First Run Was Amazing, Dress Rehearsal Was A SLAM DUNK!

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

The first run thru and Dress Rehearsal were fantastic! The green hair in context works fine. The Overture is back.

I watched in AWE as the show unfolded Wednesday evening for the very first time. I watched the audiences as much as I watched the shows and I was mesmerized by both. The show makes you laugh and it might even make you cry. The story, the music, the direction and the performances together are an amazingly powerful brew.

Wednesday night the lady next to me, who had no idea I was the writer, nudged me and said, "This is so beautiful."

One of the really beautiful things about the first run through for me was hearing some of the music for the first time in the context of the show. On my last trip to Portland I was mostly writing transitions to fit between the big scenes. One of them was this little half pager after Prometheus is sentenced to the rock in which Epimetheus realizes it has fallen on him to care for the children. Michael had walked in and asked what I was working on. I read him the line "What shall become of these Innocent children?" and in an instant he was at the piano with this wonderful gentle little theme. For me it's one of the most tender moments in the whole show.

It really is remarkable. The cast is wonderful. The children will melt your heart. I don't want to give too much away, but you really don't want to miss this show.

Putting the show right up with no work shopping and really without time to make changes has been a gutsy move on Greg Tamblyn's part, but it works.

I spent the afternoon autographing show posters. This is a shot of a small corner of whole room full of my drying signatures.


So AMAZING! I sent Michael and Greg a stack of papers six weeks ago and now it's a living breathing thing. Can't wait for Opening Night!

OPENING NIGHT

ZEUS IS IN THE HOUSE!

The show was fantastic! We had the pleasure of playing to a sold out house (including over 40 friends and family that came from California, Utah and Idaho). Obviously, I can’t give an unbiased opinion of the show, but based on feedback from the audience (not necessarily friends and family), it played extremely well.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

I have had the pleasure of watching audiences for three nights now to try and guage their connection with the story and characters, etc. and it’s so fun to watch the tension build and break and the relief and pleasure that fills the audience in its place at just the right moments.

HOPE'S LULLABY

Considering this was only the third time the cast had performed the show in its entirety, they are amazing. Overall they probably played a little tight, still testing and getting comfortable with their delivery and timing, but the audience couldn't have known and offered generous applause and laughter in all the right places as well as a well deserved standing ovation to close the show.

PANDORA'S BOX

I’m confident the universal themes in the story that jumped out at me thirteen years ago when Michael first told me his idea for the story of Prometheus on the school stage in Dutch Harbor, Alaska are indeed universal. We are still in the evolutionary process of creating the show, but for a first staging this is a remarkable production.

HERMES AMBITION

Michael's music is phenomenal. Greg Tamblyn has pulled off the amazing feat of taking the story from the page to the stage in a matter of a very short six weeks. The sheer volume and concentration of his work in bringing together every aspect of the show is beyond comprehension.

WELCOME TO FORTUNE'S HOUSE OF CARDS

I can’t begin to properly praise the dedication and determination of the entire cast and crew who have so generously poured their creative talents and energy into the show. And of course, Kay Vega and Andrew Edwards and their board, backers and staff at the Lakewood Center for the Arts have been absolutely wonderful to work with.

I BREATHE

This has been a night of nights.

THE FEAST

In the words of Zeus himself, "Friends ain't life a ball when there's no last call... So here's to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow for all eternity!!!!!!!

Let there be Opening Nights for Prometheus for all eternity!

Not What You Expected, Huh!

The night before the night before dress rehearsal I must admit I thought the show was doomed.

I met with Greg at about 6pm before any of the actors had started showing up and he and I sat in the middle of the theater while he worked thru light cues. I could tell tensions were high. He led with, “Dave, remember life is a series of compromises…”

A few minutes later costumed actors started taking the stage in funky Elton Johnesque green pants, rainbow coats and sonic green wigs. I sat thru the walk thru of actors taking their marks and mumbling their lines. It was as if a cardboard doubles of the original cardboard Al Gore had possessed the entire cast.

Two days till dress rehearsal and there were still seemingly hundreds of little decisions to be made. Michael was still tinkering with the music. The Overture had become this metallic amalgam of new themes light on piano and heavy on guitar. I couldn’t believe that the show had somehow spun so far off our original concept, that after all these years of waiting and trying to hold this thing together the dark side had taken over.

The cast and crew worked the ins and outs of the show as a walk thru. “Who’s supposed to strike this table? Where do I put the fire thing? When’s the fire guy coming with the flame? This is Pandora’s box? How does it open?” I am not kidding, these are real questions from real cast members three days before opening.

The walk thru was for transitions only, so the music would start with the crescendos and fade to the end of the song and the cast and crew would descend on the set and make the moves. The mechanics of the show floated by and all I could see everywhere I looked were these crazy green wigs. It was like a Dr. Suesian nightmare. Thing One and Thing Two on steroids were multiplying and taking over my show.

Tuesday night was like being a father and having a wonderful magical bright eyed sweet daughter and then sending her off to school. Tragedy strikes and you are unable to get back to her or get her home again. So for years you hold on to this enchanted vision of your little girl. Finally, years later the moment comes when fortune has at last returned and you at last are going to meet your little girl again for the first time in all these hopeful years. And in she walks with green hair and screaming guitars, and though you try to love her you are just so dumb founded you can’t feel anything except a bewildered awkward resentment for your daughter and for the hope that led you along and then cheated you out of this moment.

It was awful. All the hope for this beautiful child of a dream that I have been nurturing for all of these years melted from my soul and the hollowness was terrifying. I called Suzi and told her the show was awful and that she still had to come, but not to expect much. I have 40+ friends flying in from all sorts of places to see the show and I was embarrassed to think that they were coming to see this “World Premier” and it was going to be a disaster. Honestly, I was devastated. That the green people had taken over.

You may laugh at this now… I can laugh at this now, but it was absolutely terrifying at the time. Greg’s final words that night as he and Michael and I parted after a rather tense and abrupt parting was, “Hey, it’s only Tuesday.”

The Feast - Prometheus the Musical

Zeus and Ganymede from the 2006 Concert