot in the car; there was a young woman sitting, taking up two seats who kept popping gum to annoy people. I almost said to her, "You pop that gum one more time..." But of course, she wouldn't have gotten the musical theatre reference from the Cell Block Tango in "Chicago", so the threat would have been wasted:) I got off the subway as soon as possible ... better to walk more blocks and be in the fresh air.
As to "Evita", we've staged the opening sequence of the movie house that morphs into a funeral procession. Hal was back this morning to review our work. It is sounding and looking very good, so we focused on acting intentions. After we finished with that, we split up into groups, with the singers playing Aristocrats working on the music to "Peron's Latest Flame". It's difficult because there are 8 singers, four men and four women and six vocal parts. It's a-cappella (without accompaniment) and will be sung while moving constantly around the nine men in the military. In my opinion, it's one of the toughest, most challenging and brilliant pieces of choreography ever.
I wasn't called back to rehearsals after we broke for lunch at 2pm. I walked up to Broadway and 46th Street to the Actors Equity Building. I stopped off to introduce myself to the young woman who is administering the 401K plan to union members who qualify. It helps to meet the folks in person who control the credit union, health and pension and membership services, so that when you call from Texas or elsewhere in the hinterlands, they can place a face to a name. It's been of benefit to me many times... I then got to see an old friend who is now Director of Auditions at the Audition Center. Keith's an amazing singer, a true opera bass, but has decided to give up the business (as in performing) to support his family. We worked together in Europe on JCSuperstar for several months in 1991-92. It was wonderful to see him again after so long!
The jaw-dropper of the day was when I walked to Radio City Music Hall to see if I could score good seats for Tim (gotmoof) and me for Bette Midler's "Kiss My Brass" concert. There were two seats on the aisle in the tenth row for Sunday, the 17th... sounds good, no? Well - they were $255 a piece!! I'm afraid I passed...almost passed out:) Instead I walked back over to the half-price ticket booth, stood in line and purchased one seat for "The Producers". I'll head back downtown in a couple of hours and see it tonight. Should be fun! As Tim reported yesterday, I was able to use a contact here to get house seats for "Wicked" during his birthday visit. The same contact is getting us house seats for "Hairspray", so we should have a very busy week as the divine bovine travels to the Big Apple to celebrate.
I was treated to a dinner and show last night by an old agent friend who I haven't seen in 20 years. The dinner was at the West Side Cafe, mostly vegetarian cuisine. We walked across the street to Playright's Horizons and saw a musical about a high school School Board, populated by a bunch of people who didn't get along. It somewhat tunefully debated the issue of teaching Darwinism vs Creationism in textbooks. One of the board members is a stripper who is accidently elected to the board; the show chronicles her "evolution" into a thinking person with self-esteem. At one point though, the actress playing the character was dancing on a table unstintingly naked. It was a musical about biology, but at that moment, I was quite certain it was anatomy:) The play had great ideas, but a mediocre script. It made a bad musical. The actors gave it their all, though, and were quite talented.
Tomorrow rehearsals continue. Afterward, I'm going to meet a fellow LJ member, JohninNYC and his partner Chip. Chip is playing the Broadway production of "Dracula", so we're going to meet beforehand, so that I can introduce myself. It's a small world indeed. John and Chip know Gary (fuzzygruff) and Steven (doubleohsteven) in SF and a friend of John and Chip's is one of the other two tenors in this tour of "Evita". Joel's a really nice man and talented singer. There are musical bears, bears, everywhere!
One final note - I just got an email that Guppys, the bar in West Seattle that hosted Bearoke nights, has unexpectedly lost its lease and closes at the end of this week. That is very sad news, as I truly value the friendships I made there. I hope the DJ Jonathan soon finds another place ...a welcoming venue where he can weave his own special brand of music and charm.
As to "Evita", we've staged the opening sequence of the movie house that morphs into a funeral procession. Hal was back this morning to review our work. It is sounding and looking very good, so we focused on acting intentions. After we finished with that, we split up into groups, with the singers playing Aristocrats working on the music to "Peron's Latest Flame". It's difficult because there are 8 singers, four men and four women and six vocal parts. It's a-cappella (without accompaniment) and will be sung while moving constantly around the nine men in the military. In my opinion, it's one of the toughest, most challenging and brilliant pieces of choreography ever.
I wasn't called back to rehearsals after we broke for lunch at 2pm. I walked up to Broadway and 46th Street to the Actors Equity Building. I stopped off to introduce myself to the young woman who is administering the 401K plan to union members who qualify. It helps to meet the folks in person who control the credit union, health and pension and membership services, so that when you call from Texas or elsewhere in the hinterlands, they can place a face to a name. It's been of benefit to me many times... I then got to see an old friend who is now Director of Auditions at the Audition Center. Keith's an amazing singer, a true opera bass, but has decided to give up the business (as in performing) to support his family. We worked together in Europe on JCSuperstar for several months in 1991-92. It was wonderful to see him again after so long!
The jaw-dropper of the day was when I walked to Radio City Music Hall to see if I could score good seats for Tim (gotmoof) and me for Bette Midler's "Kiss My Brass" concert. There were two seats on the aisle in the tenth row for Sunday, the 17th... sounds good, no? Well - they were $255 a piece!! I'm afraid I passed...almost passed out:) Instead I walked back over to the half-price ticket booth, stood in line and purchased one seat for "The Producers". I'll head back downtown in a couple of hours and see it tonight. Should be fun! As Tim reported yesterday, I was able to use a contact here to get house seats for "Wicked" during his birthday visit. The same contact is getting us house seats for "Hairspray", so we should have a very busy week as the divine bovine travels to the Big Apple to celebrate.
I was treated to a dinner and show last night by an old agent friend who I haven't seen in 20 years. The dinner was at the West Side Cafe, mostly vegetarian cuisine. We walked across the street to Playright's Horizons and saw a musical about a high school School Board, populated by a bunch of people who didn't get along. It somewhat tunefully debated the issue of teaching Darwinism vs Creationism in textbooks. One of the board members is a stripper who is accidently elected to the board; the show chronicles her "evolution" into a thinking person with self-esteem. At one point though, the actress playing the character was dancing on a table unstintingly naked. It was a musical about biology, but at that moment, I was quite certain it was anatomy:) The play had great ideas, but a mediocre script. It made a bad musical. The actors gave it their all, though, and were quite talented.
Tomorrow rehearsals continue. Afterward, I'm going to meet a fellow LJ member, JohninNYC and his partner Chip. Chip is playing the Broadway production of "Dracula", so we're going to meet beforehand, so that I can introduce myself. It's a small world indeed. John and Chip know Gary (fuzzygruff) and Steven (doubleohsteven) in SF and a friend of John and Chip's is one of the other two tenors in this tour of "Evita". Joel's a really nice man and talented singer. There are musical bears, bears, everywhere!
One final note - I just got an email that Guppys, the bar in West Seattle that hosted Bearoke nights, has unexpectedly lost its lease and closes at the end of this week. That is very sad news, as I truly value the friendships I made there. I hope the DJ Jonathan soon finds another place ...a welcoming venue where he can weave his own special brand of music and charm.
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While in New York...
Date: 2004-10-07 08:38 am (UTC)But, at least it was only gum popping and not a bunch of hoodlums coming into the car, starting to break dance and then expecting you to fork over money for their unexpected performance (referred to as the "daily price of living in the city expense"). This phenomenon is typical not only to New York, but can also happen in other metropolitan areas where mass transit is a way of life, i.e. SF (Muni) and Chicago (CTA).