INTERMISSION

I stand/sit before you, a Man without a Musical. Pity me, my friends. Opening night of The Wild Party is... let's see... about, oh, I don't know... SIX MONTHS AWAY! I shit you not. It opens April 22. Ack!

Granted, I only have to survive till late February when rehearsals will start. But that's still a really long time. Especially for an obsessive like me. What will I do with all that time? There actually are a few things...

Over the last few days, I finally settled all the details for our annual New Line Holiday Dinner, set for Wednesday, December 2. And we're at a new place this year -- we've moved to Favazza's Restaurant, on The Hill. Come join us! This will be our ninth holiday dinner, and we really have so much fun!

On Thursday, our stage manager Trish and I are going to New York for a few days. I haven't been up to the Big Bad Apple since 2002! I used to go once a year (sometimes more), but the commercial theatre in New York has been letting me down a lot in recent years, so I haven't been back. But Trish convinced me it's time. We'll be seeing Next to Normal, Hair, and Toxic Avenger: The Musical. I'll also be spending some time at the New York Public Library's "Theatre On Film and Tape" Collection, watching a couple cool shows I haven't seen and am considering for next season.

I've also had, over the last couple weeks, two completely wild ideas for new musicals to write. I'll just say this -- one is about nuns and the other is about zombies. Now that I see what I just typed, I wonder if there's a way to do a musical about zombie nuns...? If either one really turns into anything, I'll let you know...

One of my tasks over these next few months will be to work on the Wild Party score -- it's a real beast to play! And since I'm our rehearsal pianist, I need to get in control of it. But that will be fun -- it's an incredibly rowdy score and such a damn joy to play.

I also realized recently that we'll only have a week off between closing Wild Party and starting rehearsals for Evita. And I'm planning to approach Evita reeeeeeally differently from the way everyone else does it. We're gonna do a very minimalist, raw, Brechtian production that emphasizes the rock and roll in the score. I may have posted this here before, but last year I heard the original Evita studio recording (made before the show had been produced), and that recording is sooooo much more rock and roll than what we're used to -- it sounds much more like JC Superstar. That's the sound we'll be going for. All of which means I have to prepare a lot for Evita before we even start Wild Party.

Also, in January, I'm going to be teaching musical theatre history for the first time in my life, so I'll have to prepare for that...

Sounds like I'll have plenty to do, doesn't it? I still have a feeling I'll be bored a lot.

I'll keep in touch.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott