Perfect Days Pic

Ain't this a cool pic? It was either at final dress or one of the tech rehearsals, cause Chris Bloch (the catcher) is down on the deck rather than up above, where he ended up. - - I'm back in Chicago and chilling with the family. (My daughter is a PIECE OF WORK!!) Missing all my Doe-Nuts. I'll be back soon, y'all!!!

We're open!

The relieved writers.

A break from schmoozing

Eric Schaeffer, Eleasha Gamble, Alejo Viletti, Heidi Blickenstaff and James Moye at the opening night party at Old Ebbett's Grill.

The after-party

Okay, it was just in a different part of the same restaurant, but it >felt< special.
(Joel Blum, Guy Paul, me, Patrick Ryan Sullivan)

Decompressing

It's been a while since my last post (happy April!), but it's been a much-needed break from the intensity of the past 6 weeks. I looked in on the show last night for the first time in about a week, and it's in great shape! Performances have really crystallized, some actors are making some great new choices and continuing to explore their characters and keeping the material fresh. And audiences continue to respond enthusiastically, which is what I love. (Although I overheard an older gentleman last night saying that he "was NOT having a good time"; turns out, he wanted to be back in his hotel room watching Final Four action. Guess he's not a baseball fan.)

The icing on the cake for us has been some very nice reviews in local papers and online. Check them out here: Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Theatremania, DCist, and PotomacStages.com.

We may keep checking back for more comments, but if not, thanks for coming with us on our journey, and if you see the show, tell us what you think!

Podcast Interview with Andrew and Eddie

Joel Markowitz of DC Theatre Scene was nice enough to interview us for this podcast. Listen all the way through and you can hear Andrew and I belting out "Money Talks" from the score!

http://dctheatrereviews.com/review/2007/03/20/meet-john-doe/

I know it's corny, but...

Here's a great blog on the Huffington about the film MJD. This writer finds the need to say "I know it's corny, but...", which is something I find myself saying all the time when I talk about how passionately I feel about MJD's message. We're all oh so sophisticated and edgy that we need to make excuses for our simple sentiments? Maybe, but we still have them and they have great power; that's where the "but" comes from. Read it.

"Stick a fork in us, Ma, we're done."

(That being a line from our last version of the show.)

Today is our last preview, which means our last rehearsal. Which means our last chance to tinker. Eddie and I were up till 1AM IM'ing back and forth different versions of three important lines, and basically losing our minds. I can't write any more music because yesterday I ran out of staff paper when I was revoicing four brass/wind chords in "Bigger Than Baseball".

All of which is a VERY GOOD THING.

Last night, I was having dinner at the Tex/Mex place in the building where we live, and the last five months, since starting rehearsals at Goodspeed, kind of hit me in the stomach. Ann has a line in one of her new songs: "Gave it a go and killed a forest"; I can't imagine how many reams of paper we've gone through, when you consider that just at Goodspeed we handed out 37 sets of new pages, and have since written four new songs, rewritten several others, and added and cut a few scenes and a few characters. I'm burnt to a crisp.

Is the show perfect? I don't think there is such a thing. Is it the absolute best we can make it? Yes. Is it ready for audiences? Definitely. Do we desperately need to not be writing this show any more? Oh yes. Now the theatergoers will tell us what they think of it, and if they're like our preview audiences, I think they'll enjoy the ride we're taking them on.

I have to go write 200 thank you notes now.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

So it was the second preview. Solid show with some of those 2nd show wonkies sprinkled in. The sold-out crowd was eating out of Uncle Jokey's hand and falling in love with the Heidster and all the rest of the junk that goes on during the show. I slipped over to Hard Rock at intermission for a Heineken (Hey, I don't have a problem, YOU'VE got a problem, man!) And the second act cruised right along.

Now the last scene in the show has a fog effect that is super cool and we've been trying to get just right. Well...that night I was thinking it was pretty darn cool...sort of like a cemetery scene in Buffy when, at the worst possible moment, the theatre's fire alarm goes off. Halogen lights flashed as a pre-recorded voice instructed everyone to clear the theatre.

No one could believe it.

The actors, absolute pros, held their positions and tried to continue the show, but the voice kept on droning and the LAW, of course, required that the building be cleared.

Picture 600 people milling around in front of the theatre wondering what to do. Picture 3 fire trucks rolling up and the fire marshal striding into the theatre. Picture my Aunt Jane and Uncle Louie showing up in the crowd. Here's how it went down:

EDDIE: Aunt Jane?
AUNT JANE: Oh, hello, Eddie. What are you doing here?
EDDIE: My musical is playing here.
AUNT JANE: Oh this is the Ford's theatre. How nice.
EDDIE: What are you doing here?
AUNT JANE: Well you know how Uncle Louie likes fire engines...

The show went on, most of the audience filed back in to see the end of the show and Aunt Jane and Uncle Louie made it safely back to Ohio two days later. Love you two!!

"8,000 Doe-Nuts Stand In The Rain!"

Our first paying audience suffers through freezing rain and wind.

"We got the picture, and damn, it's good!"

Front Page News!

Okay, so it's front page of the Washington Post Style section, but still! Writer Nelson Pressley talked with us for over an hour and wrote a terrific piece. The photo credit got us mixed up, but that's okay, so did Eric for the first few weeks!

Read it here.

A Tale of Three Runs

Apologies for the lengthy absence of posts, but this past week has been one long haul. Tuesday was the third "ten-out-of-twelve" (that's hours long) tech day with a stumble through with the band in the evening, then Wednesday was another tech-fix day and another sort of run. Our first real run was Thursday night, the invited dress rehearsal, with a crowd of about a hundred friends, supporters, volunteers, ushers, park employees (Ford's is a National Park, after all), and producers from Ford's and Goodspeed, as well as a friend and supporter of the show, Ted Shen.

It was a great, great show, everything coming together finally, tech snafus clearing up, the cast getting used to the lights and their costume changes and the raked stage and the band, etc., and I had a great time. After, the producers all met to confer and gave their thoughts to Eric. The report back was that they adored the second act but had a general note of slight concern about the first; this, of course, was exactly the opposite to Eddie's and my reaction. Between all of us, we joked, we have a hit!

We really couldn't imagine what they were hearing when they told us their concern, but during the first paid preview on Friday, I gave it a hard listen and I saw exactly what they were talking about. As a result, I didn't enjoy that performance too much, I was too busy trying to figure out what we could do to fix the issue. I should say I didn't enjoy it until the curtain calls — the audience was largely groups of high school students, who I was worried would find the piece too dark or old-fashioned or whatever, but they were the first to jump to their feet when Jim and Heidi came downstage for their bows. Some were crying. I went and spoke to one of their chaperones (I could spot them from their bright red "MHS" varsity jackets). "Where are you from," I asked. "We're from Marion, Iowa," she said, "and we've brought about 150 band and chorus students, most of whom have never seen a professional theater production." I tentatively asked her their reaction, and she told me they all loved it.

I felt pretty great that MJD was the first show these kids saw and it really seemed to speak to them. But we were still left with the first act issue. The only solution seemed to be to cut a number of John's, a song that was one of the first ones we ever wrote for the show, and a real favorite, not just with us but the producers, as well. Nevertheless, everyone agreed they wanted to try cutting it, and we reluctantly said okay, expecting it to be terrible and so obviously necessary to the show that it would go right back in. Well, second preview came, minus the song, and we had to agree the act plays better without it. Ah well, another for the trunk.

That was a nice surprise; what wasn't such a nice surprise was:

Washington Post Article Number 2!

I'll let Eddie tell you about this one, truly a moment for the scrapbooks.