You can do it put your Broadway in to it

So the week I was dreading is now behind me and I have to say it didn’t go as badly as I thought. We had ‘Run Freedom Run’ choreography on Wednesday and let me tell you now, I think it’ll be fantastic! Well judging by Wednesday’s rehearsal actually maybe not so much, but Sunday’s rehearsal was a lot better and has given me a little bit more faith in my own learning skills. We started off on Wednesday going through the song singing it first which actually was my first time singing it right through, needless to say I was both excited and nervous, nervous because this is probably the most iconic song in the show and people are expecting something great and excited because this guy (me) has a black woman constantly screaming to get out. The choreography is great and resembles the one that’s used in the Tony’s purely for the fact that it’s so iconic that the choreographer didn’t want to hurt anyone’s expectations for that number, as she said “there are some numbers in a show that you expect to see, you see 42^nd street and you expect to see them dancing on coins”. This got me thinking and I have to agree, I remember seeing a performance of RENT a few years back and there were moments that I expected something and they gave me something else and it let down the whole show, I’d definitely say that if I went to Legally Blonde I’d be expecting pretty much the whole show to resemble the amazing choreography from the one filmed by MTV or if I went to Mamma Mia I’d be expecting guys to be dancing in flippers (which they do), so it makes sense and I completely understand the logic for this.

Soooo much better!

On a slightly side nite: I’d like to let you know that in the last 2 years I’ve gone from 128kgs down to 102kgs where I’m situated now, this has been a mixture of bad tricks to start with (which NEVER work in the long run I must add, you lose weight but it piles back on almost instantly) to eating well and exercising which is my current routine, and since finding out I was playing Bobby I’ve lost 10kgs through this regime. So I came in to this rehearsal knowing that I’d struggle with the running but I really did not know that I’d struggle so much haha running and singing is NOT easy especially when you’re the one leading it, so it’s time for me to do some major high intensity training at the gym as well as skipping and we’ll hope and pray that by the time we get to production week this Bobby won’t be puffing as much. From what I could see I’m not alone in this realization either, I think we all knew that this would be a physical number but I don’t think it hit us in the first run through of the number but by the 4^th time running through it I was in full on shock mode.

                         

 I don't have a full body pic but Left is me at 128kgs and Right is me at 104kgs

Thursday’s rehearsal was just a recap of our songs again as well as finishing off ‘Why Did I Listen To That Man’ which is still a hard one to sing but we almost pulled it off after having to sing it in front of the rest of the cast. I just have to say that Chris is such a great Musical Director with a LOT of patience not only for our own antics but because this music can be frustrating and Kristen our rehearsal pianist has the patience of a saint too because you can tell this is not an easy score to play, so thank you both for being awesome.

 The amazing Kristen & Chris

Sunday was more ‘Run Freedom Run’ choreography, for this I had studied the Tony’s version since we weren’t going to go with the actual way it’s conducted by a conductor and were going for something like the Broadway one and WOW! Who knew how sore your arms will get when waving them about like that, today my arms and legs are pretty damn sore. I can’t say exactly how many times we did this number but it felt like 10 at the least (possibly me over exaggerating because I was dying), there is one point when Little Sally (Deborah) has to wipe my forehead with a towel due to the 'sweat' and THANK GOD she does because that towel is going to get some use out of it (ewww just the thought). After that people required worked on the ‘Mr Cladwell’ choreography which we got to see the finished product and I love it! I wish I was in it actually, it’s such a musical theatre type number with the kick line type stuff which is why I'm so entertained by it.

"You're Mr Cladwell"

While choreography was still going on in the next room the rest of us were measured for our costumes and briefly told what we may need to try and get ourselves and also what the character’s wearing, and just the thought of a poo stained apron is enough to make me gag let alone the thought of ever having to be put in that situation where I had to do that as my job* lol. We then sat around the table and were asked by the Director (Adey) about our characters, thankfully I had already addressed this in my blog plus I had a few more ideas that had come to mind since so I was prepared for this question (even if it wasn’t half as articulate as it was in my head haha) and he seemed to respond well to the ideas. I’ve also been told to check out Babes On Broadway with Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney for more ideas about my character, but  so far I’m pretty happy where my version of Bobby is heading so far but theres a lot more to work on. HOWEVER every musical theatre geek who’s watched the Urinetown stuff online always mentions the one Bobby that’s basically the best on youtube and I just feel a real pressure to make those people happy, however I’ve never been one to ever copy another actor, in fact usually once the show starts going in to rehearsal I find I never watch the show. I do this because I need my own ideas and thoughts to be put in to the character, but this is the first show where people are particularly fan girly about this specific Bobby and I can’t help but feel super nervous that this is the guy I’m going to be compared to, so know that I’m not going to be that Bobby but I hope I can still do this role as much justice as he does to the role.

 Damn you Bobby Strong (Adam Garst)

So that’s it! All the vocal rehearsals are pretty much done and lightly dusted, it’s been a month since rehearsals started and I’m beginning to feel comfortable with my cast members, forming some friendships, quoting such great movies as Mean Girls (“You go Glen Coco”) and TV Shows such as Summer Heights High (“Ecstasy, Ecstasy, E, E, E, E, Ecstasy”) and Buffy most importantly the ‘Once More With Feeling’ episode (“I’ve got a theory it could be bunnies”). I’m having such a great time doing this show and I hope that all of this love and passion show’s on stage for you guys because you must of realized by now that this is an exciting show for me due to you getting a (most of the time) weekly update on what’s happening.

Tickets will be on sale soon and once they are I'll update the blog with the deets :)

*NOTE: No disrespect to anyone who deals with excrement on a daily basis as their job, I was only stating that I could never do it.

It’s all in the character

Tuesday's rehearsal had a little switch around, we decided to do ‘Tell Her I Love Her’ first since the whole cast was in it and Little Sally aka Deborah Simmons has her character down so well already, she sounds like the Broadway recording but also enough of herself to know it’s not a carbon copy of another person’s Sally, I can tell now that she’ll be an audience favourite. Both Deborah & I have solo/duet lines in this and it’s such a beautiful song that we both agree it needs to be longer and it really sits in a nice place in the show considering what’s happening at this time in the show. Then we came to the other song on our schedule which was ‘Why Did I Listen To That Man’, sooooooo just when I thought we’d gotten through the toughest song in the show (Act One Finale) this one comes along and is just as hard, I think the hardest thing about this song is that you have no one else to rely on with your part it’s all solo lines mashed together with Bobby (Me), Hope (Chanelle), Pennywise (Sharon), Fipp (Jack Barry), Barrell (Amanda Leo) & Lockstock (Tom Coup) singing something slightly different, there's cad, dad, man etc... all said simultaneously from different characters, it's intense.

Amanda hard at work, FYI it's probably me who txted her

Between Tuesday & Thursday I tried to learn more of my lines, I’m down only 3 scenes and I want to have it all down before we go through the blocking but I am struggling, I worked out that the last time I had a role that required learning lines was back in a Christmas show in 2009 and since then the show’s I’ve done (Miss Saigon x2, Another Christmas Show & Song’s For A New World) have only required me to sing my lines. But I am getting there and as a friend of mine Pauline Vella mentioned, you’ll find it when you have the character, so this got me thinking, during the month of August I’d done some research on the part, my initial introduction to the character was the character description of Bobby when I auditioned, he was described as a Clark Kent type so that’s where I started my research.

Christopher Reeves is amazing!

I watched the first Superman movies (the ones with Christopher Reeve) and as much as I like him in that movie, from what I’d read from the script I didn’t get a vibe that Bobby was that specific Clark Kent, I mean I did enjoy that he was a little geeky and a bit of a bumbling fool at time but I decided to research the old Superman comics. I had a feeling it was more about the kind of 60’s campy Clark Kent then the one portrayed in the movies, however what I came to realize is Christopher Reeves is pretty close to the Clark Kent of the 60’s, I guess considering the ‘BAM’, ‘SMACK’ etc… of the Batman in those days I assumed that it’d be just as gloriously cheesy, but the tale of Superman seems to have stayed relatively the same (minus the Superman persona that originally had him pretty soulless and then changed him in to a Justice of Peace type character). So I’d like to keep him naïve and bumbling but also add a dash of the 60’s Robin from Batman, Robin seems to be easily excitable and impressionable and I think Bobby is a lot like that to a degree, Hope has him immediately listening to her every word and he takes her advice very literal which is a characteristic of Robin. 

Hmmm so I think I'll be wearing pants for my costume :P

I’d just like to make Bobby's transition from unsuspecting hero/revolutionist a realistic one but also obvious enough for the audience to understand that this is a changed person from the beginning of the show to the end, so that there lies my basic research for my role so far.

I bet you’re not expecting me to say the Thursday’s rehearsal involved us doing ‘Act One Finale’ did you :P LOL well first we did ‘We’re Not Sorry’ which is a cool little number that I think is cool because it gives some of the chorus a chance to sing by themselves, I know for me when I’m chorus I’m just dying to just have a line (something I missed out on in Miss Saigon being the Under-study) and in this one we get to hear Little Becky (Nicolette Ness) who has a great voice, Hot Blades Harry (who may be played by Ian or George Everts, this hasn’t been decided yet), Soupy Sue (Erin Wallace), my Mom Josephine Strong (Marie) and a small but NOT easy part for Billy Boy Bill (Shaun Jenkins). Without giving too much away this is very much a rebellious number which will be very interesting for the audience to see, probably quite unexpected also.

And finallyy Sunday came and we needed to be there earlier for our headshots to be taken for the programme, let me be the first to say that I absolutely loathe this part. I’m a person who likes to take the photo see if it looks nice and delete it if it isn’t and with this you’re kind of just given a glimpse of what it looks like and then it’s up to chance as to if it’s actually good and in my case I’ve not enjoyed any picture that’s been in a programme so I’m not looking forward to this one even though the photographer seems to know what he’s doing. 

What do you mean, I am looking at you

We then ran through as many songs as we could because apart from the end of ‘Why Did I Listen To That Man’ we’ve finally made it through the whole show! We still have a few kinks to work out on some songs but the majority of it is sounding great and vocally it’s really going to be a great show.

Next week we start choreography, this will be the interesting part of my blog I think since I don’t have any dance training nor do I think I can dance very well BUT I'm known to practice and give my all in dancing because frankly I don’t like looking like the incompetent out of time one that often show’s up in amateur show's I’ve seen or been in, actually minus Anything Goes, I don’t feel like I saw anyone dance bad in that show. Anyway I hope you’re enjoying this insight in to my time with Urinetown, I’m going to try and get some of the others to write up something for the choreography night’s I’m not required and I'll let you know when tickets finally go on sale.

I have to say although I am really enjoying this show and the rehearsal process especially Chris’ vocal warm up’s (“c’mon everybody do a big HAH now a big HA HA”), my favourite part is my drives home with Amanda who is playing Officer Barrell. I’m educating her on the joys of music that flies under the radar, some of it’s also just from before our time so that’s understandable that it’s not common knowledge. I’ve managed to get her in to Rumer who is basically the new Karen Carpenter and before you raise up a finger and say ‘Helllllllllll No!’ I’ve attached a video below for you to listen to, I’m a HUGE Carpenters fan so for me to compare them and make that statement is a big deal. Other’s I’m introducing her to is Missy Higgins, Bread, Chicago, Anne Murray, Badfinger and basically anything Folk, Pop, Rock in the 70’s which seems to be my favourite era at the moment.

What is happens in the hall stays in the hall

So due to my sickness I didn’t have time to update my blog with a new entry so this post is in regards to the week of 2^nd September to the 9^th of September, it also means it may not be the most comprehensive post due to being quite substantially drugged up on steroids and antibiotics to get rid of this bronchitis.

Why can't I just take Barney's advice :(

Sunday rehearsal is now a complete blur to me as it was probably when I was at my worst, all I know and can remember is that this little cast of 16 can really sing and hold their parts together really well. Tuesday’s rehearsal I can remember because we had moved venues for the week due to ‘Godspell’ being performed at the Spotlight Theatre, which I’ve heard from a number of people that it was a great show and I really wish I’d seen it. We had out rehearsals at Papatoetoe Intermediate School's hall which the first 30 minutes was George, Amanda and I making the decision to go right instead of left at the entrance and wandering around the school lost only to be joined by Sharon who was also on the wrong side of the school (but at least near the hall). Eventually we found the place (I’d like to note that if we had of chosen left we would’ve been there in less than 5 minutes lol) and they were getting in to vocal warm ups. Now as I said I was sick most of this week so I think ‘Act One Finale’ started on the Sunday rehearsal and continued on for the rest of the week and let me say, this is a mammoth of a song! It’s over 6 minutes long with a lot of different melody’s and words going on all throughout the song with the ending having this epic mash up of pretty much everything that’s been sung by each character at the start of the number, look out for it because there was a lot of work that went in to this one. We then had two of the antagonist Mr Cladwell aka Ian Fenwick numbers from the show and I think most of us have decided that the song ‘Mr Cladwell’ will be a great number to be in most specifically the end which notes in the music as being a Slow Drag (Kick-line) and really, what musical theatre geek doesn’t want to be doing a kick line at some point in their career?

During the break Amanda asked me if I wanted to try Jellyfish and considering my love for a certain television show Fear Factor and my determination to always prove myself I tackled it head on (or is that tentacle on?) and actually didn't mind it, I guess you could say it tastes like gristle on chicken bones (which is something I enjoy eating) so I can now tick that off my list of weird things to try, if you've got any other ideas? I could make it a feature on this blog.

Ok so my face doesn't quite show that I liked it

Thursday’s rehearsal started with vocal warm-ups & possibly the worst rendition of Happy Birthday (intentional of course) to my Boss in the show, Ms Pennywise aka Sharon Hewlett and my lovely Mom in the show Mrs Josephine Strong aka Marie Parker. Again it was in to ‘Act One Finale’ and by this time it seems like we have actually got the hang of this number but we’re were still feeling a little overwhelmed by at this point. 

Sharon hiding from the camera

For our break the lovely Chanelle made the two birthday ladies a delicious cake which I decided I deserved to have a piece of, when really I hadn’t been to the gym in about a week by that time so technically I shouldn’t have had it, BUT it was gooooooooood. Next on the schedule was one of my big songs ‘Run Freedom Run’ for fear of losing my voice even more so than it already had, I didn’t really bust it out like I knew I could but it’s a fun song and there’s a lot of chorus stuff that needed to be worked on first anyway so I was a little relieved.

                                  

Sharon hiding from the camera and Marie cutting the cake

Sunday’s rehearsal was another blur for me, I thought that throughout the week I was getting better so I felt like I was well enough to go and perform and celebrate my friend (and fellow Musical Theatre Geek) Kit’s 21^st Birthday on the Saturday night, needless to say I had a few wines but still got home at 12:30am ready for bed about 2am but overnight my phone had died and I ended up waking at 1:25pm (EEEK!), so off I go for a quick shower then to pick up Amanda and get to rehearsals on time. However there was a small car crash that stalled us and we were late (DOH!). When I go there the place seemed quite energized, I do think the majority of us were happy to be back in the Spotlight Theatre again, purely because it was less cold and less space for our voices to fill. This rehearsal was more a fine-tuning rehearsal where we were again making sure ‘Act One Finale’ was in our heads and that the harmonies on the other songs were as tight as we could make them.

 A hideous picture but proof I really did try and rush to get here, I was still a little undressed.

So all in all yet another great week of learning and getting in to our Urinetown characters but for me the next week was when characters really came in it for me.

No Refunds This Is Urinetown

Just my luck, I’ve managed to get through the whole of winter without being sick, not one slight cold or sore throat, the odd sore stomach but nothing major and then my first week of rehearsals I’ve lost my voice, I'm extremely lethargic and I have a cold too :S I finally decided after 2 weeks of not getting better that I might as well go to the doctor and find out what’s wrong with me and it’s a good thing I did because I have bronchitis. So first day was a slight blur, I came in to the Spotlight Theater full of nerves due to not being good with new people, I’m one of those people who has every intention of introducing themselves with 100% confidence but as soon as I get in there I become completely shy again so so far not so good, I’m also dreading any type of singing due to my voice just coming back that morning and my singing voice not yet recovered. We start off with the usual, introductions from the President, Director, Producer, Musical Director & Choreographer plus the tour around the theatre, the one thing I really like about the spotlight theatre is how cosy it is, I mean sure some people would prefer something bigger but this brings me back to my days with the Riverlea Theatre in Hamilton where the theatre was a lot smaller but the show’s always had 100% more heart and soul in them than any other ones performed at bigger venues where heart & soul was replaced with pyrotechnics and too much choreography. Wh then quickly introduced ourselves and started learning the song ‘I See A River’ which is one of Hope’s amazing numbers where she has to channel her inner diva, something I know Chanelle can easily do, the sound we're making in our first rehearsal is great and it's definitely getting anxious as to what the next 2 months have in store for us.

Kathryn Holtkamp sings "I See A River" from the College of Sante Fe (I chose this because the full version gives the ending away)

Tuesday's rehearsal was our vocal rehearsal for 'Urinetown' which is a clever little number that'll let the audience know what they're in for for the next 1 and 45mins plus, my favourite line being "You're at Urinetown! Your ticket should say Urinetown! No refunds this is Urinetown! We'll keep that dough!", this is what I love about this show, it breaks the 4th wall so many times which helps engage the audience. 'It's A Privilege To Pee' came next which is a scene I'm in but most of it is sunga at me and my Pa (who hasn't been cast yet) but after our Sunday rehearsals I have to say that Sharon Hewlett has an AMAZING voice and you're really in for a treat with the character of Ms Pennywise, I can already tell how perfect she will be for this role.

It's a Privilege To Pee

Thursday we had Chris our MD away so instead of a vocal rehearsal we decided to have a full read through of the script which really helped everyone understand the show more and it also gave us a first look at the direction people were heading to in regards to their characters including myself who at the time hadn’t fully decided what kind of American accent I was going to pull out but I think I’m happy with how it sounded and it’ll certainly be a work in progress once I get some time with Adey. Sunday was full of more vocal rehearsals mostly going through what we’ve learned to far and polishing them as well as a ‘The Cop Song’ which I missed as I’m not in that number.

All in all Urinetown rehearsals are off to a great start, it’s only a cast of about 16 people so we have a big responsibility to get our parts right and sounding good since there’s only a few people for each singing part but I think we’re definitely getting there. This week comes to some of my solo songs ‘Look At The Sky’ & ‘Run Freedom Run’, it’s always nerve wracking singing for the first time in front of people you don’t know so once that’s over it’ll be a lot easier, I’m also hoping my voice gets back to normal as soon as possible because they’re both very big songs for my character and I’d like to have them done and dusted sooner rather than later.

Welcome!

In mid-July I came out of a 6 month theatre retirement to audition for a few shows going on around the Auckland area, there were 3 happening around the same time and all of them I wasn’t very familiar with. The first being Into The Woods which I had booked an audition for but forgot the day and ended up not making the audition due to my own forgetfulness, so the next was a show called Urinetown, it was a show I had the Cast Recording of a few years ago but when my computer died I lost all of my music and I don’t remember listening to the show to have it in my mind to re-download/buy. So I went in to the audition very under-prepared mostly due to not knowing much about the show and also because if I didn’t think that I personally fit in to one of the characters in the show, which is when I feel I’m at a loss as to what I should do, do you just go for a part you don’t think you’d get or do you go in and audition with a song that shows your strengths and see what the panel think? In this instance I went with the latter, I had decided on one of the 3 songs I class as my audition standards ‘One Song Glory’ from RENT, I had played Roger back in 2007 and it was my first major role in a production and a show I keep dear to my heart not only for it’s amazing story and music but the whole experience gave me the passion for musical theatre that I have today. So I sang my song and was then asked to read for the lead male Bobby, a part to which I immediately had brushed off that I’d never get mostly due to some prior experience in not being cast in roles and my own low self-esteem in regards to the way I look. These past experiences have been from when I’ve been passed up for specific roles for unknown reasons but due to my weight struggles for years I always seem to use my weight as my crutch for why I wouldn’t get a part, an excuse that really can be true but more often than not isn’t , but nonetheless I still seemed to think that way in this instance.

(Not an AMAZING version but a 2 year old version of One Song Glory)

To my surprise I was called back a few days later for Bobby again and this time I wasn’t up against anyone yet the girls talking in the waiting room were saying that they had heard the Bobby’s been cast, now I didn’t know these girls and I’m a surprisingly shy thespian before you get to know me so internally there were a few questions going through my head like “Am I Bobby?”, “Do these girl’s actually know this or is this gossip?” and “Hmmmm maybe they’re wrong and the other choice/s weren’t able to make the call back”. But I went in to the call back and found that 3 of the girls were going for Hope, my love interest and the female lead while 2 were going for Little Sally who’s almost like the voice of the audience, the one who see’s things as they are in reality as opposed to a musical which is the way the rest of the characters see it. All of the girls were very talented and I knew that the panel would’ve had a big decision on their hands, the person who particularly impressed me that day though was Chanelle, now although all of the girls called back were talented Chanelle was very sick with a cold when she was at the call back and through all of that she was able to impress me with a strong voice that moved from the ditzy Audrey from Little Shop Of Horrors-esque character to these amazing ad-libbed riffs she had to do for her final song ‘I See A River’, I later found out that she got the part of Hope and I am excited for what we potentially can bring to the table as the 2 romantic leads of the show. 

(Chanelle sing Hurt by Christina Aguilera)

A day later I received the call that I was Bobby which even then was a surprise to me but I was ready to figure out what this character entails, that’s what this blog is for, I will be blogging weekly about my experiences with ‘Urinetown’ and MPA and it won’t be a nasty piece of writing, anything that I have problems with I would much rather bring up with the Director or Production staff than vent on here about, instead this is more of an observation and information blog so you can see where the show’s at and how it got there as well as my own thoughts and experiences.

Information will be added on here closer to the time: MPA Website