April 6, 1998
This major, major audition was supposed to take place at 5:30pm today, but as that moment came and went this evening, I was still sitting in the driver's seat of a classic limo riding through the Valley of Green-Screen on Stage 25. Tragedy? Not yet. I called my agent and they gave me 6:30pm as the latest I could get to Warner Brothers. We did wrap at around 6:15pm and I hustled to the car and out onto the freeway. Light traffic brought me into the San Fernando Valley at just about 6:30pm. No sweat.
Yes, sweat! Ted's assistant was waiting outside and greeted me with a warning that I should pick my pace up to that of a light trot if not a full-out gallop. They had finished about 20 minutes ago, she relayed, and Ted had been doing his best tap-dance to keep them entertained while they waited for me. Let's take a moment to appreciate this situation: A room full of Warner Brothers executives sat in a cozy, little office, waiting nearly a half-hour for me to show up so they could consider me for their primetime television show. That's a new one.
Upon entering they thanked me for rushing over after shooting. "How's Nathan Lane?" they asked, perhaps wondering why he might chose NBC for his first starring television vehicle instead of their upstart network. "He's very good," I heartily replied, and after a beat, "but not as good as Tim," referring, of course, to the outlandish Tim Curry standing next to me preparing to read the scene with me. Big hit.
The scenes went well. Same old, same old. I feel like I should be trying a whole bunch of new stuff with them, but, of course, what is expected of me is the opposite. I really need to show up at each of these many steps and put out the same product consistently, and, in this case, funnily. And I felt I did just that today. One line that has not received a response up until today got a nice chuckle from the group. That was cool. Tim Curry was still his usual hammy self, which is funny and mostly fun to work off of, but still there are moments when it feels like he is auditioning. Still, no complaints. I would rather read with someone doing too much than too little. He and I have at least one more performance together...
Go on to the... Network
Test.