Yesterday’s start of rehearsals for Paramount’s The Secret of My Success has proven to be quite the moment illuminating how far we’ve come and where we’re headed. The Art Center continues to envelop us in its atmosphere of creative potency, feeling so exciting and fresh with everyone gathered to begin this new work! There’s an embrace of friends from Universal Pictures on the west coast, our director, co-writing team and cast from the east coast and our third coast home team players, composers and actors lighting up the place with their talent and energy. There was lively participation and response attending greetings, welcomes, introductions, design presentations and the table reading of the new script! Composers Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler (both in fantastic voice) sang every song while members of the cast were already landing lines with killer comic chops. And the poignant moments at the core of the work hit their mark: that kind of “you could hear a pin drop” type of thrall: from big laughs to big heart! An incredible first day!
Left the session walking on air passing the doors to our school where I’m teaching Monday nights, down the block looking into Stolp Island Social, crossing the street and up the steps to the North Island Center into the atrium filled with the scent of sawdust and renovation. On the way to the office, the Copley Theatre doors are open airing the refurbishing and reconfiguration of the space for our next (and soon to be announced) creative endeavor. At my desk, work waits for next season’s Broadway Series.
They leave connected to something within themselves, lighter, and well, happier! A most fulfilling theatrical venture!
Beauty and the Beast completes its phenomenal holiday run this Sunday. This monumental production: it is a harshly bittersweet reality that it must end. Just saw it again last week. You almost can’t believe your own eyes and ears as you experience the visual, aural and emotional grasp of it. Every performer, from principals through the ensemble, is a world-class stunner! And this story’s depiction here directed by Amber Mak has been resonating with an unexpected realness for our audience. They leave connected to something within themselves, lighter, and well, happier! A most fulfilling theatrical venture! That’s what we’re here for and will continue to serve and deliver. Happy 2020 indeed!
Love & thanks,
Jim