Rufus Finds TLS Tasty.

Today, I'm laid up with a sore throat. Luckily, I was able to slide into my doctor's office between appts. to get a test and a prescription. So, all is well. I just have to stay still, warm and quiet. But, I was feelin' a big down when I saw this:

That adorable face belongs to a Rufus, who lives with a friend of mine, J.R. Stuart, an acting coach at Indiana University Southeast, an actor, producer, director and god knows what else -- we ALL have to be all of those things in this business. Apparently, Rufus loved it. He commented, particularly, on sweet insouciance of the binding glue.

With the renewed attention coming to TLS by the London production, I'm starting to get more and more inquiries -- especially from people in college towns. TLS has great educational value about AIDS and does it in a humorous and entertaining, almost family friendly way. Maybe not for young kids, though I remember the 10 year old in Laguna who sat in the front seat, riveted.

When Rob Harris asked me what I "saw" for a London production, I told him he could do it on a street corner with a banjo, if that's all he had. Meaning, spend as little or as much on the physical production as you want. Or as famed songwriter Marilyn Bergman once said at an ASCAP musical theater workshop, when a writer was describing how the stage would move, and where the lighting would hit, "Don't talk to me 'set!'"

It's about the words and the music, and the great characters -- and, finally, the actors themselves, who will take it away from all of us every night, transforming it through their eyes. It's very exciting to even think about!

I remember, back in L.A., I was being interviewed by a writer for a local AIDS newsletter. When I told him that not only did I survive by writing these songs, but that the show would be opening in New York in a few months. His jaw hit the floor.

He said, "Do you know how many people have drawers full of plays that have never been seen on a stage? Who've been writing for years. And you're opening in New York?"

At the time, it seemed like such a natural progression, I hadn't really thought about it like that. Doesn't EVERYONE get their musical produced in New York, Off-Broadway? I think I was too sick at the time to give it that much thought.

But the highest honor is knowing Rufus found us chewy delicious.