Well, dear readers, there are opening nights and then there are OPENING NIGHTS, and ours was all caps all the way, I’m thrilled to say. We were completely sold out, we could not have asked for a better audience, and the actors hit it right out of the damn park. There was simply no way to predict in advance how audiences would react to this piece, and the two previews had pacing issues and sound issues and there just weren’t that many people there. But last night, starting with the opening explanatory monologue, the laughs were there instantly, but that’s not the problem or unpredictable part. It’s the first scene, where we find out that our protagonist (one of two) has not only ALS but a brain tumor. And the top of that scene MUST get laughs, or the audience starts to take it seriously. Thankfully, the timing was spot on, there were two huge laughs right away, and then there’s a skeleton onstage as part of the set and one of the things I knew I wanted from the very first workshop (although we couldn’t do it at either workshop) was for the skeleton’s head to move side to side as the two characters stand on either side of it, to laugh at one of the lines, and I knew if THAT got the laughs I knew it could get, then the audience would “get” the humor and irreverence, and that the important issues of the play would come through entertainingly rather than heavy-handed. The trick is all in the timing and all in the pacing and that’s what I have been hammering home at every single rehearsal, and why I kept adding bits – physical or lines or whatever. My favorite directorial bit in the show brought the house down with a HUGE laugh – it’s a two-part gag and it could not have worked better. I mean, people were talking about it at intermission and after the show. That is the stuff I live for. And any show in which I get to use a spit take is my kind of show and that, too, got a huge laugh. There were just tons of laughs but also when they weren’t laughing, I think they were genuinely involved in the story and the issues of the play. And then the musical numbers all landed perfectly, got laughs when they should have, and my favorite number in the show to the tune of I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan – in which I literally copied the staging that Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan did in The Band Wagon, only simplifying a few things – well, it worked like a dream and got the biggest hand of the evening in terms of the songs. We added one line for tonight and while the delivery wasn’t quite right, it did get its laugh and when it’s timed exactly right it will get a bigger laugh. And it really helped the moment where it occurs. At the end we got hefty mitts and you could see people beginning to stand up BUT – and maybe this is just one of my quirks, but I HATE faux standing ovations, and I purposely do curtain calls that don’t allow for them. Sometimes they happen anyway, and I feel those are genuinely earned, but the ones on autopilot are just not for me. So, after they gesture to the lighting and sound booth, and take a bow, that’s when people start to stand – but at that moment, I have the cast reprise the opening number with exit lyrics, so everyone sits down to listen. Then we do a final bow and they exit. Anyway, I was VERY happy. The comments at the partay were lovely – one gent thought this was the best play he’s seen at the Group Rep. As the Gershwins wrote, who could ask for anything more?

Prior to that, I got about seven and a half hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, had a beautiful modern major miracle, ordered something for food – trying to remember what – oh yeah, clam chowder and a kid-size tiny pizza, which is basically like eating a slice and a half. I did about two or three new pages for the book, dozed off for ninety minutes, shaved and showered, and moseyed on over to the theater at six-fifteen. Oh, and whilst waiting for food to arrive at noon, I wrote all the thank you cards, which I gave out when I got to the theater. The partay after was fun and now I’m about to eat some wings from Wingstop because I’m super hungry.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll futz and finesse, and I’ll try to write between seven and ten new pages. That will get me close to page 100 and then on Sunday I’ll send Muse Margaret however many pages it actually is and hope for the best. I’ll eat something light for food, and then I’ll see our show. I know it’s light, but I’m hoping it fills up a bit more. I may go out after, depending on who is in the audience.

Tomorrow is our matinee and there’s a talkback after, then some of us are going to eat after that. Then this week is really catching up on the writing and moving forward with great alacrity and purpose.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, futz and finesse, write new pages, eat something light, see our show and maybe go dine after. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the most exciting opening night you’ve ever attended? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that our opening night was one for the books, as they say.