North Hollywood, California
Are we really putting on this musical in a year and 16 days? I can't honestly say I know exactly how, but, to paraphrase Anne (in the movie, at least), we intend to "if hard work can do it". We've been working pretty hard the past three weeks - and I have a strong feeling it's only just beginning!

But, very soon, we will have a completed demo to show for it. We'd better - Leo's scheduling the listening party for a week from today! :) We finished recording the vocals on 26 May (including my contribution - you bet I was nervous, and I thought I could have done better, but Leo and Johnny the Sound Engineer said I did fine), and we had three intense mixing sessions last week - including two that ran into "the wee sma's", to quote Maud. There's another one coming tonight, and I assume it will run about as late. We may need one more after that, but that should do it. We did the harder, more involved songs first and saved the simpler ones for last. Much as the constant creativity has rejuvenated me - my spirit was really getting stifled only doing the data entry job - I am about ready to be done with this now. Not only do we have to get demos to producers "toot sweet", but there's a lot of other stuff that needs to be done and a lot of preparations that need to be made...

I have to say, it's been a little bit of a challenge speaking up for myself in terms of the mixing. For example, I got very used to listening to Leo's orchestrations without the percussion. And I've found, as I've been introduced to the percussion, that quite a lot of it - especially the higher end stuff - adds a rather modern sound to the proceedings, whereas I would like things to sound as period as possible depending on the scene. So I've had to be a bit of a butt with pretty well every song to get that across; thankfully there's been general agreement and we've EQ'd a lot of it so it's more ingrained in the mix, and, thankfully, Leo's often felt the same way about cutting percussion out of certain parts - sometimes before I even say anything. Of course, you have to give in sometimes - but, for the most part, we end up on the same page.

I admit, Leo and I had one struggle about one simple line - one simple word, actually - Leo wanted it one way, but I wanted it another, so I asked the singer to record both ways. It's a spoken line, ironically enough. Leo needed to satisfy the rhythmic integrity of his orchestration, but I needed to satisfy the integrity of the character and the situation. We both were holding our ground and things got a little tense. But, after I had a chance to sleep on it, I found a way to fix it to where we both end up satisfied, although it won't reflect in the demo - it wouldn't do to bring the singer back in just to say one line. So we're leaving it for now. I hate to be stubborn and ornery (OK, on one level it's kind of fun), but I've always been very big on artistic integrity and I've had more than one battle over the years regarding it. I edited our Drama movie in high school and the A/V teacher told me I shouldn't do the end credits the way I was doing it; after it was done he told me he was glad I didn't listen. When I was in radio, I recorded a spot one way, but the rest of the staff sassed me about it and recorded their own version; when the client heard both, it was mine that was chosen. I may not have any kind of formal training in matters of art, but I know when something's wrong, and I know when something's right. And, to be fair to Leo, he was also battling for artistic integrity. Actually, occasional scuffling aside, I think that's why we work so well together - if one collaborator has that kind of integrity and the other doesn't, you'd have one collaborator with passion and purpose and another that doesn't care or is just going after what's commercial or what's going to make money. So I'm very grateful that we're both passionate and purposeful about our work, and it's well worth the occasional scuffle. Anyway, I'm happy we finally agreed on a way that satisfies both of us. All this so we can bring you the best musical we possibly can!

In closing, I finally get to post what I had wanted to post a couple of weeks ago, but didn't want to do without express permission - Leo and I are both very thrilled and honoured to have an actual television and Broadway star on our demo in the role of Ewan: Fred Applegate. Not only did he star as Officer O'Toole in both the stage and theatrical versions of The Producers, he played the lead Nathan Lane role in the London production! We were actually very lucky to get him while he was in between jobs - next week he's off again! But, most importantly, especially for all us LMM and Anne fans, who do you think he once worked with on stage? Megan Follows! So, you see, it all ties together - and rather a good omen, if I do say so myself!

It's meant, I'm telling you.

Still have to compile all the video I took during the recording (and now mixing) sessions and fashion it into the next video installment - I plan to have it up by the weekend, so be on the lookout!