Second preview

Well we got another song for the Christmas Album, as Matt says — or part of one anyway. Yesterday afternoon we put a number of cuts into the show reworking the opening number as well as the ending. We also added some internal cuts to THE RAVEN, which all worked very well at last night’s preview. Matt said now the Christmas Album may have to be a two disc set, which is far from true, but he’s kept a great sense of humor through it all. We worked on fine-tuning a number of other sections of the show as well. Actors are still stumbling over a few lines that we attacked at today's rehearsal. Grace also made a few minor book changes. It always gets a little crazy when we’re putting in these music changes so that the orchestra receives a cut list when they arrive for the performance that evening and have to mark their charts accordingly. We never get to rehearse them with the orchestra so you just hope everyone reads the memo! I was very encouraged once again by the preview last evening. I had a producer from NYC come and it was great to get her positive reactions to the show. Three more people hunted me out afterwards to ask for a CD of the music, so we’re looking into the possibilities of making a cast album if we can acquire the additional funds.

—ES