September already?

Didn't want to let a week go by without checking in, but even bloggers like to take some me time around Labor Day. After a tough August full of big deadlines and other work-related stress, I enjoyed three days off and attained my goal of two rounds of golf.

Planning another three-day weekend this week and two more rounds of golf. Gotta get that exercise. Also may go to the Rutgers-Navy game Friday if Mrs. Willie can adjust her work schedule.

Then it's back to some serious theater time. "Time of Your Life" Saturday at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Next week: "Stick Fly" at McCarter and "The Owl and the Pussycat" at the Bickford Theatre (Morris Museum).

As for the latter, read the short item I wrote that follows below. Interesting casting choice by Artistic Director Eric Hafen, who met the author while a student at Boston College and learned it was originally written for a white man and a black woman. I'm sure many of you will remember by the time it got to Hollywood, the black prostitute had turned into Barbra Streisand.

As Bono once said introducing the song "Helter Skelter," "Charles Manson stole this from the Beatles; we're gonna steal it back." Well, score one for the Bickford here.

PS: In our e-mail conversation, and I'm not sure why, Hafen shared this bit of naivete from his freshman year at BC: "Later that year I went to a Bobby Seale lecture thinking it was Seales and Crofts."

Priceless.

Anyway, here's the Bickford item:

Eric Hafen, artistic director of the Bickford Theatre, met the author of “The Owl and the Pussycat” when he was still a student at Boston College. He’s wanted to direct the play ever since.
Hafen gets his chance this week as the professional-theater arm of the Morris Museum opens its expanded 2007-08 season this week in Morris Township. “The Owl and the Pussycat” previews Thursday, opens Friday and continues through Oct. 7.
It’s the same play most people remember as a film and starring vehicle for Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. But playwright Bill Manhoff originally wrote the play—about a quiet writer and a brassy, brash prostitute and would-be model who find each other in a New York City apartment building—for a white man and a black woman.
“He told us that the Broadway play had a black actress in it when it opened,” Hafen said. “He said that he wanted to introduce the interracial casting but was not sure how it would go over. What really struck me was that although he had to adjust some of the dialogue for a black actress, he deliberately did not want to include any obvious racial references. He wanted the characters to be more universal.”
Since its high-profile cinema treatment, the romantic comedy has remained popular on the regional theater circuit, but casting usually follows the Hollywood lead.
“Actually, his dialogue is so well-written that it really lends itself to any casting situation,” Hafen said. “He had wanted Diana Sands, the black actress who starred on Broadway (opposite a young Alan Alda in 1964), to continue into the movie, but the producers wanted a bigger name.”
Hafen has also snagged a big talent for his “Pussycat” Doris—Nicole Powell, who performed on Broadway in “Hairspray” and has national tours on her resume. Andrew Rein, who appeared at the Bickford in “A Thousand Clowns,” is the “Owl,” Felix, a reserved, would-be author who one night spots Doris — through his binoculars—working her (illegal) trade in another apartment. When he reports her to the manager, she’s evicted, setting off a noisy confrontation that results in her spending the night with Felix. This being a comedy, of course, the odd couple becomes a romantic one.
Performances are 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. This year, each production also will include a single 2 p.m. Saturday matinee on the second week of performances.
Tickets are $30, $27 for museum members, $28 for seniors and $15 for students. Discounts are available for season subscriptions and groups of 10 or more.
The Bickford is at 6 Normandy Heights Road. For information, call (973) 971-9706 or visit www.bickfordtheatre.org.