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Could Have Been Worse...
Feb. 9th, 2006 10:22 am...is just about the best thing I can say about last night's attempt on Sweet Charity.
Glaring errors on the part of the cast and crew (to be got out of the way before saying what little good stuff there was, and which have been discussed with the relevant people already so shouldn't happen tonight):
The lights came up too early on A1S3, providing the audience with a good view of Hermann carrying his chair around like a teddy bear. I have no explanation for such actions and it was an obvious error.
The lights came up too early on A1S4, once again providing the audience with a good view of Hermann carrying his chair around like a teddy bear. By now I was getting slightly annoyed.
During Rhythm of Life, Stu was doing his best thrash trance as we built up to the drug-induced/crazy-happy ending, and managed to lamp one of the violinists in the chest. Hmmm....
I'm a Brass Band saw the entire male chorus taking leave of our senses and not pulling off a single move entirely in synchronisation with each other, indeed leaving a couple of us standing still like vegetables for a few beats while we tried to remember the how to do the single most rehearsed scene in the entire musical. With the number of times we had gone over it, there was no excuse for any of us forgetting it even slightly.
My self-chastisement as I came off stage at the end of Brass Band led me to not be able to complete my costume change and my final scene was done wearing overly smart shoes for the character.
When I finally did get to sing by myself, my microphone appeared not to work and I was barely audible above the cast and band.
*Looks over errors. Groans*
We'll never iron all that out in one night.
Tne audience was rather quiet, meaning that there wasn't the deserved applause for the majority of the songs, which mostly went very well. Some of the cheap laughs didn't garner a response, and the more sophisticated ones were met with abject silence ("Two chateaubriand, and trim the fat"...genius), so that couldn't really have helped, but I wouldn't blame them - they were watching a decidedly roe-pee performance by people who came off stage on a high like they'd just parted the Red Sea or something.
The major upside was the sales. We got a hundred and twenty-two through the door, meaning the auditorium was well over half full which is unprecedented in recent times for an opening night. We also did twenty-seven program sales - doesn't sound a lot, but is more than could have been expected from a Wednesday and was obviously to do with the number of people we had. The front of house looked good, the staff were hand-picked and skilled, and we sold out Saturday a full three days before the performance - also quite unheard of.
At least I'll be leaving having done reasonably well in the role I was asked to do.
Glaring errors on the part of the cast and crew (to be got out of the way before saying what little good stuff there was, and which have been discussed with the relevant people already so shouldn't happen tonight):
The lights came up too early on A1S3, providing the audience with a good view of Hermann carrying his chair around like a teddy bear. I have no explanation for such actions and it was an obvious error.
The lights came up too early on A1S4, once again providing the audience with a good view of Hermann carrying his chair around like a teddy bear. By now I was getting slightly annoyed.
During Rhythm of Life, Stu was doing his best thrash trance as we built up to the drug-induced/crazy-happy ending, and managed to lamp one of the violinists in the chest. Hmmm....
I'm a Brass Band saw the entire male chorus taking leave of our senses and not pulling off a single move entirely in synchronisation with each other, indeed leaving a couple of us standing still like vegetables for a few beats while we tried to remember the how to do the single most rehearsed scene in the entire musical. With the number of times we had gone over it, there was no excuse for any of us forgetting it even slightly.
My self-chastisement as I came off stage at the end of Brass Band led me to not be able to complete my costume change and my final scene was done wearing overly smart shoes for the character.
When I finally did get to sing by myself, my microphone appeared not to work and I was barely audible above the cast and band.
*Looks over errors. Groans*
We'll never iron all that out in one night.
Tne audience was rather quiet, meaning that there wasn't the deserved applause for the majority of the songs, which mostly went very well. Some of the cheap laughs didn't garner a response, and the more sophisticated ones were met with abject silence ("Two chateaubriand, and trim the fat"...genius), so that couldn't really have helped, but I wouldn't blame them - they were watching a decidedly roe-pee performance by people who came off stage on a high like they'd just parted the Red Sea or something.
The major upside was the sales. We got a hundred and twenty-two through the door, meaning the auditorium was well over half full which is unprecedented in recent times for an opening night. We also did twenty-seven program sales - doesn't sound a lot, but is more than could have been expected from a Wednesday and was obviously to do with the number of people we had. The front of house looked good, the staff were hand-picked and skilled, and we sold out Saturday a full three days before the performance - also quite unheard of.
At least I'll be leaving having done reasonably well in the role I was asked to do.
