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Monthly Archives: September 2006

ASK ABOUT MAKING CHANGES

9/26/06

I get a lot of requests for clarifications in the texts and scores of my shows, and more rarely I get e-mails asking for changes in a lyric or a key, but every once in a while, I get a letter like the one below, one which suggests an improvement for one of my shows and permission to implement it. I don’t generally have time to respond to most of these letters (these requests are supposed to be directed to MTI, who can handle most of them with boilerplate responses), but occasionally I feel obliged to get directly involved. ARead More »

SOUND BLOG #5: CHANUKAH COMES EARLY

9/11/06

Oh, I suspect there are many things in the world that can be blamed on Larry Blank, but only some of them are musical, and this is the story of one of those things. I made Larry’s acquaintance through our lawyer, Mark Sendroff, when I asked Mark for some recommendations for orchestrators. (Larry has done several charts over the years for my State Farm shows, and he is also an extraordinarily gifted conductor.) Larry and I had a good time hanging out, I think we probably had some form of mutual respect based on the fact that at some pointRead More »

A WEEK OF AUDITIONS

9/2/06

So far, every aspect of casting “13” has come with a phalanx of caveats. Casting the workshop was difficult because, we were told, many kids’ agents wouldn’t submit their clients for a theatrical workshop during “pilot season,” not surprising when a talented (or at least telegenic) kid can make more money in one day of work on even a mediocre sitcom than that kid would make over the course of the entire six-week workshop process. Furthermore, many of the junior high schools and high schools that have strong drama programs wouldn’t let their kids audition for us because it wouldRead More »