On Friday the 29th we worked notes of small fixes
to Act One up until 11am, at which time we ran the act. We took our lunch hour
at 12:30pm. We then did more fixes off of notes from 1:30-2:30pm. As the day
wore on, the atmosphere became somewhat electric as we became more and more
excited with the anticipation of Linda Kline’s arrival. As I mentioned in
previous posts, Linda is one of the librettists of the show (along with Lonnie
Price) and is the official authority on ATE (“all things Ed”). She has been
extremely generous to us and provided numerous small script changes for our
production as well as two additional songs (“Making Up Ways” and “Harold”).
Linda arrived circa 2:45pm and Bob showed her the set model
and the drawings of the cast’s costumes. We performed the entire show for her
at 3pm and (with a 10 minute intermission in between) finished circa 5:30pm.
She spoke with us afterwards and her praise was pretty effusive and very
genuine. She loved the youthful energy of the cast, felt that the show really
moved much better than the original, the choreography was the best she had seen
in a ACA production, and the music was well-rehearsed and performed. We were
all delighted to hear she enjoyed it and very pleased we were definitely on the
right track. She said even though things were looking wonderfully, there was
obviously still an opportunity to make the show even better, and she was
looking forward to seeing it again at previews.
Afterwards, Bob, Michael and I had dinner with Linda at the
Red Lion. I hadn’t planned on having a drink (it’s a 40 minute drive back to
Holyoke), but Linda ordered a martini, Bob had a Bloody Mary and I figured what
the hell, I’ll probably have digested my drink by the time I get on the Pike.
(This was true because our dinner lasted two and a half hours.) I have to say I
wasn’t expecting a great meal at what looked to be a typical New England styled
inn, but was I ever surprised. There is an executive chef at the RLI and the
cuisine is fabulous. I started with an appetizer that was a house special that
evening: a polenta wedge that apparently weren’t supposed to arrive on a bed of
ratatouille, but I was glad it did. It really was incredibly delish, local and
healthy tasting. Then I went with a ½ broiled chicken that was served with
shitake mushrooms, garlic, swiss chard and a variety of small potatoes. Again,
it was absolutely fab.
Linda gave us great notes, and everything she said was so helpful.
She recognized that a few members of the cast needed to work on their personal
characterizations a bit more. She knew we were still roughing some things out,
and one thing she said was that the Marvin Hamlisch/Ed scene where they are
working on “Chorus Line” music needed to be more ‘piano driven’. Our big
problem with that scene is that Marvin is supposed to play piano, and our
“Marvin” does not really play (although our “Ed” does, but of course he can’t
play for the scene because he is the lyricist in this particular musical
marriage). We have been doing the scene near my piano, and Marvin hands me
music and I interact with him and Ed, which is fun for me- but again, this is not
a really good solution. We will have to think about how we can fix this and
hopefully something inspired will surface.
The conversation turned to “Broadway Boogie Woogie” when
Michael (our choreographer) bemoaned the fact that the script called
for a little dance moment between Lucy and Michael Bennett, but the music in
the song doesn’t provide any underscore. Linda looked at me and said ‘well, go
ahead and write something’. [!] That was a pretty awesome moment.
Much of the evening, however, Linda offered us a number of
tantalizing tidbits about behind the scenes (and in some cases, never before
heard) information about Ed. For instance, “Mona” was written for/with Linda in
mind. She totally HATES the song, and Ed used to tease her by singing it to
her. That said, she knows that it is a great song. Lonnie Price wanted it in the
show, and she didn’t… but she gave in. And really, we are lucky that she did,
because it is a funny song. Linda also doesn’t like “Making Up Ways” (I am
wholly responsible for it being in our production because I pushed for it). She
feels it is a downer of a song, and since the next song “Under Separate Cover”
is also a downer, it’s two downers in a row. But my feeling (and Bob Moss’s
feeling) was that “MUW” really fleshes out the two different directions that Ed
and Sophie are going in, and sets up “USC” (which describes an ultimately
failed marriage) beautifully. This was Bob’s stroke of genius: “USC” comes off as
an epiphanal, triumphant moment as Ed turns Sophie’s break up with him into a
moment of composition invention.
Anyway, back to the dish: Ed and Linda were introduced by Tom Topor (the writer of the
1980 play NUTS which later became a movie starring Barbra Streisand). Tom and
Linda were dating, but she ended up dropping Tom and dating Ed instead. We heard
about Michael Bennett and the infamous parties held during the run of A CHORUS
LINE, and one particular one where Donna McKechnie tried to get Ed to dance
with her but failed. We heard about the background of Bennett’s musical workshop
project called SCANDAL, for which Ed was supposed to write. The musical had a
book by Treva Silverman who was a writer for TV’s “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and
created “Rhoda”. Ed hated the libretto: a woman whose marriage has gone stale goes
off to Europe to experience orgies and other sexual adventures after she
discovers her husband has cheated on her… and returns to him after discovering
herself through said adventures. He only wrote one song (“The Next Best Thing
To Love”, which appears in Act Two of our show) before leaving the project. Jimmy Webb (“By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”) took over as
songwriter. (Only one of Jimmy’s songs from the musical score has been
recorded: “Only One Love” by Michael Feinstein.) The project eventually was
shelved not only because of its own controversial topics, but also because such
sexual adventures appeared too risky as the global AIDS epidemic worsened. In
addition, Michael Bennett’s own health issues worsened and all of his directing
projects came to halt.
At the end of the evening, Linda told us she felt we were
really taking the show in a highly original, uplifting direction. The show was
considered to be somewhat dark and we have softened the underlying issues Ed
suffered with, lightened the tone of the show and brought the focus more on
Ed’s music. Upon getting this kind of wonderful validation from the librettist,
we knew that we were on the right track.
One more thing: we may have a big announcement as to a
special performance in a very special location, if all pertinent details are
worked out in favor of it. More on this to come!
