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Oct. 24th, 2011 02:40 pmWe had Friday and Saturday off from rehearsal. I welcomed the opportunity to forget about the show for two days, but I wanted to work on the tap solo and NAIL that entrance, so I booked space at Ripley-Grier for Saturday afternoon. I've also been sick the past week--Friday night was brutal, I could not stop coughing--so dragging myself out of bed Saturday morning wasn't fun! Susan and I drilled the hell out of the solo and by the end I was nailing it AT tempo. Triples and everything. Yay! So I think the key is to warmupwarmupwarmUP every night. Run that thing over and over and over, and then run it listening to my iPod.
I dragged myself back home and curled up in bed, pausing only to email regrets to a Halloween party. Ugh...
Yesterday I felt a little better. We had a clean up rehearsal and went over a lot of the music and much of the dance. Vocally there was a decent amount to clean up--there are a LOT of discrepancies among 1) what we were taught by the music director, 2) what he notated in the score (he wrote many of his own arrangements) and 3) the vocal tracks he recorded for us all. Kind of annoying, mainly because he's a bit of a dick, one of those guys that is brittle and will not take well to any pointing out of mistakes. The mistakes are a bit more apparent to me than to the other two altos (I'm singing alto on this) because I read music and see the mistakes he's made--uh, what I'm hearing on the vocal track is NOT what is in the score in front of me! His arrangements are great though, I'll give him that, I especially like the last number.
Singing alto is weird for me--I enjoy the opportunity to sight-read (sopranos usually just get the melody) but the parts are always a little low for me. I can hit the notes but they're not terribly comfortable. And I'm not used to hearing the alto line, I'm trained to hear the soprano line. So I had to work harder than normal on the score for this.
I gotta say though, I'm a little nervous about two performances. I have a strong suspicion that the guy who plays Frank N Furter is tone-deaf. This is not a death knell--Tim Curry talks his way through much of the score--but if that's what he needs to do, then DO it. Don't massacre the score by trying to sing what you can't, just commit to talking it. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the score--I don't believe he's seen the movie as he didn't want to go on a cast outing to see it, he was afraid of being influenced by Curry's performance. (To which I say--man, you need to develop stronger acting instincts. I've seen the movie many times, and my take on Columbia is nothing like Little Nell's.) Anyway, I guess he doesn't know the score but in that case, LEARN IT. Get the soundtrack and listen to these songs, even if it does influence you. The Sunday before we open is a little late to be stumbling over the Charles Atlas song. It's a good thing he's a good actor--his performance (other than the singing) is pretty decent.
The other performance is Steven as the Narrator. Again, don't know if he's seen the movie but his take on the Narrator is all wrong. The Narrator is the CONTROL character--he (like Janet and Brad) is quote-unquote normal. He's not a freak, he's commenting on the freaks. He's supposed to show up how weird this whole journey through his normality. Steve's playing it almost like he's excitedly gossiping on the story. Noooooo! Deadpan, controlled, sober--THAT'S the Narrator. Not giddy and excited, it undermines his function. And this is small but it gets on my nerves nonetheless--he sings the last verse of Superheroes instead of speaking out. Now Steven does have a lovely voice but the way he delivers it, he's all soulful and sad, NOOOOOO! Again, that's not the Narrator. This didn't happen to YOU, you're the messenger. And I know he's singing it not because it's a character choice but simply to show off his (yes, lovely) singing voice--but it's not appropriate for the character or the show. Ergh.
We have tech/dress tonight and tomorrow, and then an invited final dress for Wednesday.
I dragged myself back home and curled up in bed, pausing only to email regrets to a Halloween party. Ugh...
Yesterday I felt a little better. We had a clean up rehearsal and went over a lot of the music and much of the dance. Vocally there was a decent amount to clean up--there are a LOT of discrepancies among 1) what we were taught by the music director, 2) what he notated in the score (he wrote many of his own arrangements) and 3) the vocal tracks he recorded for us all. Kind of annoying, mainly because he's a bit of a dick, one of those guys that is brittle and will not take well to any pointing out of mistakes. The mistakes are a bit more apparent to me than to the other two altos (I'm singing alto on this) because I read music and see the mistakes he's made--uh, what I'm hearing on the vocal track is NOT what is in the score in front of me! His arrangements are great though, I'll give him that, I especially like the last number.
Singing alto is weird for me--I enjoy the opportunity to sight-read (sopranos usually just get the melody) but the parts are always a little low for me. I can hit the notes but they're not terribly comfortable. And I'm not used to hearing the alto line, I'm trained to hear the soprano line. So I had to work harder than normal on the score for this.
I gotta say though, I'm a little nervous about two performances. I have a strong suspicion that the guy who plays Frank N Furter is tone-deaf. This is not a death knell--Tim Curry talks his way through much of the score--but if that's what he needs to do, then DO it. Don't massacre the score by trying to sing what you can't, just commit to talking it. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the score--I don't believe he's seen the movie as he didn't want to go on a cast outing to see it, he was afraid of being influenced by Curry's performance. (To which I say--man, you need to develop stronger acting instincts. I've seen the movie many times, and my take on Columbia is nothing like Little Nell's.) Anyway, I guess he doesn't know the score but in that case, LEARN IT. Get the soundtrack and listen to these songs, even if it does influence you. The Sunday before we open is a little late to be stumbling over the Charles Atlas song. It's a good thing he's a good actor--his performance (other than the singing) is pretty decent.
The other performance is Steven as the Narrator. Again, don't know if he's seen the movie but his take on the Narrator is all wrong. The Narrator is the CONTROL character--he (like Janet and Brad) is quote-unquote normal. He's not a freak, he's commenting on the freaks. He's supposed to show up how weird this whole journey through his normality. Steve's playing it almost like he's excitedly gossiping on the story. Noooooo! Deadpan, controlled, sober--THAT'S the Narrator. Not giddy and excited, it undermines his function. And this is small but it gets on my nerves nonetheless--he sings the last verse of Superheroes instead of speaking out. Now Steven does have a lovely voice but the way he delivers it, he's all soulful and sad, NOOOOOO! Again, that's not the Narrator. This didn't happen to YOU, you're the messenger. And I know he's singing it not because it's a character choice but simply to show off his (yes, lovely) singing voice--but it's not appropriate for the character or the show. Ergh.
We have tech/dress tonight and tomorrow, and then an invited final dress for Wednesday.
