DISNEY LIVE!
The show Marci has been working on for nearly two years made its US debut Friday night at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. This is the show that was being cobbled together in spring, 2004 and premiered in Christchurch, New Zealand with me in attendance. I thought it was pretty boring and overlong then, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it again in Madrid, Spain, in late December, 2004, that it had been considerably tightened and honed. I saw it several times and although it was in Spanish, I got to know the show fairly well.
Friday, I saw the show in English for the first time since Christchurch and with my kids by my side. A couple of tweaks had been made, but it was roughly the same show I remember from Madrid, minus my favorite line. In English, the characters call out to "Rabbit" but in Spanish they call out to "Senor Cornejo." I just love that and now whenever I am looking for a lost object I poke around, calling "Senor Cornejo!"
The emergency which sent Marci to Spain was that Michael Eisner was scheduled to see the show soon after in London and everything needed to be just right. Eisner always questioned why his company was getting into this new business - live theatrical entertainment for children. If Eisner sees a bad show, then Eisner pulls the plug, and Marci needs to find busy work on pink slip days. As it turned out, Eisner canceled and never did see the show.
Well, Eisner's reign ended Friday at 5PM PST. His replacement, Bob Iger, took the reins and his first official function as CEO was attending this show. He brought the kids (although no babely wife) and the six- and three-year-old were dancing in the aisles. Iger was seated next to John Clark, Marci's boss, and his only question for Clarkie is "why are we not doing more of this?" This guy gets it. So, John Clark is in with the new boss, and Clark's favorite go-to guy is my wife. Very pleasing turn of events.
On the brush with fame tangent, Marci pointed out Richard Sherman to me at the cocktail party, and we later shared a moment in the men's room. I pointed out where the towels were and he responded with a booming "thank you sir." Funny, without Marci having pointed him out, he would have gone down as just another old guy in a yellow jacket. It made me wonder who all those old guys are that I have been urinating next to for all these years.
3 comments:
Dude, this is good, tight storytelling. Well done and congratulations on the good news.
Good Story.
I didn't know Sherman traveled without his brother. Or is his brother still alive?
Marci says the brother is a London recluse while Dick is the public face of the team.
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