Yet Another Op'nin'

Four weeks, you rehearse and rehearse
Three weeks, and it couldn't be worse
One week, will it ever be right?
Then out of the hat it's that big first night.
-- Another Op’nin’ Another Show, from Kiss Me Kate

Boy Gets Girl opened this weekend with three performances. There were reviewers in the audience on Friday and Saturday nights and my father attended the Sunday matinee, where he would be joined by judges from ACT-San Diego (the organization which awards the Aubrey).

To friends in the theatre, I joked that if ACT sent judges to the matinee, there must be an early favorite in the heavily-laden Drama category this year. Theatre is a nighttime sport, I quipped, and judging the performance of so emotional a script mere hours after the lead has had her morning coffee smacks of election tampering. Especially if said lead’s father is going to be in the audience that day. Yep, I decided, in the Aubrey crap shoot, I’d be rolling snake eyes. But in the end, I felt the matinée was the best overall performance of the three.

One of the two reviews has already been distributed. Despite having now been reviewed by Robert Hitchcox three times, I still have no idea where he publishes his reviews; but as I have friends in the theatre kind enough to provide me with copies, I do, at least, get to read them.

Though Hitch (like my father) felt the script itself could be “tightened up,” he enjoyed the performance of it. Of me he said “This is Theresa’s tale and Lapczynski excellently moves through the deteriorating life of the World Magazine writer. Her emotions are absolutely real.”

He goes on to say “Boy Gets Girl is no walk in the park. This is a tough tale. It is profane. It is, at times, hard to watch. However, it is important to watch. It is important to feel what a woman goes through when she becomes a victim of a stalker. Lapczynski shows us the pain and the supporting cast shows us what to expect if one of our own is ever stalked.”

Hitch saw the Saturday performance, and the review of opening night will be published on Thursday, but the response of the ACT judges won’t be known until Aubrey nominations are announced in July. Still, even if Sunday’s matinée was the capper, I won’t be holding my breath for the summer nod. The play is too often distracted with set changes that slacken the tension between its 18 scenes. It might be just enough distraction to leave judges feeling better served by, say, Coronado’s Wait Until Dark, or Patio Playhouse’s Book of Days, or its The Diary of Anne Frank, or….

Anyway, I can’t be greedy. They liked me last year.