I'm watching Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds. This is....quite something? What is it, exactly? An orchestral show?

* Starts out with two steampunkers with telescopes and then switches to computer generated aliens plotting their attack on the US. There is a ginormous orchestra eating the stage.
* The music sounds REALLY like Phantom of the Opera. I don't know who Jeff Wayne is and I'm not entirely sure if Andrew Lloyd Webber is running this channel any more or turned it over to others or what the story is, but .... was this okay with Andrew Lloyd Webber to copy the Phantom that much?
* Liam Neeson is in this, playing a journalist. Characters are introduced with vague names like "the artilleryman" and shown on a screen. One guy is 'The Voice Of Humanity."
* The plot is showing on the giant screen of the aliens heading over. The guys show up on stage and are filmed ahead of time, I guess.
* "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said." Uh-HUH. I'm unclear if Liam Neeson-on-stage is supposed to be a hologram? Seems like at least some people are real (artilleryman). At one point Liam passes the artilleryman a drink? That guy has more to do than anyone.
* Oh, btw, GIANT ALIEN MACHINE ONSTAGE EMITITNG SMOKE N' FIRE!!!!!! *
* So....there's a guy that just...sings for Liam Neeson and is here in person? Hmmmmm.
* We have suddenly gone from alien war to quiet autumn leaves falling and wondering why his fiancee's not at her house (fleeing, I guess?). OH HEY HE BRIEFLY SAW CARRIE GETTING ON A BOAT....awww.
* "The Voice of Humanity" has a lot of hair and comes off as a rocker, kinda Tim Minchin-ish except blonde? So wait, the steamer ship Carrie's on is trying to attack the Martians?!?! and of course the boat sinks and the Martians win.

Act 2: Earth Under The Martians. Oh, never mind, he says Carrie's safe on another shore. Now they are having some kind of long distance....I dunno what, we see her giant head and her hologram, being all "I will hold your hand again." That's a little too 2020.
* "Red Weed" grows worse than kudzu and "threatens to swallow all of mankind."
* Oh, great, we needed a preacher who thinks aliens are demons. I do kind of like that he feels bad that he couldn't help people when they needed him, though. I like his wife Beth, encouraging him to fight back and have hope and stuff. Too bad her husband sucks. I certainly get being depressed because your world just ended and sucks (again, 2020) but....oof when a preacher loses it, I guess.
* Did she just get blown up?! Yup, she just got killed. That super sucks. Now we're stuck with that guy being even more shitty and mopey. The preacher is dragged away by the aliens.
* Of course the aliens are perfect, don't have sex or diseases. The journalist runs into the artilleryman again, who's taken "territory," whatever that means. "There's no war between men and ants. That's what we are now, ants!" He headed for the Martians. "And there'll be none of your namby-pamby civilization and stuff--that game's over." He suggests living underground in the drains, "sweet and clean now after the rain." Probably not a bad idea, all things considered. "It's not been so great living up here, in my opinion." Suddenly instead of the alien, there's a giant steampunk gear balcony for him to run around on. "And we'll play each other at cricket!" The artilleryman: the new voice of optimism after Beth's death. I have to say, I like his "brave new world" song the best here.
* "With our species on the edge of extermination, with no prospect but a horrible death, we actually played games."
* The journalist finally decides to give his life to the aliens and attack them somehow.... Except bacteria killed them! Wait, what? It took that long? And that's....it? I guess? So anti-climatic!
* At the end, they even have applause for the on-screen characters--the journalist and his fiancee do kiss-blowing.
* After the audience farewell, they have a NASA guy or two watching a lander on Mars.... uh-oh.... GUESS WHO'S BACK, SHADY'S BACK.... fire and zapping.... Well, that was certainly something crazy special and interesting, I must say.

Robin Hood is online. Godspeed there. 28 views as of 1 p.m. when I briefly looked to see if it was up, 69 views around 10 p.m. I confess I am concerned about how it's gonna go over (even if I suspect "viral" will not be an issue, I'd be more concerned then), but Loretta and Dawn agreed that it's a fun show and people need fun these days.

In other news today, I actually went among people and caved in to go see Dawn and Loretta for a few hours. Per new county rules as of yesterday: you can have up to 3 households mingle for 2 hours outdoors only, so I did exactly that and then left to go home and shower/eat before rehearsal. Presumably after I left it was legal for them to keep hanging out, at least! Anyway, it went well--Loretta's patio is a lot bigger and we could spread out and lock her gate--I wish I had a place like hers, it's really big for a single person and the patio is so nice and she doesn't have nearby neighbors smoking in a retirement community! Dawn brought me an entire box of stuff, which I was not expecting (I would have felt bad for Loretta but I am pretty sure she has been bringing Loretta stuff, from what I've heard.) Mostly it was papercrafting stuff and cute notepads, and an adorable peacock beach towel. She is also making me a purple pumpkin out of plastic canvas and threw in some plastic canvas stuff.

Both of them have already received notifications about their ballots, but they submitted theirs about a week earlier than I did (I was still making up my mind about the kidney clinics and crap like that). Mostly we talked about crafting, so that's typical...Loretta agreed with me that people are disappearing and she wonders if she'll have any friends left, and said she hasn't gone shopping except for the drugstore and grocery store, so she's skipping holiday gifts this year.

In other news, Loretta's dubious nephew has finally moved out of his mom's house and gotten a job at a NEW GYM (in Florida...oh, Florida). Dawn's husband's eye surgery does not seem to have been great so far. Also, she is probably going to move her retirement date again to take "voluntary separation" instead of retirement to get more money, but isn't sure if she will be allowed to do that because if she leaves that way, the department will not be allowed to rehire anyone for 18 months (are you kidding me?!). But her landlady who prompted all this shit has given up on selling the house, and while she's raising the rent $200 (geez....that's a lot for here, mine usually goes up $60 and Loretta's is going up I think by $20-30), she would let them keep renting there for another six months to a year. Ron is good with that, Dawn's not sure what to do. We pointed out that moving in summer is probably a lot better than moving around Christmas--Loretta moved on December 24 once and it poured rain the entire time. So Dawn may be around for a little longer.

I said we could do this again sometime. I feel okay about it, even if I inwardly freaked when Dawn randomly sneezed into her mask. Well, the mask was on, at least.

Charlotte's Web rehearsal quotes and notes:

Tom has a background of all of us on Zoom, how cute! Karen has her computer next to his green screen, which you can see half of on her end. He would walk into her screen at times tonight, which was also cute, if possibly has an echo noise.

Ben and Brennon (brothers, playing chorus members) have apparently dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances. Weirdly enough, they didn't even announce that flat out, just said that they were going back to 3 chorus members and they gave the role of 3rd Chorus to Paige. I am very happy about that because Paige is fun and excellent and lively and I remember thinking, "It seems a waste that she only does a few scenes in act 2" (as Uncle the rival pig, and the announcer). Now she has more, huzzah! I congratulated her. Paige would be a kid I would end up hanging out with IRL if possible, I think :p

Speaking of: she told a story about seeing a guy get mobbed by chipmunks after feeding one. Sean was all, we don't have squirrels in our show. I was all, I wish we did. Paige: people in squirrel costumes or actual squirrels. Me: either!

Also from Paige: “Philadelphia squirrels will throw rocks at you.”

Sarah the stage manager is out tonight because it's her birthday. Sean said we should sing to her later. "We’ll sing happy birthday on Zoom, which is always a catastrophe." Paige was all, that song's always like that, and it's copyrighted. I was all, "that's why they sing "happy happy birthday" in restaurants."

Sean wanted to play "Hey, let's ambush Karen again when she comes back on camera." We did this. She didn't notice. "Karen seems unimpressed with that." Karen faked surprise. Sean told a story about how he was trying to surprise her by jumping out from behind a bar and she yelled, “SEAN, I CAN SEE YOU.”

Paige told a story about missing a cue while faking sleeping on stage and getting shoved out there. "That was traumatizing." On a related note, I was listening to the Tobolowsky Files today while hiking around the living room and the one I was listening to, "The Resume," seemed related.

We were doing the scenes at the fair tonight, and “this is where the baby spiders get to play big bright colors." Paige is knocking out fair stuff out of the park. She is also doing great ad-libs, such as after doing the announcement that whoever parked by the fireworks shed needs to move their car, she yells, "EVERY TIME!"

Sean on how pampered Wilbur is: “Next we’re gonna get manicures and haircuts.”

Riley and Sean wish they could scratch Wilbur behind the ears.

On the scene where the kids are allowed to run around the fair on their own. Sean: "Why don’t we let the kids play in traffic by themselves. We need a break." Sean to the kids: "To get there, you two have to be a little bit annoying. I give you permission to be annoying.” Illy: "Yay!" "You got a built-in sitter at the fair. That would not happen now." -Sean

Avery is literally crashing a plane, Edith is ducking.

More Paige ad-libs: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Paige is directed to reiterate harder and harder as to what is going on with the special award. “REPORT TO HOMER ZUCKERMAN’S FAMOUS PIG.”

Riley put his name as “Lurv durv” on the screen. Sean called on him with that. "Lurv durv?"

I am to have A Moment in which I give Fern a Knowing Look about figuring out that she’s treating Henry Fussy by asking for 40 cents again. “You think your parents don’t know? THEY KNOW EVERYTHING." -Sean "You know, I like that she's treating him now. A little bit of feminism." -me

After I say, "You're very prominent yourself, Avery," he ad-libs "Thanks!"

“I love how everyone else is starting to play.” -Sean

We were supposed to rehearse from 5-8 tonight, but Sean let us out over an hour early. “If we’re all getting out earlier, can I text my parents to come pick me up earlier?” -Riley Sean: “NO." Riley: "Really?"

“If we sell out the show, I’ll buy everyone in the cast a treat” -Kearsten

Technology crew will be looking at us especially on Tuesdays. Illy has cheer tryouts. Um, how?

“The reason I have so many runs is that I want you bored before you go on. I want all of you to say “another run?” before we begin.” -Sean

Trinity is an East Coaster and Sean said she shouldn't have to be up until 11 tonight. "Get out of here, Trinity, you lunatic!" Trinity: "Goodbye, barnyard lunatics!"

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry