June 9, 2005
The bus ride from NY's Port Authority terminal to Bloomfield, NJ can be a long one, especially in five o'clock traffic. We got released early today and got caught right up in it, at a time when crossing the Hudson River can take half an hour. Good time to sit and blog.
Yesterday, things actually got done. My friend Barre is a road manager who's well dug into the New York live venue circuit. All it took was a phone call from him and I was on the guest list for Wednesday night's Spoon show at Webster Hall just off Union Square. The place was packed and muggy, but the band was great, and getting better with each performance. The show started and ended much earlier than I'd expected, so I headed uptown to a comedy club on 46th street, where Will's wife Lori was hosting a night of multiple comics. Lori is a comedienne herself, and a funny one (not to mention sane, which is rare in a business full of borderline personalities).
I tried my hand at comedy years ago. I'm better off leaving it to the pros.
Wednesday was a really short rehearsal day. Don had more writing to do so we spent half a day working on new moves with Joe while Don took some time to make more script changes based on Yoko's notes. Overall, she loved the new direction of the show, but she also saw elements of the older script that had merit, and encouraged Don to put them back in. So after staying up for about forty-eight hours or so, Don came in Thursday with the latest revision and we sat down and read through it.
One song that was cut long ago, "Watching The Wheels," is back in for now, and a couple of others have been added for the first time. "Mind Games" is among these, which I've always liked and thought should be represented. One scene that we've had trouble with, built around one of John's silly writings called Two Virgins, continues to evolve as we try to make it work. At one point, the whole cast was reciting it while wearing latex John Lennon masks made specially for the show, but they were soon discarded in favor of simple granny glasses. Don has found a whole new way to present this piece, and it reads better than it ever did before. What was once an awkward transition into a production number now has a shot at being a highlight moment.
The look of the show is changing also. Originally, the entire cast wore the same basic black outfits from head to toe, over which other costumes were applied throughout the performance. Now the basic uniforms are out and street clothes are in, each look chosen to fit the individual and allow for versatility. Everyone is much happier and more comfortable in their new threads.
The text, the music, the costumes, the choreography, all are being improved. All minds are open to possibilities, and new ideas pour in from all directions. Don makes the creative decisions, but whichever idea is best is the one that goes in, whoever it comes from.
That's how the Sgt. Pepper album was made, according to those who were there.