Are we up for a sequel to the spoof of an original?

Well, I am confronted with a little bit of a dilemma.

The producer and director of Sex and La Cité have approached me and asked me if I wanted to do part 2.

Now I have my reservations about this.

How strange that I wrote in the beginning of the Carrie sequence "can a sequel ever be as good as the original?"

a) we had a great first run - 14 sold out shows out of 14, in the last festival we were in, we were the top grossing act in the whole thing, but a knock-off is a knock off and we got away with it once, can we get away with it again?

b) recycling - I am all for it, but stage characters are not like plastic and don't do well a second time around, unless you are like Neil Simon or something, taking a spoof and spoofing it to the second degree is not always the best thing to do.

c) my gut is telling me to bail out before all hell breaks lose and I am in above my head with this.

I mean, the ideas are funny - carrie gets married to Big in an insane wedding, Miranda finds out that Stevee is a cross-dresser and likes it, Samatha and Smith become more -Quebecois (down home country type of folk) andCharlottee and her hubby are off doing some thing or other neurotic. The ideas are good, I admit, but at the same time, I FEEL that the only people who will come to see this show are people who know about sex and the city, and came to see our play the first time around.

d) not all the original cast members will be there. We are missing Steve (who was BRILLIANT but is now in NYC training for a real acting career) and one of the Drag Queens/Gino. He was priceless and I now that without him and Steve there, there will be a gap in the energy, which will advessley effect how the cast comes together. Sure, we can pull it off, but the magic will be gone.

I am at the point in my life where I want to take my photography to the next level. I have done another corporate video (for the Montreal tourist Bureau) and am getting alot of jobs lined up for casting photos. I have the chance to carve a niche market for myself, and know that this could be a nice calling card. And as fate would have it, I have met two very influentiall people in the movie biz over the weekend which might just open some previously closed huge steel doors.

e) I am not getting paid, well not right away...

It seems that there is not enough money in the coffers to pay me up front, so if the play makes money, I get a little slice. And I mean little.

It would be different if the play were a flop, I mean an abysmal stinker, but it wasn't!! It was a kick ass success beyond our wildest dreams! And to live up to that? To make something even better? Now that's a tough job. To make a sequel to a spoof of a tv series? Those are really gargantuan shoes to fill with Lilliputiann slippers.

f) my gut is screaming - RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!

Do I want to take the chance of tarnishing my name (which is now attached with "the writer of the smash play that took Montreal by storm.." ) with a sequel that is only lukewarm? As one of my best buddies said : You're only as good as your last film. And he is so right.

One botch up and everything you did previous doesn't exist in the critic's eyes.

Do I want to take that chance?

g) I will be sharing the writing credit with Charlotte.

I don't mind actually, she is great to collaborate with, but we only did so on one level. I wrote the back bone of the whole play. I had a complete vision and therefore was able to sit at my computer for 18 hour days and pound out that story. Yes, her and Samantha helped, but they came in, gave their ideas and then when home, whereas I was left to mix it all in and make sure that it all worked out swimmingly. I am so weary about the plan that would entail one woman write one scene, the other the next, then we'd meet in the middle and try to hash it all out. I have collaborated before, but not this way, and not in the time frame they are looking at.
We want to have the first rough draft before xmas..

And they told me this on Monday this past week!!!

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!??!?!?!?!?

Well, it's not like you are writing the whole thing, I am taking on half of the burden...

EVEN MORE REASON TO PANIC!!
Trying to hammer out one scene is something, two people with two different visions/styles trying to bring it all together? And to top that all off, I am only 1/3rd of the equation. I am almost automatically veto-ed out! Two women who have a stake in the company (both invested their $$) against me - the little old writer...??

And one of them is coasting comfortably on the money she made from the sale of her house, and the other is working full time. And me? Trying to start out my freelance life.

h) I am already pigeon holed as the Greek mother - again!!
And that is a bit part, but that would mean 5 months of rehearsals because I would have to be there for all the blocking , script changes etc. I did it last year because it was a labor of love, but this year??...

I am seriously on the fence about this one.
And I think now is the time I should speak up or forever be in a shithole and up a creek without a paddle -causee once you're in, you're in.

Ahh.
Now what!??