Back to the grind tomorrow. It’s been a nice two weeks off but I have been told I have to start showing up again if I expect that nice direct deposit into my checking account next month. I have heard of this mythical state called ‘retirement’ where deposits show up without having to set alarms and get yourself out of bed but I’m starting to think that it’s some sort of fantasy. And so, because I still have a mortgage and other bills, showing up at the job remains a necessity. I am not looking forward to the next few days as I clean out all of the accumulated detritus from in boxes, both physical and electronic. At least next weekend is a three day one courtesy of MLK so I shouldn’t fall too far behind too quickly.
The end portion of the New York trip was uneventful. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ with Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. (Lindsay Mendez, the third lead was out but her understudy was sensational so I didn’t miss her). The show was well directed, finding the right balance between heart and bite, with a talented ensemble. I did have a few quibbles. I wanted a bit more from the physical production at Broadway prices (although a coup de theatre involving stars at the end of the show was lovely). The reduced orchestrations should have been jettisoned in favor of the originals. I will never agree with the jettisoning of the high school graduation bookends and the swap out of ‘Rich and Happy’ for ‘That Frank’ at the top of the show. I’m hoping the Sondheim estate eventually changes its mind on that one. The Hills of Tomorrow, the high school graduation song dropped when the high school scenes were dropped, is the musical foundation of the score as originally conceived. And every song that Franklin Shepard writes during the show is basically the same general structure and melodic line underscoring how as he sells out, his ability to create goes with it.
Merrily is a show that has always spoken to me because of my age. I was 19 when the show premiered in 1982 and really laying down my musical theater understanding as an undergraduate when the show opened…and closed. In fact, I was taking a course in American Musical Theater that quarter and the show and its failure were frequent topics of conversation. The original cast were the same age as I. I didn’t know any of them personally, but Liz Callaway had gone to high school with a friend and word would trickle through the grapevine about what was going on with the troubled production.
Modern theater audiences seem to have caught up with the backwards structure of the show and so that aspect no longer seems to be giving actors, directors, or viewers much difficulty. Perhaps the audience of 1981 wasn’t as able to deal with that and found it confusing. There’s also the issue of college age actors playing jaded middle aged types. Young actors can play young and they can usually play age. They have grave difficulty with middle age, however, and most college productions I have seen over the years of any work which relies on characters in their 40s and 50s flounders because of this. The second act of the cumulating with the three leads meeting on a roof top and singing their paean to youthful optimism, ‘Our Time’, makes me cry every time no matter what age the performers as it taps into my personal youth and all of the possibilities and how time and experience shaped and moved me in unpredictable ways, closing some doors, opening others, but making me, as a mature adult, someone young me would likely not recognize.
The drive back to Birmingham from New York was much less eventful than the drive up. The weather was fine and we were out of holiday traffic so nothing terribly untoward happened on the road to Columbia SC to drop off Frank or on the further back to Birmingham. I was back in plenty of time for my first staging rehearsal for ‘Into the Woods’. I don’t have a lot to do in the show (fine by me – I like small parts – you get to spend time creating with a group of talented people but you don’t have to tear your hair out trying to retain copious amounts of dialogue or come off stage at the end of the night feeling thoroughly drained) so I’m working out how I can maximize my material for best effect. Upstaging fellow performers is unfair but trying to steal a scene from them so they have to bring their A game and you all get better because of it is not.
Time for a spot of tea and a good book and early to bed so I’m well rested for the gazillion and one minor problems that have accumulated in my clinics in my absence.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 