Opening weekend...

Well, The Music Man is officially up and running.

It has been an arduous rehearsal process, to be sure. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the last week before opening is referred to lovingly as "Hell Week". It is during that time that the final tech stuff (lights, sound, moving set pieces, costumes, etc.) gets combined with the performance stuff to make an actual show. It can be frustrating, and start-stop, and tends to make everyone involved edgy and miserable. In keeping with this theme, we were held late by over 45 minutes at least three of the nights, which in combination with other stuff did not make for happy campers come go time on Sunday for the final dress rehearsal.

There is a saying that goes that "you always wish you had two more weeks of rehearsal." In this case, I fully embraced that philosophy. I have never felt more nervous and unprepared than I did for this show. So much of our rehearsal time was spent in blocking, music, and dance (and we could have spent more) that we never really got to the "acting" rehearsals. A lot of it was left to us, and while that is interesting and challenging, and I felt trusted as an actor, I also felt VERY on edge as we approached audiences last Monday night.

In addition to all that, we are not working with a live orchestra--it is 'computer generated' music, and as big a drag as that sounds artistically, it is nothing compared to the technological nightmare it is logistically. We were supposed to receive work CDs of the music three weeks before open, but the software and hardware didn't even arrive until two weeks out. There were things to be ironed out, fixed and tweaked, and needless to say we got our CDs four days before our previews started. Then, on the second night of previews, the system just would not boot up, so we had to go from the CD, which was at completely different sound levels, so the Wiz was scrambling to make it all work. He did a wonderful job, all things considered, but hoo boy.

All that aside, however, we opened last weekend to two standing ovations out of three performances (we also got one on the preview the night before opening). So somebody likes it. :o) Here's a clip of one of the numbers (I am the one in the red jacket and black pants):



Come see it! Tickets are available here.