Having done Diamond Dead on stage since it's inception four years ago, I, as well as several of the other cast members, have seen the show undergo many changes and evolve into its own living (or un-live as the case may be) entity.
The first run was fairly successful, and we were pleased to have been a part of it. Since then, we toyed with the idea of bringing the "Dead" back one more time. Over the past few years, the Capital Fringe Fest (a theatre festival based in DC that caters to the more odd types of artist endeavors) has been a good place for Landless to try new things. We had put on original rock musicals to satisfy the public's need for the weird. This year, however, was a perfect opportunity to recapture the magic and pure craziness of Brian Cooper's (adapted for the stage by Landless' artistic director Andrew Lloyd Baughman) screenplay for the DC audiences. This time around, it proved to be much more than we could have imagined.
Fringe festivals generally have such a large show roster that it's virtually impossible to see them all. This is understood by each company, so we try to cherish the audiences we can get. It's hard to say what we were actually expecting to happen. This time around we had a venue that served the purpose of putting on a show like Diamond Dead. It was dark, dingy, and had barely-working A/C. The line from the show stating "they sure smell dead," became a reality when we sweated our asses off to set up an elaborate set and band equipment in fifteen minutes. That also included a sound check.
The first show's audience was decent for 4:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday. We had a half-full theatre (the venue sat roughly a hundred people with room for an additional fifteen standing), and the audience was into it. Diamond Dead is very much an audience participation kind of show, so if people weren't into it to begin with, they were by the end. The following Friday's show was hands-down the best one of the run. The audience was extremely responsive, and it was completely full (including the standing room). This was to be the shape of things to come. Only two shows had less than a total sellout crowd.
But they loved us. They really loved us (thank you, Sally Field). The show received zero press during the run, but somehow people found out about it - and then the comments started pouring in (on other shows' blogs, mind you). Buzz swarmed around the show that became classified as "a Gwar concert directed by Tim Burton."1
Everyone involved had a great time with the show, but it wasn't until the night after the closing show that we realized just how much people liked it. The phone calls bopped around until eventually it caught up to me that we had won Pick of the Fringe Best Musical. As far as I know, Landless hasn't won much, and especially for a show that received no press during the run. I, as well as everyone involved, am beaming with joy. I can imagine this is close to watching your baby turn into a straight-A student. This show is our baby, and we are the proud parents. We're hoping to carry the torch to another run later this fall, and who knows, it may go even further than that. But until then, “fuckin' A.”
“Capital Fringe Festival Survival Guide.” http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/i-heart-dc/capital-fringe-festival-survival-guide/. Comment posted by Jon. July 16, 2008 at 3:43 am.
