Friday, January 26, 2007

Just a few notes.

Last night's show was one of those very powerful shows where people weren't raucously laughing at first, but when a more obvious punchline hit, they exploded. It felt like they were intensely staying with us, word by word. Funny how that works. You never know what they're going to do. All you can really do is put yourself on the stage, say the words and trust the material. I think people have gotten the word that while the show is very funny, it's also a roller coaster filled with twists and turns. Sometimes it feels like they're hanging on for dear life.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner with a group, one of whom was a TV producer with a major network. She was exorbitant in her praise and was trying to help us look for an "angle" that a network might latch onto as a story. (For those who don't know, not to sound cynical, but most TV news organizations either look for "faces" -- someone famous who will hold the screen, or some newsworthy "angle" as a reason to run a story, meaning it's not enough to go to the news producer and say, "You should do a story on these guys because they're good.")

She also said to me, "Can you hear the people crying in the audience?"

I said, "No. The lights are bright in my eyes and I can't really hear much except silence."

"There were lots of tears around me. You really move people with this show."

She also said how much she loved the lyrics to the songs. Then we talked about the diary. I told her how I was one of the first online diaries/blogs, how much of a profound effect it has had on the lives of many people, about The Last Session, etc.

It was a great night. My feeling is that the more we just stay up and running, the more the show will continue to find its audience and attract people who will get involved.

For the rumor mill: A major Broadway producer with a hit show on Broadway right now is talking to us right now about a 10th anniversary production of "The Last Session" involving some very big names. Can't say much about it yet because it's all talk, but it feels, at last, like it could really happen. Perhaps as a one night fundraiser. And then, after that? Who knows? So, keep your fingers crossed. I don't want to jinx it, but the energy is high for this.

2 comments:

JoyZeeBoy said...

I'm so happy for you! I had a feeling that if you hung on long enough even better things were going to start coming your way.

They say that "90% of success is showing up." While that's true, it's also true that the remaining 10% better be pretty damn good.

And believe me, you and Jim are pretty damn good.

Tell the tv producer you don't need a "hook." You guys ARE the hook!

And tell the B'way producer you want Brian Stokes Mitchell to play you.

Steve Schalchlin said...

Funny you should mention Stokes. I have a meeting with him in a couple of weeks to see if I can get him to sing some of my songs.