Props to my homies...

It's payday on the Charlotte's Web investment!

With the chaos surrounding the Pink/Gilmer role (and my pathetic whine of a post a few days ago), Erin Fagundes sprang into action and not only found a great replacement, she offered to cover the performances when the new person could not do the show. The great replacement is Sarah Penman (sorry if this is misspelled). She picked up the music quickly at last night's rehearsal, and we're off and running. It was also great to finally have Rudy within our ranks, adding to the vocal mix.

So, I figured this was finally fate's pendulum swinging back my direction, right? I mean... crap, just read the previous twelve posts to see what's been going on. So good things were bound to start ROLLING in, right?

Nope. The pendulum stopped just this side of "Happy & Stress Free" and veered awkwardly into the "Don't Bother Trimming Your Nails For a Few Weeks" territory. Our percussion choreographer sent an email this morning detailing his inability to work on the show: personal stuff, which I totally get. As I responded to him, "Personal stuff comes first," but I am bummed that I won't get to work with him... oh, yeah, and that I have to find a new percussion choreographer for the top of the second act.

If anyone knows a good percussionist who would be willing to devote three rehearsals to teaching a bunch of enthusiastic actors how to build a wall of sound (again, somewhere between Stomp and a Cozy Cole drum solo), forward them to me at sph@1stage.com or 818-648-6636.

Back to the positive stuff.

The show SOUNDS great. This cast is further along, vocally, than almost any other one I've worked with. The show READS great (mostly). There are some LOOOONG sections in the script that blocking, pacing, and some minor editing will cure. And quite honestly, the show LOOKS great from a cast standpoint. We have a nice continuum of ages, ethnicities, and personalities across the cast: they will provide a PERFECT melange of characters for the audience to feast upon.

Happy birthday, honey.

- Sean