First Preview Performance (Dec.1)

Let me preface this blog by first talking about last night…now commonly referred to as the train wreck:

Last night was an invited dress rehearsal. What that means is that the cast, crew, and people in charge of the theatre get to invite their friends and family and such to watch our final dress rehearsal; still professional show quality with full tech and costumes and everything…and a great way for us to feel out some bits in the show with a real audience.

So about 500 or so people showed up and the first segment was beautiful…

Then 20 minutes later the dreaded voice comes over the house speakers: “Ladies and Gentleman, we are having some difficulties, please bear with us.”

You see, we have AMAZING effects in the show, and I don’t want to give too much away, but a winch was caught up on the bottom of one of our drum turtles and the dog line couldn’t move the set piece downstage.

How’s that to confuse the hell out of you. Trust me, it all makes sense and it spells out big problems.

So the audience sat and waited…for 50 minutes.

After that, everything went rather smoothly. Our friends and family gave us a wonderful reception and it was great to hear their applause.

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for tonight.

Again, please keep in mind that this is our first PREVIEW. So we are still definitely working out the kinks and half of us are still figuring out which wing we change our next costumes in. The audience, typically, is quieter and more forgiving (in case something does go wrong).

They were not quiet. There was not a seat empty in the house. It was a freaking rock concert.

I have never, in all my years doing this, felt the kind of pride I felt when we hit that stage for the final number. The audience, for 2 ½ hours were with us for the entire ride…every song…every transition…every joke…every scene. “Sherry” knocked their socks off. “Walk Like a Man” got them screaming. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” almost brought the show to a standstill because the applause wouldn’t stop. When we ended “Who Loves You”, there was such a noise from the house like I couldn’t believe; the walls were going to come down.

This is just the first preview people!!!!!

Suffice to say, all the hard work, all the long nights, all the notes, all the exhaustion running through this whole company’s bodies was worth it tonight when almost 1,600 people jumped to their feet when our Four Seasons took the stage for the final bow.

It is 1:22am now…I have two shows tomorrow. I need to get some sleep.

For any of you reading this that were in the audience tonight, thank you. For any of you reading this that haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you have got to be crazy.

More to come. Love to my family who were in my thoughts tonight.