Fare for All update, and The Devil Wears Prada

[ceebeegee]

So, it's going well. I've been making several suggestions here and there to improve the flow of the show--one example is, during the dance break of "A Lady is a Lady," Miss Emily says "I will teach you the latest dance steps from Paris," gives Sarah the top hat and says "Now you shall be the gentleman," and Sarah replies "And you shall be the lady." It occurred to me that this bit was overwritten--if she gives her the top hat, the kids will understand Sarah is pretending to be the gentleman. Furthermore, I suggested Sarah should bow and say "May I have this dance" and then Miss Emily could curtsy and say "Charmed, I'm sure." (At the end of the play, we call up kids and teach them to bow and curtsy during the masked ball.) Karen loved the idea--it's good because it reinforces the bowing thing, but I also like to trim the overwriting. I also suggested that during the last moment of the show, when the music is all dreamy and we're singing "I was here in 1830," that we should each sing our own "I was here in 1830" instead of every iteration being sung by everyone. It personalizes it--makes the characters have their one last moment. Karen thought this too was a good idea, and I *love* how it sounds. It's quite moving, I think. Just call me George Abbott! I love figuring out what works and what doesn't, and that's an important part of direction, figuring out what connects and what doesn't.

Just finished reading The Devil Wears Prada. The book is addictive, but not particularly well-written. The writing is pretty clunky at times, with no real poetry or eloquence, or even love of the language. Since the book is widely assumed to be a roman a clef, it's interesting that the main character hopes to be a writer. And the plot is fairly pedestrian, especially the whole subplot with Lily. Some of the characters are less than compelling--I found Alex in particular nauseating, and it's lazy writing to have him prod her moral turnaround for a couple of reasons--he's so annoyingly sanctimonious that you don't experience the moral weight of his words as I think the author intended, and also Andrea's epiphany should be compelled from within, not because her BF was a whiny twerp. (And--have NONE of these people ever worked in New York City? All the "good" (i.e., intended to be sympathetic) characters seemed so disapproving that Andrea had such a difficult work schedule--hello, that's New York! In fact, that's many things, including Capitol Hill, med school, etc.)

That said, it is a fascinating glimpse into what is obviously meant to be the Vogue offices and Anna "Nuclear" Wintour. The most interesting parts of the book are when she talks about Anna Miranda Priestley's daily life (eg., the assistants order breakfast after breakfast after breakfast, because once it's cooled down Miranda won't eat it, and expects it waiting when she gets to the office). The joys of dodgy expensing are explored as well--Andrea goes on several Starbucks runs every day, and buys gourmet coffees for the homeless nearby--all paid for by the Elias-Clark (stand in for Conde-Nast) cash accounts payable department. As horrible as Miranda sounds, the perks are unbelievable--Andrea gets tons of designer clothes for free--MJ jeans and tops, Jimmy Choo shoes, LV baggage. Man. I could put up with that job for all that. A year? No problem. What's a year when you're 22? I am very curious to know if the Vogue HR department experienced an increase in resumes after the book came out.

I actually did a temp assignment for a week at Vogue (in fact I've done a couple at Conde-Nast, albeit not always for Vogue) and enjoyed myself very much (you get MAD swag there, even when you're just a temp. Conditioner, makeup, pastries, goodies galore!). I worked for a woman in charge of publicity events--she worked closely with Andre Leon Talley (I got him coffee! At Starbucks! But he was nice to me) and her office was right across the hall from Anna Wintour's--I saw her in her office from time to time but we never crossed paths.

Anyway, they're making a movie of Prada and Tracie's in it! She plays Lily, and Meryl Streep plays Miranda. (Anne Hathaway plays Andrea, which seems a bit off as she's so sweet and Andrea is much snarkier than that, but we shall see.)

Comments

[nppyinzer.livejournal.com]

It's entirely possible that the best job I ever had was when I was 22 (making great money, hadn't started to hate tech writing, enough experience to know what I was doing, not enough to be made to take on more responsibility, plenty of spare time, no debt). Much like nice pants and prime rib, it was TOTALLY WASTED ON ME and I failed to appreciate it or take advantage of it. Dammit.