Thursday February 18 - Presentation #2!

Tonight was the longform presentation of '40 is the New 15' for the Disney/ASCAP panel. The performance went off without a hitch, and I was very proud of the actors and the presentation.  The audience... a full (if not overflowing) house... loved the show.  There was extended applause after nearly every song, constant outbursts of laughter, and the many many many effusively positive comments I heard from audience members after the presentation and at the end of the evening were  heartwarming, reassuring, and wonderful.  Clearly we were doing something right, and since my goal going in was to touch and effect some people through theatre, mission accomplished!

The panel, unfortunately, were a bit harsh and their general tone was negative, which was disappointing and off-putting.  Stuart Ross (writer of Forever Plaid) started things off with some statements about the songs in general, which set the tone for the evening.  (I have to say, that when panelists in this situation use words like 'all' or 'none', this is particularly off-putting for me.  Things like: "All the songs do this," or "None of the scenes do that."  Please don't lump all show moments into one and give them the same comment.  Be specific!  Not every song or moment is an accurate example of the particular issue you are discussing!  Some are, in fact, examples to the contrary!)  Despite this annoying trait, his notes included some gems that we will certainly take into account.  And he did appear to really like the scenework, and had some nice things to say about that, so I suppose I should mention that, in the sake of fairness.

Leslie Dixon (writer of Mrs. Doubtfire, among other things) was absolutely wacky, and I loved her.  At times it seemed as much a standup routine as it was a critique, but surprisingly, amongst the hilarity, I actually thought she 'got' the show, and I found quite a few of her comments to be quite useful.   

Stephen did, as he does in this forum, sum up the comments and use the opportunity to discuss an over-arching issue.  In our case, it was subtext; he felt there was too much text in the songs and not enough subtext.  (He felt that the scenework was much more effective in this balance.)  I agree with this note wholeheartedly, certainly there should be more subtext in the lyrics, and I suppose my only defense would be to say... but that's haaaard!  (There are, of course, moments where we do use subtext effectively in the lyrics, so I'll take a moment to celebrate those here!  Hooray for us!)

Anyway, the show clearly isn't perfect, as no show is, and we will continue to craft and refine it as we move forward.  And these notes will definitely help do that.  Meanwhile, I had three different people, none of whom I had met previously, tell me that our presentation brought them to tears.  So there you have it.  It was a success!