Letters to Holly

Thursday, August 7

In Through the Out Door (Out Door)

I picked up what will hopefully be the last script last night: the musical version of It's A Wonderful Life.

It was written in 1993, and it demands you know the story before you watch the show. Significant things don't happen onstage, and the cardinal sin of "telling, not showing" happens often. The near-drowning, the near-poisoning, the high school dance, every heartbreaking moment where George doesn't get to leave town -- we miss the good stuff.

The play then is a thin scaffolding for the new songs, and the lyrics ain't nothing to write home about. It's been a while since I read a full-length musical script (probably when I was in Sound of Music) but this sucker feels awkwardly designed. The first act is 60 pages long; the second act is 30. That's a LONG first act for an audience that doesn't know the songs, and the songs don't tell the story either. They are Greek choruses of emotional definition.

I like musicals. Good musicals. Without hearing the songs, I can't vouch for this one. It seems like a bad idea. Why not do the straight play? Because a local theatre already does a radio-staging of the play. It doesn't seem smart to compete with that, especially when we have The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge, a sterling comedy version of Christmas Carol.


We are preparing the Big Trip at home. Your Sis cooked out again, and the dinner was delish. But as I was helping her carrying food outside the house, I kinda sorta tackled the screen door. It's stuck and stubbornly moved for a while now, and last night we had to take it off the house entirely to fix it. We managed that, and now it works better than before.

We watched new Mythbusters and some Daily Show and Colbert.

I also rigged up the garden hoses for the gal housesitting for us. I attached a timer to the spigot and attached a double spout to that. That attaches to two hoses and two sprinklers. But we don't have enough pressure to power two hoses simultaneously. The timer will be useless for her, but she can flip the spout control knobs to switch from one hose to another. This will water the whole garden without her moving one sprinkler to cover the plants.

I found a great belt buckle online for my saior costume. I still need a parrot.

Picture of the Day
I can't decide if these are lame or cool.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

cool points for the prince reference in today's title!

Gregory said...

I almost kept it going:

I almost drooopped
a tasty fillet.
The kind you buy
in a swanky butcher store.

A marinaded fillet.
And if it was burned,
she wouldn't cook no more.

A thick steak fillet.
I never saaaaaw
that fucking door.