Opening night
Wow. Leaving highschool, I never thought I'd ever have one of those again.
Opening night was awesome. There was a huge, responsive crowd, and there was so much great energy going on. The only flaw I heard at all was at the end of one of the songs where the two singers thought they didn't land on the note quite right, so they adjusted down a quarter-tone, then back up when they realized it was right, haha. It ended up sounding like an "ooo-uu-oooo", and they did it in unison, so it was fine. Also we were so afraid in the first song when the main singer's mike was cutting in and out. Fortunately, he had an amazing voice and just amped it up a bit to project to the whole theatre. Nice. What a great night. Also, Mrs. Pitt was "young Sally", so it was cool seeing her again - in a role other than "scary music director lady!".
My mom and little sister went to the performance. Mom is such a great person to go to a show with - she is not shy about laughing at jokes or applauding, and that sets off an awesome chain reaction in the audience. My little sister was a bit of a turd about it though. When I asked her what she thought of it, she said "oh, Cats is still my favorite musical" Yeah Leigh, we got that. You only play the cd at fff in your room every day... I think we get the picture. And I didn't ask what she thought of Cats, I asked what she thought of Follies. Whatever. (oh man, it's been what? 12 years? and I still find myself typing 'Light' instead of her name, haha) I thought that she'd like the dancing - since there is one really intense tap song, but I guess she's a bit of a dancing snob nowadays (she totally is), and thinks that she could do it just as well. Whatever. She's in her middle-school-bitch phase, so I just ignore it.
The last non-memorial musical I played in was a small, new company, and apparently 'Sound of Music' was their first production. I'm sure they were good people, and I was glad to be a part of it, but it had the feeling of a bunch of hired hands coming on to do their part and collect their paycheck... and there were a few musicians who unapologetically half-assed their parts and didn't care about it. Unfortunately, last I heard of them: they went bankrupt on their second show, and the pit musicians never got paid. Kind of a regretful end for them. Oh well.
This was quite a different experience: in the first rehearsal, I felt like we were a hair away from going out on stage right then and there! Everyone is very professional, and it is such a great feeling. With only 6 rehearsals (including two dress rehearsals), we're doing a show! I'm surprised that it doesn't play for more than one weekend, so that's a little bizarre, but I guess the wisconsin union theatre is used by a ton of organizations, so they need to get out of there pretty quick.
v. happy.
Opening night was awesome. There was a huge, responsive crowd, and there was so much great energy going on. The only flaw I heard at all was at the end of one of the songs where the two singers thought they didn't land on the note quite right, so they adjusted down a quarter-tone, then back up when they realized it was right, haha. It ended up sounding like an "ooo-uu-oooo", and they did it in unison, so it was fine. Also we were so afraid in the first song when the main singer's mike was cutting in and out. Fortunately, he had an amazing voice and just amped it up a bit to project to the whole theatre. Nice. What a great night. Also, Mrs. Pitt was "young Sally", so it was cool seeing her again - in a role other than "scary music director lady!".
My mom and little sister went to the performance. Mom is such a great person to go to a show with - she is not shy about laughing at jokes or applauding, and that sets off an awesome chain reaction in the audience. My little sister was a bit of a turd about it though. When I asked her what she thought of it, she said "oh, Cats is still my favorite musical" Yeah Leigh, we got that. You only play the cd at fff in your room every day... I think we get the picture. And I didn't ask what she thought of Cats, I asked what she thought of Follies. Whatever. (oh man, it's been what? 12 years? and I still find myself typing 'Light' instead of her name, haha) I thought that she'd like the dancing - since there is one really intense tap song, but I guess she's a bit of a dancing snob nowadays (she totally is), and thinks that she could do it just as well. Whatever. She's in her middle-school-bitch phase, so I just ignore it.
The last non-memorial musical I played in was a small, new company, and apparently 'Sound of Music' was their first production. I'm sure they were good people, and I was glad to be a part of it, but it had the feeling of a bunch of hired hands coming on to do their part and collect their paycheck... and there were a few musicians who unapologetically half-assed their parts and didn't care about it. Unfortunately, last I heard of them: they went bankrupt on their second show, and the pit musicians never got paid. Kind of a regretful end for them. Oh well.
This was quite a different experience: in the first rehearsal, I felt like we were a hair away from going out on stage right then and there! Everyone is very professional, and it is such a great feeling. With only 6 rehearsals (including two dress rehearsals), we're doing a show! I'm surprised that it doesn't play for more than one weekend, so that's a little bizarre, but I guess the wisconsin union theatre is used by a ton of organizations, so they need to get out of there pretty quick.
v. happy.