Day: August 4, 2003

We went yesterday to see one of the first teen productions of “Les Miserables,” up in Fairfield, CT. It featured Kate and Robbie Greenberger, daughter and son of DC editor Bob Greenberger, in the ensemble. Working from a script that was custom-pared for high schools by the show’s producers, the students performed admirably in one of the most demanding musicals in existence (how it’s called a musical and not an opera, I don’t know.) Particular standouts were the kids playing Valjean, Thenardier, Eponine, and I thought the kid who was playing Gavorche could easily step right into a professional production.

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So having tired of the packed-in crowds at the Long Island Ducks baseball games, we opted instead for the relatively emptiness of major league baseball by going to Shea stadium on Saturday. The bit-more-than-half filled stadium was hemorrhaging fans by the seventh inning as the Mets found themselves down 10-4 to the Cardinals. We hung out since we had reasonably good seats in foul ball territory (although we didn’t catch any.)

Going into the bottom of the ninth, still down 10-4, the roving camera guy in the “crowd” aimed his lens at two nuns. The nuns appeared on the Jumbotron and one of them promptly crossed herself and clasped together her hands in supplication. The message was clear: Only Jesus could help the Mets now.

Whereupon the Mets promptly rallied. Before a stunned crowd and a fumbling Cardinals outfield, the Mets strung together five runs, bringing it to 10-9 and runners on the corners with two outs. Unfortunately Jesus must have sneezed or his attention was drawn elsewhere for a moment, because a long fly ball caught by a running Cards outfielder ended the game one short of a total comeback. Still, a 10-9 nail-bitter was a hëll of a lot more entertaining than the 10-4 blowout we thought we were going to end up with.

And apparently to make up to the Rally Nuns for his lapse, Jesus came on strong for the Sunday game and the Mets won 13-5.

All those times I sat there, watched the Mets and muttered “Chriiiist,” who knew? I’m only hoping the Rally Nuns come there regularly from now on. The Mets need all the help they can get.

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I suppose, now that it’s hit the web (after all, Mark Evanier talks about it here) that we can let the cat out of the bag.

The film version of CODENAME: COURAGE will be out July 4, 2004, lord willing and the creek don’t rise. The beginning of the promotional site is up here, I assume it will get better as it gets closer to release. Here’s hoping this film is closer to Peter’s version of his comic than Hulk was.

Don Swan’s documentary about the process of this thing going from comic book to movie has also generated some interest, and may be distributed by Miramax. Peter does show up in the documentary, and details on that can be found here.