We had an rough first run-through Tuesday and a wonderful work-through tonight. I have stopped thinking that I know anything about how this play works or what it is about. Laurie and I made those decisions weeks and months and years ago. Now we are just clinging to each other, and watching the story go into action.
It seems that comedy is the most constructed thing in the universe, and that it requires ten times more thought than ordinary drama.
Molly Sue McDonald, who is some kind of genius, has sussed out my musical-comedic moments in the score, and improved on all of them. One of them required that there be no accompaniment for one beat. I knew there was a joke there. I wrote it. Molly figured it out.
There is another series of jokes that requires exact timing of lights, movement, music and text. Tonight Laurie and I laughed ourselves silly over it the first time. The second time…it didn’t work. Go back and do it again. It’s all in the call…
I love this play, and I think it is the best thing I have ever done. Come and see it.
