Opening

Show #4 opens tonight (third musical).  I have mixed emotions about it.  I really like the show!!!  It's a great one.  But I have a little bit of a problem doing it with such a small band as we're using.  It just doesn't sound right without all those saxes and horns in there.  The show was written by my favorite composer and I really just think that he is brilliant!  Unfortunately he thought it was a good idea to change keys every page of music and to write songs that gave the singers lots of liberties.  These two factors make it so that I have to work REALLY HARD throughout the show.  There is a lot of room for error (or messiness I suppose).

BUT, when the hardest part about it all is that the set designer decided it would be a good idea to build a platform above my head.  There are two main problems with this.  #1 it makes it hard for me to hear the singers!  #2 it makes it impossible for me to see the singers.  At one point there are curtains drawn underneath this platform which makes it so that I'm sitting inside a tent.  Now really?!?!  Who in their right mind thinks it a good idea to put the pianist/conductor inside a tent and expects them to keep the pace of a show moving.  And really thats how it works.  Once the show begins it's the job of the stage manager and the conductor to keep it all moving.

So needless to say, there is some anxiety there!  I'm sure it'll go off just fine but I'm expecting today to be a very stressful day!  The good news is that tomorrow we start working on the show that I've been looking forward to most for the summer.  And that opens next Thursday and then I HAVE A WEEK OFF!

Keeping my cool in the Mountains of Musical Madness...

CK