Actors...Ever have that dream where you're on stage and you don't know you're lines, you blocking or even what the show is that you're doing? Of course you have. We all have.
Well this weekend, I nearly lived it for real. That's right! I went into a new musical that I had never seen, read nor even heard about with 24 hours notice and no rehearsal. And I survived.
Friday night art 5:00 I received a message from an old colleague at Acme Comedy Theatre whose wife is in a new musical opening that evening in about 3 hours. One of the lead actors was in the emergency room and they knew nothing about his condition, ailment, when or if he would be back in the show. He had been asked to do it but he's not a singer (although I think he could have handled this character's one song). His wife asked if he knew anyone that could sing and act and jump in on a moment's notice. And that's how I ended up in a new musical.
I was up for the challenge. It's been a while since I've done something like this, gone on as a replacement with little to non rehearsal. And I felt my mind needed it to prove that my mind was still agile enough at my age,
I was told that the show's composer was prepared to go on in the role that evening. I could simply come and watch the show and then jump in to Saturday night's show. I arrived at the theater an hour and a half later. It was very deja vu for me. I did two shows at the at theater 14 and 15 years ago and had only been back on a couple of occasions since both over a decade ago. So weird to be there again after all these years and to walk in the theater and see a signed poster if one of those shows with my autograph hanging on the wall house right. My very first show in Los Angeles was in that space.
So, I arrived and watched as they ran the composer through what would be my scenes. I was handed a copy of the stage manager's script and went in search of a FedEx Office to make a copy. As I went through the script I noticed that my character was named Cindy, not Sidney as was I had been told. I was confused. Turns out this was an older version of the script before my character's gender was changed. (Not the only one either, a formerly male character had been changed to a female so it evened out in the end). Why the stage manager had an old version of the script was beyond me, but who am I to question.
So I went up to the booth to watch the show. I still knew nothing about this show called Mary of the Avenue. When Sidney came on stage I turned on the recorder on my phone so I could have a recording of the song I had to learn. I watched the show, and after made arrangements with my scene partners to meet at 5 on Saturday before the show.
I went out with friends and stayed out way too late (that's a story for another time). Cancelled my work hours on Saturday and stayed in so I could focus on my lines. Now the good news is that I play a reporter so I could use a clipboard in certain scenes when I was on the scene reporting to my TV audience. That way I was able to put the pages of the script for that scene on the clipboard and use it as a crutch when I was on stage. I showed up at 5 and we ran my scenes a few times and then I went to the booth to learn my song. I definitely needed to have my script in my hand for that!
I did the show. The announcement that I was going on as a replacement was not made until intermission. The producer thought that if he made the announcement prior to the start of the show that the audience would be conscious of me looking down at my script periodically, but if he said nothing they wouldn't be as aware of it and it would be even more impressive when they found out that I was a last minute sub with no rehearsal time nor no knowledge of the show whatsoever until approximately 24 hours before going on. It worked! They totally fell for it.
Although I was never told about the curtain call. Well, no worries, I thought. I'll just ask who I follow and where I go. Great. No problem. Worked out fine. And then when we all took our group bow...the music started playing and the cast started singing one of the songs from the show...and not my song! What?! After all that? I get through the show without incident and then that gets thrown at me. What is this song. Do I stand here like an idiot and just grin at the audience? Do I move my lips and make it look like a bad ventriloquist act or bad dubbing on a foreign film? No! I'm going to try and sing a long. A song I don't know. A song I've only heard once. And so I opened my mouth and sang. I followed along. The melody was pretty easy to pick up and as for the words I just a split millisecond behind the cast. Seriously. I was basically echoing them but only barely.
When I walked off stage, I went into the dressing room and said I wish someone had told me that I had to sing in the bows! The composer /producer came backstage and apologized for thinking to tell me and teach me the song. But then also noted how I just dove in and sang along and he couldn't believe how I appeared to know the song, Only his trained eye could tell that I was actually about a split second behind the cast.
So I did it. I went on again today and it was better. Next weekend I'll be onstage without a crutch, totally off book. But for now...Phew! I've still got it!
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