New York
That's where I am.
The opening night went very well. I of course, didn't
see too much of it. I never do. I usually just pace
around or hang out in the lobby. I peek in every once
in a while and check something out then leave again.
Openings are sometimes tough for a director. Ya work
so hard on something and then it opens and you have
zilcho control on the outcome. Everyone did a great
job. There were so many last minute changes and every
one handled them wonderfully and professionally. I
was amazed with Craig Taylor. Having to learn a new
light board and wire new lights and accomodating all
the last minute changes and program cues and then run
the show on opening without one little tiny glitch.
The cast and Ruby executed everything with absolute
precision as well.
Molly and Beth
I want to take this spacetime to thank Molly and Beth.
The last few days before an opening there are so many
things that come up....little things/big things.
Molly Cavanaugh and Beth Klingerman were invaluable
in these final moments of the show. Anything one
needed was there. Wonderful women.....why are there
so many in my life.....
Party
After the show there was a party at Second City and
then The Annoyance. All night fun fun. Everyone in
good cheer celebrating the consequence of a creative
process. Nothing better.
I have a thing about opening nights. I think only
good things should be said at them. Even if the show
sucks, an opening night for me is a celebration of
that it was created, not what it was. I'm a bad
person to come up to on an opening and give your
negative opinions of the show to. Shut up have
a beer and then you try it cowboy. Happy Happy. Enough
of that.
The day after opening I got on a plane and headed to
Sarasota, N.Y.
There was a comedy festival there and I taught 3
workshops. That was fun and odd.
One night an opening in a big city with lots of
people, the next in some remote motel out in the
middle of the woods with dead silence all around.
Spooky. The workshops went well and now I'm in
Manhattan. I just thought of Dr. Manhattan from
the Watchmen....oh, never mind. So it's President's
day (which I don't give a damn about) and I'm sitting
at my friend's and I'm on about my 6th cup of coffee
and I couldn't be happier. I still can't get the
show out of my head...but being here helps. Writing
this, of course, doesn't.....but I'm enjoying it to
hell and back. Do I seem more relaxed? I am. Totally
relieved. What a good experience Paradigm Lost turned
out to be. The best part about it for me in this
moment is that I miss the cast. I grew closer everyone
in this cast and truly miss them after only 3 days.
It's hard for the cast, because one night they open
a show with all their friends around celebrating and
whatnot, the next night they are doing the show twice
for a paying, somewhat indifferent audience. That's
the work.
Review
Only one review has come in for the show that I know
of, and here it is. I pulled it off that wonderfully
reliable and complex online service AOL. God, they
are great...what a good good commercial server. Gosh,
they are great....excuse me, here's the Chicago
Tribune review:
SECOND CITY NOTCHES THE BELT WITH `PARADIGM LOST'
The only thing that should be gnawing at the collective conscience of the
current generation of mainstage performers at Second City is that their
latest revue, "Paradigm Lost," sets a new standard of troupe-oriented comedy
to which successive ensembles will be held.
Of course, if that's the worst that can be said about the institution's
82nd revue, director Mick Napier and his cast should be all the more
confident -- and a trifle pressured -- as they must sustain the same,
off-the-scale levels of conviction and indefatigable enthusiasm that powered
them through a brilliant, nearly flawless opening night.
With the oft-unsung help of canny blocking, sharp lighting and impeccably
timed sound effects (a Second City trademark), "Paradigm Lost" detonates over
the wavy fields of mania; it rages from start to finish with leering,
sometimes venereal, glimpses of the advanced stages of Pre-Millennium
tension, and demonstrates with sheer, accurate absurdity how this cultural
dementia has thrown our turn on planet Earth so far out of whack.
One laughs with caution at the opening vignette that takes place in the
main office of a photo-copier company just as the "suits" learn their sales
division is going for more of "a Country & Western motif" to spruce up their
image and hopefully improve numbers. The laughs are qualified because, in
these "Whatever" times, the scenario is not only funny, it's plausible.
When they weren't casting eyes toward the lurching realities of today --
and tomorrow -- the perfectly balanced cast took turns goofing on and off the
floorings and joists of smart, uncomplicated comedy by way of parody and
flat-out daffiness.
And though it seems unfair to single out anybody in this merry band of
muscular comics, it should be noted that Rachel Dratch and Jim Zulevic (whose
portrayal of a 4th grade teacher is worth the ticket, if only to see him take
attendance) seem to be the ones most likely to have their present fortune
eclipsed by future success on the live stage.
O.K....that was that.
I will post more reviews and whatnot as they come
in. I also plan to write and epilogue to this in the
next couple of weeks.
bye for now.
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