We've now been rehearsing with the showcase cast in New York for a week. For most of that time we worked on helping the actors to learn the music for the show; now they're working on it on their own, practicing and memorizing to get off book.

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We've been rehearsing at the Producer's Club at 358 W.44th. It's a decent space with friendly staff. The rehearsal room we have is a bit small, and we have to move a creaky old upright piano into the room every day, but aside from that the rehearsal conditions are pretty good. (I bring a pair of ionizers to every rehearsal to keep things smelling good.)

The members of the cast are really top notch. They have skill, talent, professionalism - and looks! (This doesn't always mean raw physical beauty; in some cases we cast people that, in addition to being fully qualified, just looked 'right' for a part.) They consistently arrive early, ready to work, and stay focused through rehearsals that, for a single actor, can run as long as four or five hours. This is only my second show in New York, but I am once again deeply impressed with the level of talent and dedication that's available from actors here.

Jordan's been helping me with marketing, and apparently he has a small group of NYU grad students working on the project, which is very cool. We don't have any finalized material yet, but I do expect to be able to bring paradiselostthemusical.com online within the next week or so.

I'm living up in Washington Heights, on 181st St. (I'm not totally sure if it's Inwood or Wash. Heights, but it seems to be the latter most days of the week.) The room I'm subletting is in a three-bedroom apartment with a very agreeable acting couple. During the week I spend most of the day doing 'producer things' (obnoxious, niggly little details that have to be taken care of in order for things to run smoothly), but I do find some time to get out and walk around town. The far northern tip of Manhattan is actually quite pleasant - hilly, fairly quiet and unusually congenial. Of course, people who live downtown think I live in Connecticut. Oh well.

Tonight we continue blocking, and this will go on for several more days. Then we start stumble-throughs, which will turn into run-throughs, which will turn into dress rehearsals... so, yeah. Three weeks is a super short time.