Running on Fumes

Call Sutton Foster and Mary Testa. We're fired.

Good gravy, this has been the longest week! Tech week is always rough but this show is a beast.

Imagine the lives of our crew, the poor things! Drowsy closed on Saturday night and they had until 5:00 Sunday night to get the lights reset for the new design, get the costumes all over here and get this massive set in. We are using Troika's set from the Asia tour and it is mammoth. It takes five people to move the main set piece of the mansion.

The set in progress

Sunday night was all about spacing onstage. Monday and Tuesday are pretty much a blur of waiting...and waiting...and waiting and really cranky people with low patience. 10 out of 12s always are hairy. Tech makes everyone cranky and trying to tech such a huge, long show in 2 days is a little nuts. Rex messed up a line and made me, Gail and Ashley laugh onstage and we got yelled at. I was pissed but decided to let it go because everyone was stressed and exhausted. Tuesday night we did a stop and start dress and was an absolute mess and then Wednesday matinee was our first preview. I will never stop being amazed at how quickly we throw a show together in this business. Tuesday was Michelle's 40th birthday! I hated not being able to be there to celebrate with her and the girls but Rex was kind enough to leave her a fun message on her voicemail for me.

I arrived at the theatre Wednesday to find a huge, beautiful, beachy-themed floral arrangement from Mom and Dad. The matinee was still rough and we were still trying to resolve technical issues but over all it was much better than the dress rehearsal. Wednesday night we were almost there. Thursday morning we had a 2 hour rehearsal then Thursday matinee preview was funny as hell. Mostly things went well but there was a sound cue snafu. In the last scene Rolf is a nazi and discovers the Von Trapps in the abbey gardens and the sound guy accidentally hit the applause sound effect from the previous scene. Needless to say the rest of the scene didn't have quite the weight it normally would because we were all trying not to laugh.

Thursday night was opening and it went really really well! Nice packed house. We had a huge opening night party at this restaurant.

Crista Moore (Elsa), Ashley Mortensen (Liesl), Gail Bennett (Maria) and myself

Oh, Rexy

It's now Saturday night and we're approaching the end of act one. We're playing to very full houses and they seem to be loving it. It was fun to see a row of forty-something women down front at the matinee today mooning over Rex at curtain call. Very obvious that they were fans from his pop days. I told him I think he should put out a standards album sort of like Michael Buble. He said he'd never thought of that before but liked the idea. His voice now at 54 would work nicely with the style I think.

So one show and one act left to go before we get some much-needed time off. We'll have worked for 13 days straight which for my husband is no big deal but we're completely exhausted. We went out last night briefly to send Gary John off. He has handed the show off to Jinay now. I adore him and was sad to see him go. I have him to thank for my Equity card in a couple weeks!

Gail and I with our fabulous director/choreographer Gary John LaRosa

Well, off to wrap up the show and the weekend. Fourth of July festivities tomorrow after the matinee! Here's a video tour of the theatre for your viewing pleasure. Take some Dramamine for the motion sickness!

P.S. The "Maria, what is it you can't face?" line is funny no matter how well Meg enunciates it. And going to the bathroom in a full nun's habit really sucks.