...that I'm doing a show? Guys and Dolls. I'm one of the boy dancers. Basically, if the script calls for a guy dancing, that's me. Well, me along with about six other guys.
We started rehearsing last week. It's going pretty well so far. Only drag is that we rehearse every day except Friday, which is really cutting into my shopping time. On the upside, all of my pals are in the show - I looked around at the New Years Eve party that we went to this year and realized that about 90 percent of the guests were castmates - and the SO's choreographing.
Like I said, it's going pretty well so far. I'm just a tiny bit bored. The rehearsal process usually starts with learning all the songs. YAWN.
It's actually pretty hysterical... I'm the bane of any Musical Director's existence. Of late, I'm usually the guy who didn't audition and was brought in cuz he could dance. That means that the Musical Director has never heard my voice before rehearsals start and - most importantly - they had no choice in casting me. I honestly don't blame them for feeling a bit put off by my existence. This particular Musical Director has had the pleasure of, um... enduring me before. Last time I worked with her, I was called in two weeks before opening to cover one of the boy dancers who dropped out due to illness.
See, the thing is that I'm notoriously bad when it comes to harmony. It's not that I can't sing harmony, the problem is that I have a hard time HEARING harmonies. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to do when the guy sitting next to me is singing a completely different musical line than I am??? Well, I'll tell you what I do. I sing THEIR line right along with them. My pitch is spot on and i'm always on the note - it's just that i'm on somebody else's note and not mine.
I remember starting rehearsals for a show about a million years ago. We were at the first musical rehearsal. Everyone was sitting around in a circle and the Musical Director made us stand up individually and tell him the following - our name, what role we were playing and what "part" we sang (as in tenor, baritone, bass, etc). So the first person got up, "Ginny, Anybodies, I'm an Alto", then the next person, "David, I'm playing Riff, and I'm a tenor". It continued around the circle then it came to me... "Hi. I'm Mike, I'm playing Chino, and I'm a DANCER". Needless to say, the Musical Director was less than pleased with me.
Anyhow, the show opens in 5 weeks and I've already lost 4 pounds. Isn't amazing how you can lose weight if you actually get up off the couch and DO something?
