The Home Stretch...
We move into the theatre tomorrow, and since it's not our usual "home" (we've been nomadic the past year) there will be lots of things to figure out about the new space, how to power the band, how much room the audience risers will take up, what Trish's view from the booth will be like, etc. And we'll have actual set pieces for the first time -- and since every set piece is on wheels, we'll now have a whole new element to deal with...
Now we start adding distractions. We've been working on the show in a kind of bubble, and everything will change in the next two weeks before we open. I'll be giving up piano duty Monday to Chris Petersen, our resident show pianist. The differences between how I play the score and how he plays it will be minimal, but to the actors who often listen for the tiniest musical moments for their cues, any change at all is tough. But they'll have some time to adjust to Chris and vice versa. We'll get three rehearsals to adjust to the set and to Chris.
Then next Saturday, we have our lighting cue-to-cue rehearsal, a tedious process if there ever was one, but a necessary process if you have a lighting design of any complexity or artistry. Then the next day, the band comes in and we have our first rehearsal with the band -- just a few days before opening. Again, the actors have been used to rehearsing with just piano, so hearing the whole band is thrilling, but it's also fairly disorienting. Things they used to listen for in the piano may now be coming from the lead guitar or the second keyboard or the bass... On the positive side, some musical moments that are hard often become easier once drums are there to lay down a consistent beat that may not be in the piano part...
Then, on Monday, June 9, we start what we lovingly call Hell Week. Just three nights when we add the band, lights, props, costumes, and anything else. All of a sudden, the actors have twenty new things to worry about in every scene, and only three nights to work it out. There's a reason we call it Hell Week (and a reason we have as many full run-throughs as possible before Hell Week). Then again, New Line's Hell Week usually goes awfully smoothly.
Knock on wood.
Then we preview on Thursday, June 12. We used to open on Thursday, but we decided several years ago to make that first night in front of an audience a preview, primarily so we could keep the reviewers and Kevin Kline Award judges away. The bigger theatres get several days of previews to play the show in front of an audience before Opening Night, to find the flow and energy of the piece with live responses, applause, etc. We only take one night for that, but it's important for us to have it.
And we open on Friday the 13th. Yikes!
Normally I'm a little worried at this point about whether the show will come together, whether the actors will fully understand the weird approach we're taking, all that stuff. But this time, I don't have those worries. Knock on wood again. The show is going great and everybody seems to be solidly on the same page. From now till opening, it's really just about adjusting to the new elements, fixing the minor problems we still have, and settling into the roles, songs, and the show as a whole. Now, it's about comfort and depth.
This is the really hard part and the most fun part, all rolled into one. Wheeeeeee!
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Guys Who Prize the Things I Know
People ask me this a lot: why do you take your shows So Seriously? Why not just lean back and enjoy them? They're just musicals, after all...!
Seriously. They ask me that. And then I pick them up off the floor and apologize for punching them. I tell them that I don't work in the theatre to have fun (though I have a lot of it). I work in the theatre because making art seems to me one of the most important and meaningful things a person can do -- not as important as food and shelter, but important. And when I start work on a really great piece of writing -- and everything we do at New Line is a really good piece of writing -- then I feel this powerful responsibility to make the best theatre I possibly can with this wonderful material.
It's like someone's given me a gift. The Best Toy Ever. Something that feels like it's made just for me. And then I get to play with it for several months. And then I get to share it with hundreds of people. That's the fun part.
I believe the way to make good art is to throw yourself into it with something just short of obsession. Ask our actors -- for every show, I'm reading, watching documentaries, scouring the internet, trying to learn everything I can that relates to the world of the show. I've read a book on daily life during the Inquisition (for Man of La Mancha), a book on German cabaret (for Cabaret), on the history of marijuana laws (for Reefer Madness), on the early Beat writers in New York (for The Nervous Set), the list goes on and on... so many books I would have never otherwise read. But the more I learn about the world of the show, its period, its locale, its context, the more I see the depth and complexity of the piece, and the realer we can make that world for the audience.
And then I try to distill everything I've learned into one of my chapters, which eventually get bundled together to make my next book. My chapters essentially do all (or most) of the dramaturgical work for our production but also, once up on our website or published in book form, for other companies' productions as well. My first book is in its eighth printing now, so there's clearly an appetite for this stuff...
If you want a taste, read my High Fidelity chapter (which will continue to expand probably until we close).
Most of what we learn the audience won't see in one performance. But it does inform the performances, the actors' choices, my choices as director, and hopefully it creates a fuller, realer, richer, more complete universe onstage. I guess it all boils down to finding The Truth. There's nothing more important in a piece of theatre than The Truth. It's not enough to impress the audience, amuse them, make them laugh. We have to show you Truth, or what's the point?
And that's why I take it all so seriously. And really, I could never go back to those days of just staging it and performing it (as far too many people do with musicals). There's so much more to it, and you're missing out on so much fun and joy if you skip that part... That's what I think, anyway...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Seriously. They ask me that. And then I pick them up off the floor and apologize for punching them. I tell them that I don't work in the theatre to have fun (though I have a lot of it). I work in the theatre because making art seems to me one of the most important and meaningful things a person can do -- not as important as food and shelter, but important. And when I start work on a really great piece of writing -- and everything we do at New Line is a really good piece of writing -- then I feel this powerful responsibility to make the best theatre I possibly can with this wonderful material.
It's like someone's given me a gift. The Best Toy Ever. Something that feels like it's made just for me. And then I get to play with it for several months. And then I get to share it with hundreds of people. That's the fun part.
I believe the way to make good art is to throw yourself into it with something just short of obsession. Ask our actors -- for every show, I'm reading, watching documentaries, scouring the internet, trying to learn everything I can that relates to the world of the show. I've read a book on daily life during the Inquisition (for Man of La Mancha), a book on German cabaret (for Cabaret), on the history of marijuana laws (for Reefer Madness), on the early Beat writers in New York (for The Nervous Set), the list goes on and on... so many books I would have never otherwise read. But the more I learn about the world of the show, its period, its locale, its context, the more I see the depth and complexity of the piece, and the realer we can make that world for the audience.
And then I try to distill everything I've learned into one of my chapters, which eventually get bundled together to make my next book. My chapters essentially do all (or most) of the dramaturgical work for our production but also, once up on our website or published in book form, for other companies' productions as well. My first book is in its eighth printing now, so there's clearly an appetite for this stuff...
If you want a taste, read my High Fidelity chapter (which will continue to expand probably until we close).
Most of what we learn the audience won't see in one performance. But it does inform the performances, the actors' choices, my choices as director, and hopefully it creates a fuller, realer, richer, more complete universe onstage. I guess it all boils down to finding The Truth. There's nothing more important in a piece of theatre than The Truth. It's not enough to impress the audience, amuse them, make them laugh. We have to show you Truth, or what's the point?
And that's why I take it all so seriously. And really, I could never go back to those days of just staging it and performing it (as far too many people do with musicals). There's so much more to it, and you're missing out on so much fun and joy if you skip that part... That's what I think, anyway...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Quite Detailed and Lengthy Too
We had our second full run-through tonight, and... wow, what a difference! It was a completely different show tonight, which I'm assuming was in large part because everyone's pretty solidly off book now and focusing their attentions much less on technical shit and much more on character, relationships, and story. Almost overnight, Rob (Jeff Wright) was so much realer, more complicated, his emotions more raw, more naked, more out of his control. We saw his sense of humor become less about funny lines and more about Rob's worldview. We saw little flare-ups of anger that weren't there before but feel so organic to the story. We saw pain and vulnerability and confusion...
Bravo, Jeffrey!
From what I could tell emailing back and forth with them, I think the creators of the show feel pretty happy with the original production, but the more we work on the show, the less I like the Broadway production. I feel like it always danced around the most painful emotions. I want to tackle those emotions head-on -- it's the show's (and novel's) brutal, naked honesty that gives it such balls and such rock and roll cred. There are moments in the show that should make the audience incredibly uncomfortable because they're so real and so universal, and that's what makes great theatre.
Sitcoms are safe; theatre should be an adventure.
Also, I was reading online some reviews of the Broadway production, and several of them complained that the role of Laura was underwritten, that we don't spend enough time with her, etc. What none of them understood is that this isn't a story about Rob and Laura; it's a story about Rob. And I think the original production tried too hard -- in this regard but also in others -- to make it a musical comedy and to make it a love story. And it's just not. And neither were the novel or film.
This is a story about a guy becoming a man, changing, growing up, putting others before himself. It's not a story of boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl. It's not Anything Goes. (Which I love, by the way, but this ain't that.)
One way we're (hopefully) solving that problem is that Rob never leaves the stage in our production. Since everything happens in his head -- memory, flashback, fantasy, dream -- it seemed important to me that Rob be ever present. It sucks a little for Jeff, having no down time, but I think it will help audiences not to jump to the conclusion that this is a love story. They say there are three kinds of conlifct in drama: man vs. man, man vs. society, and man vs. himself. This story is man vs. himself. It's an entirely interior journey (kinda like when Luke went to Dagobah and went underground and did battle with Vader, and when he took off Vader's helmet, it was LUKE!!). But I digress...
Tonight, I got a little glimpse of what this show will be like when we open in two weeks, and I love what I see...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Bravo, Jeffrey!
From what I could tell emailing back and forth with them, I think the creators of the show feel pretty happy with the original production, but the more we work on the show, the less I like the Broadway production. I feel like it always danced around the most painful emotions. I want to tackle those emotions head-on -- it's the show's (and novel's) brutal, naked honesty that gives it such balls and such rock and roll cred. There are moments in the show that should make the audience incredibly uncomfortable because they're so real and so universal, and that's what makes great theatre.
Sitcoms are safe; theatre should be an adventure.
Also, I was reading online some reviews of the Broadway production, and several of them complained that the role of Laura was underwritten, that we don't spend enough time with her, etc. What none of them understood is that this isn't a story about Rob and Laura; it's a story about Rob. And I think the original production tried too hard -- in this regard but also in others -- to make it a musical comedy and to make it a love story. And it's just not. And neither were the novel or film.
This is a story about a guy becoming a man, changing, growing up, putting others before himself. It's not a story of boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl. It's not Anything Goes. (Which I love, by the way, but this ain't that.)
One way we're (hopefully) solving that problem is that Rob never leaves the stage in our production. Since everything happens in his head -- memory, flashback, fantasy, dream -- it seemed important to me that Rob be ever present. It sucks a little for Jeff, having no down time, but I think it will help audiences not to jump to the conclusion that this is a love story. They say there are three kinds of conlifct in drama: man vs. man, man vs. society, and man vs. himself. This story is man vs. himself. It's an entirely interior journey (kinda like when Luke went to Dagobah and went underground and did battle with Vader, and when he took off Vader's helmet, it was LUKE!!). But I digress...
Tonight, I got a little glimpse of what this show will be like when we open in two weeks, and I love what I see...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
The Finest Vinyl
It was a good day today.
It started with a choreography review rehearsal, not something we always have time for, but I'm glad we did. The four numbers were all in good shape -- our five women move and sound really great, and Robin has done some kick-ass choreography -- but it was nice today to have the time to polish, tweak things, change little moments, better focus a tableau, clean up a wrist, all that stuff. And by the time we left, those numbers fucking sparkled. Sexy, sassy, funny, and fierce.
Then earlier this evening, some of the boys and I met at Record Exchange to film a little video promo that Aaron Lawson is creating for us, a fun viral video that addresses head-on one of the primary questions many people have -- Why turn High Fidelity into a musical? I don't know if we'll convert any purists, but it'll give you a chuckle, and hopefully encourage some folks to come see our show. Aaron has made several viral videos and the ones I've seen are terrific, very smart, very funny, so I'm sure this will be very cool...
It was so fun being back at Record Exchange after our field trip there last weekend. Jean Haffner, the owner, is the nicest guy in the world and he let us shoot after he closed today.
AND -- only a few people will care about this, but I'm so psyched -- Zak is thumbing through some old 78s between shots and he pulls up "The Death of Floyd Collins," a song written in 1925 about the real-life caver Floyd Collins who got trapped in a cave and around whom sprung up America's first media circus. Why do I care about all this? Because we did this beautiful, incredible musical called Floyd Collins back in 1999, and at the time, Alison, the guy playing Floyd, and I went to Cave City, Kentucky, to see Floyd's cave, to understand better what happened. And while there, we found this crappy but fun little Floyd Collins Museum, which played (endlessly) "The Death of Floyd Collins." When we came back from that trip, the show meant more to us than ever. We really felt we understood Floyd and the events in February 1925. So finding this 78 today really meant something to me. And on top of everything else, we're working on High Fidelity and this is VINYL!
When I asked Jean how much he wanted for it, and why it was important to me, he gave it to me as a gift. What a good guy!
So, all in all, a pretty great day. Tomorrow night we start running the whole show every rehearsal, which is totally my favorite part of the process. Now we can find the Life and the Truth in this wonderful, smart, emotional piece of theatre.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
It started with a choreography review rehearsal, not something we always have time for, but I'm glad we did. The four numbers were all in good shape -- our five women move and sound really great, and Robin has done some kick-ass choreography -- but it was nice today to have the time to polish, tweak things, change little moments, better focus a tableau, clean up a wrist, all that stuff. And by the time we left, those numbers fucking sparkled. Sexy, sassy, funny, and fierce.
Then earlier this evening, some of the boys and I met at Record Exchange to film a little video promo that Aaron Lawson is creating for us, a fun viral video that addresses head-on one of the primary questions many people have -- Why turn High Fidelity into a musical? I don't know if we'll convert any purists, but it'll give you a chuckle, and hopefully encourage some folks to come see our show. Aaron has made several viral videos and the ones I've seen are terrific, very smart, very funny, so I'm sure this will be very cool...
It was so fun being back at Record Exchange after our field trip there last weekend. Jean Haffner, the owner, is the nicest guy in the world and he let us shoot after he closed today.
AND -- only a few people will care about this, but I'm so psyched -- Zak is thumbing through some old 78s between shots and he pulls up "The Death of Floyd Collins," a song written in 1925 about the real-life caver Floyd Collins who got trapped in a cave and around whom sprung up America's first media circus. Why do I care about all this? Because we did this beautiful, incredible musical called Floyd Collins back in 1999, and at the time, Alison, the guy playing Floyd, and I went to Cave City, Kentucky, to see Floyd's cave, to understand better what happened. And while there, we found this crappy but fun little Floyd Collins Museum, which played (endlessly) "The Death of Floyd Collins." When we came back from that trip, the show meant more to us than ever. We really felt we understood Floyd and the events in February 1925. So finding this 78 today really meant something to me. And on top of everything else, we're working on High Fidelity and this is VINYL!
When I asked Jean how much he wanted for it, and why it was important to me, he gave it to me as a gift. What a good guy!
So, all in all, a pretty great day. Tomorrow night we start running the whole show every rehearsal, which is totally my favorite part of the process. Now we can find the Life and the Truth in this wonderful, smart, emotional piece of theatre.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Sometimes All You Need...
Nick Hornby, author of the High Fidelity novel, briefly kept a blog on Amazon.com, which I just happened upon this evening. Nothing all that interesting, except...
He did list "This Month's Playlist" on Oct. 17, 2007, so I thought I'd re-post it here:
God, Please Let Me Go Back - Josh Rouse
To The Dogs or Whoever - Josh Ritter
Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen
Monkey Man - Toots and the Maytals
Aftermarket Blues - Adam and Dave’s Bloodline
Chelsea Rodgers - Prince
It’s Only Money, Tyrone - Marah
Mansion On The Hill - The National
Versatile Heart - Linda Thompson
Slippin’ Around - Detroit Cobras
Melting Pot - The Roots
The more I work on this show, the more I understand the deep connections between pop music and its fans, and the way a person's music reveals them to the world. I've asked everyone working on the show to pick their favorite pop song, which I've put at the end of their program bios. Looking at the songs really does seem to tell you a lot about the person.
Think about it -- what are your favorite pop songs and what do they say about you? Hmmmmm...?
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
He did list "This Month's Playlist" on Oct. 17, 2007, so I thought I'd re-post it here:
God, Please Let Me Go Back - Josh Rouse
To The Dogs or Whoever - Josh Ritter
Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen
Monkey Man - Toots and the Maytals
Aftermarket Blues - Adam and Dave’s Bloodline
Chelsea Rodgers - Prince
It’s Only Money, Tyrone - Marah
Mansion On The Hill - The National
Versatile Heart - Linda Thompson
Slippin’ Around - Detroit Cobras
Melting Pot - The Roots
The more I work on this show, the more I understand the deep connections between pop music and its fans, and the way a person's music reveals them to the world. I've asked everyone working on the show to pick their favorite pop song, which I've put at the end of their program bios. Looking at the songs really does seem to tell you a lot about the person.
Think about it -- what are your favorite pop songs and what do they say about you? Hmmmmm...?
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
This Ain't No Coconuts
On Saturday, a bunch of the boys met over at Jeff Wright's house, had some of his excellent chili cheese dip, then went on an adventure to the Record Exchange, St. Louis' closest kin to Championship Records in High Fidelity.Truth is, I've spent much of my life at the Record Exchange, starting back in Junior High, right after the store first opened in 1976 (originally down the street from its current location). Back in my baby-show-tune-freak days, I was a newbie collector of cast albums, and the idea of finding the older stuff for four or five bucks was a revelation for me! Back then I had about 50 cast albums on LPs. Today I have about 800, God help me.
I'd go every month or so and always leave with several cast albums of show I had never heard of up till then -- wonderful shows like On the Town, Pal Joey, Carnival, Fiorello!, The Apple Tree, and so many others. Sometimes I'd bring in a pile of my crappy pop albums (Air Supply, anyone?), and they would graciously accept the pile for ten bucks in store credit, even though looking back, I'm sure they found my crap virtually worthless...
But even though I'm a longtime Record Exchange patron, it was so much fun to go there Saturday in the context of High Fidelity. To really register the beauty and chaos and clutter and the oceans and oceans of music in this place! To be surrounded by the Beatles, Springsteen, Elvis, James Brown -- and that smell of old LPs. There's truly nothing like it. Even today, in the age of CDs and MP3s, this place still feels like a cathedral.
In fact, maybe it seems even more like one today.
The owner of the place, Jean, is the nicest guy in the world. Jeff had already talked to him about our show, and we brought him postcards and posters, which he immediately put out in the store. We told him we were looking for a 45s case for one scene in the show, and asked him where we could find that -- he turned and walked away, and a few minutes later returned with the most wonderful, beat-up, taped together 45s case, just perfect for holding Rob's Mother Lode.
We bought a couple LPs, including Springsteen's "The River" for Rob to talk to at the beginning of "Goodbye and Good Luck." We also bought some classic 45s that Rob mentions as part of his Mother Lode collection. These are 45s the audience probably won't even see, but it'll mean something to the actors that those records are really there -- some Elvis, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis... Things like that bring such a cool vibe to a show, little tidbits of reality...
We also met one of the guys working at the store who is totally like one of the characters in the show!
After our adventure, we went back to Jeff's and he fed us dinner. He's the best host ever. He has a great house, he always has great food, and he's the friendliest, warmest guy I know, so that helps too.
All in all, a great adventure. This show is turning out to be a much deeper, more emotional experience for me than I expected. I love that.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Not Too Tired
As I mentioned a couple posts ago, we asked the writers of High Fidelity if they would consider restoring their song, "Too Tired," which had been cut from the show before it opened in New York.
I heard back from Tom Kitt, the composer, today. He and lyricist Amanda Green discussed it and ultimately decided they did not want to restore the song, at least right now, and they've asked us to keep the script and score as it was on Broadway. Obviously, we will honor their wishes. And we are extremely grateful to them for taking our request seriously and really thinking about it. They're both amazingly cool, talented people.
Tom gave us a couple reasons why he didn't want to make the change. First of all, they had written this song for a slightly earlier scene, at the funeral of Laura's dad, and they don't think it really fits right at the end of the show. Maybe that's just because they know the context they were writing for and a different context just doesn't feel right to them. Which I totally understand. Or maybe it's just because they're right...! After all, they did write the damn thing...
The other reason he gave was that the show received such a trouncing from the New York critics and they'd like to see how the show fares with audiences and critics outside of New York, to see if it really is the fault of the show or just the fault of the commercial Broadway mindset and senior citizen critics. (I think it's the latter.) And they feel that changing the show makes it more complicated to make that assessment of the material. Which I also totally understand.
Obviously, we hope the critical reception here is much better than in New York, but we're also approaching the show very differently. New York director Walter Bobbie treated it as a Broadway musical comedy, but we're treating it like the alternative, conceptual rock musical that I believe it is. Our production will be much more minimalist, much more dreamlike (since the whole story happens in Rob's head), and with more of a sense of perpetual motion, creating that sense of roller coaster that a lot of New Line shows have.
So anyway, Kimi won't be performing the world stage premiere of "Too Tired" after all, but we've still got a hell of a cool show and we're kicking some serious ass with it, if I do say so myself.
And I do.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
I heard back from Tom Kitt, the composer, today. He and lyricist Amanda Green discussed it and ultimately decided they did not want to restore the song, at least right now, and they've asked us to keep the script and score as it was on Broadway. Obviously, we will honor their wishes. And we are extremely grateful to them for taking our request seriously and really thinking about it. They're both amazingly cool, talented people.
Tom gave us a couple reasons why he didn't want to make the change. First of all, they had written this song for a slightly earlier scene, at the funeral of Laura's dad, and they don't think it really fits right at the end of the show. Maybe that's just because they know the context they were writing for and a different context just doesn't feel right to them. Which I totally understand. Or maybe it's just because they're right...! After all, they did write the damn thing...
The other reason he gave was that the show received such a trouncing from the New York critics and they'd like to see how the show fares with audiences and critics outside of New York, to see if it really is the fault of the show or just the fault of the commercial Broadway mindset and senior citizen critics. (I think it's the latter.) And they feel that changing the show makes it more complicated to make that assessment of the material. Which I also totally understand.
Obviously, we hope the critical reception here is much better than in New York, but we're also approaching the show very differently. New York director Walter Bobbie treated it as a Broadway musical comedy, but we're treating it like the alternative, conceptual rock musical that I believe it is. Our production will be much more minimalist, much more dreamlike (since the whole story happens in Rob's head), and with more of a sense of perpetual motion, creating that sense of roller coaster that a lot of New Line shows have.
So anyway, Kimi won't be performing the world stage premiere of "Too Tired" after all, but we've still got a hell of a cool show and we're kicking some serious ass with it, if I do say so myself.
And I do.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
You're Gonna Wake and See
A thought just occurred to me...
Three people who are all on the cusp between the Baby Boomers and Generation X -- Barack Obama, me, and Rob, the hero of High Fidelity...
I've been thinking the last day or so about how this presidential election is at its core a battle between the Baby Boomers and the Gen X-ers. Bush and both Clintons are Boomers (and McCain is Grandpa Munster). Obama is on the cusp, like me and Rob, though all three of us are closer philosophically and culturally to the Gen X-ers.
(The musical sort of updates the story by referencing Coldplay and other more recent pop culture icons, but the novel was released in the mid-1990s, so Rob was definitely on the cusp.)
The Baby Boomers grew up with parents who had struggled through the Depression, rallied 'round the flag during World War II, and relaxed into the hyper-materialism and mind-numbing conformity of the 1950s. Sure, a lot of the Boomers rebelled against that in the 60s, but most of them ended up pretty much becoming their parents anyway. The Gen X-ers are different. More fucked up. They feel too much. (Just look at St. Elmo's Fire, for God's sake.) They actually believe the idealism of the Boomers but despair at the mess the Boomers have created for us. The Gen X-ers don't want to master the rules of two generations ago; they want all new rules.
The funniest thing to watch in the Democratic primary right now is how baffled the Clintons are. They've totally mastered the rules of politics, they know how to play the game better than anybody (except maybe the Bushies). But this Obama dude shows up and says, "You may be good at that game, but we're gonna play a new game now." And everyone (press and public) magically agrees that we are playing a new game now. But the Clintons are masters of the old game! And every time they play the old game now, everyone yells at them for their "old politics." So what the fuck do they do now?
Yep, Me, Rob, and Barack. The old rules just don't work for us. Money isn't much of a motivator. Yes, Barack played inside the system while Rob and I stumble around outside of it, but none of us ever had money as a goal. We believe in Big Things. Rob and I believe in the incredible power of art. Barack believes in the incredible power of the people when they have something to believe in. Real grass roots politics. For all of us, our central joy in life is sharing what makes us most happy -- Barack's dreams, my theatre, Rob's music.
I'm still working through all this. But there is something special -- which is not to say easy -- about being on the cusp. We're a little bit lost sometimes, but we're adventurers of one kind or another, so eventually we know we'll find our way. Eventually...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Three people who are all on the cusp between the Baby Boomers and Generation X -- Barack Obama, me, and Rob, the hero of High Fidelity...
I've been thinking the last day or so about how this presidential election is at its core a battle between the Baby Boomers and the Gen X-ers. Bush and both Clintons are Boomers (and McCain is Grandpa Munster). Obama is on the cusp, like me and Rob, though all three of us are closer philosophically and culturally to the Gen X-ers.
(The musical sort of updates the story by referencing Coldplay and other more recent pop culture icons, but the novel was released in the mid-1990s, so Rob was definitely on the cusp.)
The Baby Boomers grew up with parents who had struggled through the Depression, rallied 'round the flag during World War II, and relaxed into the hyper-materialism and mind-numbing conformity of the 1950s. Sure, a lot of the Boomers rebelled against that in the 60s, but most of them ended up pretty much becoming their parents anyway. The Gen X-ers are different. More fucked up. They feel too much. (Just look at St. Elmo's Fire, for God's sake.) They actually believe the idealism of the Boomers but despair at the mess the Boomers have created for us. The Gen X-ers don't want to master the rules of two generations ago; they want all new rules.
The funniest thing to watch in the Democratic primary right now is how baffled the Clintons are. They've totally mastered the rules of politics, they know how to play the game better than anybody (except maybe the Bushies). But this Obama dude shows up and says, "You may be good at that game, but we're gonna play a new game now." And everyone (press and public) magically agrees that we are playing a new game now. But the Clintons are masters of the old game! And every time they play the old game now, everyone yells at them for their "old politics." So what the fuck do they do now?
Yep, Me, Rob, and Barack. The old rules just don't work for us. Money isn't much of a motivator. Yes, Barack played inside the system while Rob and I stumble around outside of it, but none of us ever had money as a goal. We believe in Big Things. Rob and I believe in the incredible power of art. Barack believes in the incredible power of the people when they have something to believe in. Real grass roots politics. For all of us, our central joy in life is sharing what makes us most happy -- Barack's dreams, my theatre, Rob's music.
I'm still working through all this. But there is something special -- which is not to say easy -- about being on the cusp. We're a little bit lost sometimes, but we're adventurers of one kind or another, so eventually we know we'll find our way. Eventually...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Smilin' T'wards the Dawn
Rehearsals are going great. We've finished blocking Act I and we're about a third of the way through Act II. We ran Act I all together one night last week, and it really works! The transitions between scenes are so smooth and so organic -- most of the credit for that goes to the writers, of course, but we're doing a hell of a job too. This is one of those shows that will be a real roller coaster ride, never giving the audience too much time to stop and "judge" what's happening, and therefore, putting them in Rob's shoes.
I may have mentioned this earlier in my blogging, but I went to the writers a while back and asked if they would restore the song "Too Tired," which they cut from the show before it opened in New York, although they did include it as a bonus track on the cast album. Tom Kitt (composer) and Amanda Green (lyricist) are both incredibly cool and have been so helpful, which is important since we're the first company to do the show since its Broadway run, so the materials have never been "prepared" for later productions. The three of us have had a fairly lengthy email conversation about putting "Too Tired" back in the show. I think they both like the song a lot (they included it on the CD, so they must). It was written for the funeral scene late in Act II, but I want to put it into the final scene, as Rob and Laura's final resolution.
As the show stands now, in the middle of the finale, "Turn the World Off," there is underscoring as Laura shows up and she and Rob sort of make peace and decide to try their relationship again. On Broadway, they did some dialogue then sang a reprise of "Laura, Laura," which then segued back into "Turn the World Off." It works fine, but it feels to me too much like a Happy Ending, and I don't think High Fidelity is the kind of show that should have a clear Happy Ending. Rob and Laura are getting back together, sure, but do we really know if they'll be okay? Of course we don't. It's like the end of Company -- the right path has probably been chosen, but we have no way of knowing what lies ahead on that path. Have these two people really grown enough that things will be significantly different between them now? Do they really even belong together? We've spent 95% of the story watching them be apart. Who knows if they'll be good together this time?
And that ambiguity makes for good, intelligent, adult theatre.
But the "Laura, Laura" reprise undermines that very real-world ambiguity a little bit. And I think putting "Too Tired" into that spot gives the story a more realistic ending. After the complexity of this story, tying up the loose ends too completely doesn't feel entirely truthful.
So I presented Tom and Amanda with a lengthy manifesto about why I think they should put "Too Tired" into the finale, and to their credit, they really gave it serious thought. But Tom didn't see a clear way to make this change without major rewrites. They finally came back and said that if we wanted to do this, we should put it in the way we want and record it for them, so they could hear exactly what we intended to do, in context. Then they would make a decision.
So we did exactly that on Tuesday. I figured out a way to segue from the existing underscoring into "Too Tired" and back into "Turn the World Off," I taught it to the actors, and we recorded it. I'll send the audio file to the writers now and whatever they decide we'll abide by it. After all, no matter how good I think my ideas are, it is their show...
There are two things about all this that are so cool. First, it's amazing that the writers are open to our ideas and are willing to consider our proposal. Second, it's even cooler that I get to talk to them on an ongoing basis while we work on their show, that I get to ask them questions, etc. We're very lucky that we get to do this periodically when we do a newer show -- I got to talk to Jason Robert Brown about Songs for a New World, Adam Guettel about Floyd Collins, and most fun for me, I got to talk a lot to Larry O'Keefe, Brian Flemming, and Keythe Farley about their masterpiece Bat Boy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I love my job. I'll let you know what Tom and Amanda say about "Too Tired." How cool will that be if we get to make the stage debut of this great song???
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
I may have mentioned this earlier in my blogging, but I went to the writers a while back and asked if they would restore the song "Too Tired," which they cut from the show before it opened in New York, although they did include it as a bonus track on the cast album. Tom Kitt (composer) and Amanda Green (lyricist) are both incredibly cool and have been so helpful, which is important since we're the first company to do the show since its Broadway run, so the materials have never been "prepared" for later productions. The three of us have had a fairly lengthy email conversation about putting "Too Tired" back in the show. I think they both like the song a lot (they included it on the CD, so they must). It was written for the funeral scene late in Act II, but I want to put it into the final scene, as Rob and Laura's final resolution.
As the show stands now, in the middle of the finale, "Turn the World Off," there is underscoring as Laura shows up and she and Rob sort of make peace and decide to try their relationship again. On Broadway, they did some dialogue then sang a reprise of "Laura, Laura," which then segued back into "Turn the World Off." It works fine, but it feels to me too much like a Happy Ending, and I don't think High Fidelity is the kind of show that should have a clear Happy Ending. Rob and Laura are getting back together, sure, but do we really know if they'll be okay? Of course we don't. It's like the end of Company -- the right path has probably been chosen, but we have no way of knowing what lies ahead on that path. Have these two people really grown enough that things will be significantly different between them now? Do they really even belong together? We've spent 95% of the story watching them be apart. Who knows if they'll be good together this time?
And that ambiguity makes for good, intelligent, adult theatre.
But the "Laura, Laura" reprise undermines that very real-world ambiguity a little bit. And I think putting "Too Tired" into that spot gives the story a more realistic ending. After the complexity of this story, tying up the loose ends too completely doesn't feel entirely truthful.
So I presented Tom and Amanda with a lengthy manifesto about why I think they should put "Too Tired" into the finale, and to their credit, they really gave it serious thought. But Tom didn't see a clear way to make this change without major rewrites. They finally came back and said that if we wanted to do this, we should put it in the way we want and record it for them, so they could hear exactly what we intended to do, in context. Then they would make a decision.
So we did exactly that on Tuesday. I figured out a way to segue from the existing underscoring into "Too Tired" and back into "Turn the World Off," I taught it to the actors, and we recorded it. I'll send the audio file to the writers now and whatever they decide we'll abide by it. After all, no matter how good I think my ideas are, it is their show...
There are two things about all this that are so cool. First, it's amazing that the writers are open to our ideas and are willing to consider our proposal. Second, it's even cooler that I get to talk to them on an ongoing basis while we work on their show, that I get to ask them questions, etc. We're very lucky that we get to do this periodically when we do a newer show -- I got to talk to Jason Robert Brown about Songs for a New World, Adam Guettel about Floyd Collins, and most fun for me, I got to talk a lot to Larry O'Keefe, Brian Flemming, and Keythe Farley about their masterpiece Bat Boy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I love my job. I'll let you know what Tom and Amanda say about "Too Tired." How cool will that be if we get to make the stage debut of this great song???
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
You're Riding a Wave
Hard work but fun tonight. Blocking this show isn't difficult for me in conception -- I understand how the show ticks, what it's trying to say, what its rules are. But it's such an unusual piece of writing -- and with so much music that is so intricately integrated into the script -- that it makes it harder to get it Just Right.
Usually when I block a scene, we talk through it, walk through it, smooth some rough spots, and then run it once or twice. With this show, we follow all those steps but we're spending more time on fine-tuning things early on, and we run each scene three or four times before moving on. It's a very complex show physically, almost perpetually moving, so we need to make sure everything works really well from the get-go. With many shows, I can sketch in the outlines, and let actors discover the details and colors. But shows like High Fidelity, Assassins, Urinetown, and Bat Boy, the details are everything.
So though we usually spend two rehearsals blocking each act, this time we're taking three rehearsals per act. Tonight we did only two scenes. Nothing much happens in "Ian's Here" -- it's really more of a character introduction than anything else -- but we found some fun little ways of suggesting the tension in Ian's and Laura's relationship early on, Laura's ill-fit in Ian's world, and the shallowness of Ian's Eastern-ism. And it's funny too.
Then we did the last scene of Act I, in which Rob, Dick, and Barry all three are poised for success or failure in their respective quests. The act ends with this terrific, rowdy song "Nine Percent Chance of Your Love," with all the guys celebrating the fact that they each have a minuscule chance of getting what they want. A very quirky but cool act ender.
Robin Berger does all our dance choreography, but I do a lot of musical staging myself -- what Jeff has dubbed Millerography. So I staged the opening and "Nine Percent" myself, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. For the opening number, I made several choreographic references to the Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense, and with the Act I finale, I make some references to the moves of The Four Seasons. I figure if the music of the show sounds like the music Rob loves, shouldn't the choreography look like the rock and roll moves he loves?
Robin's doing the same thing, using some moves from a Robert Plant video for "Desert Island Top 5 Breakups."
And I realized driving home tonight that Robin's choreographing the women and I'm choreographing the men. That wasn't a conscious decision, but I think it makes so much sense for this show, a show that we see filtered through the mind of its hero, and a show about the disconnect between the genders. I love cool accidents like that.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Usually when I block a scene, we talk through it, walk through it, smooth some rough spots, and then run it once or twice. With this show, we follow all those steps but we're spending more time on fine-tuning things early on, and we run each scene three or four times before moving on. It's a very complex show physically, almost perpetually moving, so we need to make sure everything works really well from the get-go. With many shows, I can sketch in the outlines, and let actors discover the details and colors. But shows like High Fidelity, Assassins, Urinetown, and Bat Boy, the details are everything.
So though we usually spend two rehearsals blocking each act, this time we're taking three rehearsals per act. Tonight we did only two scenes. Nothing much happens in "Ian's Here" -- it's really more of a character introduction than anything else -- but we found some fun little ways of suggesting the tension in Ian's and Laura's relationship early on, Laura's ill-fit in Ian's world, and the shallowness of Ian's Eastern-ism. And it's funny too.
Then we did the last scene of Act I, in which Rob, Dick, and Barry all three are poised for success or failure in their respective quests. The act ends with this terrific, rowdy song "Nine Percent Chance of Your Love," with all the guys celebrating the fact that they each have a minuscule chance of getting what they want. A very quirky but cool act ender.
Robin Berger does all our dance choreography, but I do a lot of musical staging myself -- what Jeff has dubbed Millerography. So I staged the opening and "Nine Percent" myself, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. For the opening number, I made several choreographic references to the Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense, and with the Act I finale, I make some references to the moves of The Four Seasons. I figure if the music of the show sounds like the music Rob loves, shouldn't the choreography look like the rock and roll moves he loves?
Robin's doing the same thing, using some moves from a Robert Plant video for "Desert Island Top 5 Breakups."
And I realized driving home tonight that Robin's choreographing the women and I'm choreographing the men. That wasn't a conscious decision, but I think it makes so much sense for this show, a show that we see filtered through the mind of its hero, and a show about the disconnect between the genders. I love cool accidents like that.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
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