Working with a very talented cast I've managed to get over 50% of the musical numbers staged. During the next two days, the goal is to finish the rest of act one. The Arthur arrived into town today and is exceptional - as are all of the principals. That makes life much easier...
Tonight I worked dialogue with some of the cast and had a really interesting time talking about the piece. In order to shorten the musical (it's rather long), I had made some pretty significant cuts. However upon hearing the lines spoken by the players tonight, I decided to open up a number of those cuts. It'll really help the show, and certainly makes me feel good as I love so much of the dialogue - being a fan of the Arthur legends since I was a young boy.
It's getting late, so I'll cut to the chase: I think that musicals AND operas should be treated much more as living entities that need to be reborn each time they are presented. We're currently in a present, operatically speaking, where directors and production designers re-think the operas, but where the music directors strive for note perfect renditions based on critical editions. It presents problems when one is trying to create a whole piece in a genre that is based on sung text.
Just a thought on this late night out in the country in Virginia...
