Sunday, March 28, 2010

Holy Cow!

Yes today I felt just like a cow. We had a clen up choreography rehearsal with out Robin, she was out with the stomach flu.....hope you are feeling better......but it was a really good rehearsal. We got a lot of things cleaned, not sure if they were all the way Robin originally choreographed it, but we got it together, and things are looking nice.

I just felt like a huge old cow. I am having a terrible time turning, and horrific time trying to sing and dance, and just feel really old. Mike Dowdy, my "brother/lover" in the show and I were saying in the back today, we are the composers of the show, shouldn't we be playing the music that all these people are dancing to? Well Scott didn't see it that way. Hey we tried.

It will take time, and I will get there, I just need to buck up and do it. Hopefully I'll lose a little weight during this run....WOO HOO!

I am having a great time with this show, and so glad that I got cast. I hope you all come to see it, and help support us. We have worked so hard on this show, and we would like to get some great audiences. Tell your friends, come one, come all......be prepared for a dark, but wonderful show.

More later.

Night all
Phil

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

OK all I can say is WOW!

Last night we finished blocking Act I. The first half of the act we are constantly pretty much moving constantly, and then the last section of the act is mainly the four leads which gives us time to relax for a bit. Not only did we finish blocking but we got some much needed choreography review. I just have to say I am NOT a dancer anymore. I never was a great dancer, but I moved pretty well and could fake it, in the dance sense, but now, I can't remember anything we choreograph from rehearsal to rehearsal, and then most of the stuff I do remember is wrong.

My feet hurt today, my voice is a little rough, and I am just plain tired. As Troy pointed out in his blog Robin has done a wonderful job with the choreography, but she has to remember that I am in this show, fat people don't move that fast. LOL. But it is good exercise for me. Maybe I'll sweat off 20 pounds when we open. I feel sorry for whoever has to dance with me, because I am going to have to wring out my clothes between each number.

It's been a long time since I did a show with this much back story creation going on in rehearsals. I guess we did quite a bit in High Fidelity, but Kleptoboy wasn't as involved as Phil is in this show.

Well tomorrow night we run act I all the way through off book.....that is the scary part for me. I don't memorize well. Right now I am having a rough time with lyrics, I am mixing up songs, b ut hopefully I will see the light before we get to rehearsal tomorrow night.

Well Phil is off......

Joel

Friday, March 12, 2010

Blocking #1

SO last night was our first night of blocking. It was, shall I say, interesting. It took us a little over 3 hours to block the first 22 pages of the show. We are mainly a "Greek chorus" during this time. At about page 18 we get introduced as ourselves. Then we come in and introduce ourselves to the audience. Margeau, and Jeff had a majority of the blocking, they have sex, get pushed in the bed, fight, she pulls a knife on him, she sings, one happy day in the Burr's/Queenie household.

We got to sort of she how the set is going to pan out. It just seemed like there was a lot more room in our rehearsal space then there is on stage, but we'll see.

Well this is just a short post. More to come. On Sunday we Juggernaut, and no we are not playing X-men and come up against the Juggernaut, we do the dance called the Juggernaut.

Til then
Phil

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

....Wearing only a fig leaf...



Yes that is one of my favorite lines I get to say in the show. I don't know why, but it is fun. It is in a scene with Mike and I, Mike is playing my "brother" Oscar, and we are the composer duo, and we finish each others sentences which we do constantly in this scene. This scene has the most dialoge we have in the show, well actually there isn't much dialogue at ALL. This is as Scott wrote in his blog a jazz opera.




We had our sing-through, read-thru last night. It was mainly a sing-thru with a couple of lines here and there. This cast was ready for last night. We were all pumped, and some of us anxious to hear what some of this other music sounded like. I kept turning to Troy last night and saying,"Wow that was a cool song." And I know I said it more than once.




Last night was great, not only did we see what the show sounded like, and right now it sounded pretty great, and if it is sounding this good now, wow, what is it going to sound like when we open. Now I am not saying that the rehearsal went off without a hitch. We have a rough spots, and we all heard them last night. We know what we have to work on. So we have some music to clean, some dance to clean (hell, some dances to try to remember), and some dances to learn, and then add on top of that the blocking, and then trying to create a character that is real and not too over the top. That is going to be the hard part not to be over the top with my character, and I am sure I was the one going over the top last night, but fir this character I have to experiment to find him. We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks while we are blocking, and how much I get yelled at for going over the top.




So I just have to say that I am excited. REALLY excited!!!! This show is so great, can't wait to start seeing it get on its feet, can't wait to see the set, and then the costumes, and then add lights to that, and then an audience. WOW!




So we hope that you all come to see the show. I just have to say this isn't The Sound of Music.....




Til later.....




Phil......aka Joel!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Ever tango with another guy?

I never thought I would, but I am in Wild Party. I felt so sorry, cause I kept stepping On Mike Dowdy's feet. I don't mind the dancing with another guy part, I just don't think that I was cut out for the tango. I don't think that I am cut out for much dancing anymore.

Yesterday we had our second big choreography rehearsal. It was a lot going on, and even though we had a total of four hours to teach it, it still felt like there was a lot left undone. Robin did a great job choreographing the song "Raise the Roof" and she is doing a lot of adventurous stuff with this cast. A lot more than she has done with a New Line cast in previous years. She had to go fast, but I think we will get it. I think with the lighting and everything else it will add to the number. We are going to be sweating up a storm. I BETTER LOSE WEIGHT IN THIS SHOW WITH ALL THE SWEATING I AM GOING TO BE DOING! I just thought also that we really didn't practice yesterday with dancing and singing while we were dancing.....OH MY GOSH!

I was reading the script, and trying to find out about my character a little bit. I am part of the D'Armono brothers, a composing duo, the Rodgers and Hammerstein of their time. In the script it is mentioned that we are supposed to look similar, I had to laugh at that one. I outweigh Dowdy by A LOT, and I have much more grey hair, and a bald spot. I look more like Oscars "sugar daddy" than his "brother". SO I may have to dye the hair a little, and we will look alike with the costumes and everything. It is that magic of theatre, making ourselves into something that we aren't.

I am sort of ooking foward to tomorrow nights rehearsal we have our first sing thru and read through of the show. EXCITING!

We will see how it all comes together slowly.....

Phil out!

Friday, March 5, 2010

All I can say is Wow!

Ok so last night we had our last musical rehearsal where we learned all the songs. After we learned the last song, the Juggernaut, we went through and sang through all the group music in the show. Man this stuff is tough, and I consider myself a pretty decent musician, and can pick up things fairly easily, but this show is challenging me. I should be sitting down at the piano, and plunking out some of these parts, but I just haven't had time. There are a few incidental song, and introductions to other songs, that aren't on the CD that are, well let's just put it this way, Wierd. They sound great when it is all put together, but when you hear your part separately, as Nikki said last night, "What did we get all the left over notes?" I usually don't learn music by listening to the CD, but I have tried to learn some of the songs with the CD. But I have come to realize that some of the chorus parts, in some songs, can't be heard . Like in the song Come with me, there is a section where we sing:
"Come a luma, come a luma, come a luma, come a luma-lee"
Well that isn't heard on the CD at all.....so last night while I was singing through the song in the car on the way home, I thought I was doing it right, and then the next phrase came along and it was that phrase.....so frustrating, but will be amazing when it is all implanted in our brains, and it just comes second nature.
On Sunday we have our next choreography rehearsal. I am not sure that I remember all I did last week. I really have to try to go over that. I remember when I did 42nd Street the first time, I didn't know how to tap dance, so I would write down the steps, and then go home to my parents house and practice in the garage, cause that was the only place I wouldn't screw up the floor. I just need to do that with these steps too, well not exactly go home to my parents and practice in the garage, but just review, review, review....
Next week we start blocking, and I am excited to get into that. Little scared, but excited. I over hear Scott and Alison talking over blocking stuff during the breaks, and I am always amazed at the ideas that are talked about, and then we will start to see those ideas take shape, that is the fun part, and then if something really isn't working we can try to help out.
This show is filled with some great characters. Phil and Oscar, two over the top "brothers" if you get my drift, the lesbian, Madelaine, the hooker, Dolores, and others not to mention the freaky clown, Burrs, and the Vaudville dancer Queenie. It will be neat to see some of these characters come to life.
Well here is to the next phase of these rehearsals. Choreography on Sunday, and a readthrough-singthrough on Tuesday. I haven't really looked at the rest of the script, being the conceited type I looked for my lines and that was about it. There really aren't many lines, LOTS of music. But that is COOL! So after next Tuesday we'll see how much I am still loving this show.
Well phil needs his rest!
Talk to you all later.
Joel "Phil"