One of my favorite children's books is by Michael Rosen. It's called "We're Going On A Bear Hunt". It's a terrific story of family adventure, traipsing through the woods and the rain and the snow and the mud looking for a bear. I used to read this story to my kids every night (and still do, on occasion, cause it's just so much fun). My favorite part of the story is repeated each time they encounter an obstacle, whether it's the swamp or the wind or any of the other aforementioned encumbrances. Each time they encounter the obstacle they repeat this simple refrain: "Uh oh. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We have to go THROUGH it." It's a wonderful metaphor for life, really. Sometimes you just come up against an issue that you can't go under and you can't go over, you just have to go through it. Today was the first stumbling run thru of "our" production of Mamma Mia. We couldn't go over it. We couldn't go under it. We had no choice but to go right through it. No one ever said it was gonna be easy.
We actually started the day with a quick review of all the dance numbers - thank God! The dancing for "Voulez-Vous", though short, continues to be the bane of my existence. I'm getting closer with each rehearsal, but it's still fairly complicated, especially for a guy with two left feet like me. Plus, I went to my FANTASTIC guru of a Chiropractor yesterday, Dr. Shire, who diagnosed what I was afraid I had - shin splints! It's a painful strain in the shin (in my case on the left side), so every time I had to spin in the dance, which is often, I felt a sharp pull on my left shin. I kept trying to stretch and massage it, but it still bothered me most of the day. My "Rosie" ("nurse" Alison) was kind enough to offer me a Ben-Gay patch which helped to alleviate some of the pain, but for the most part I struggled through. (I love being in my 40's, except when I HATE being in my 40's!) In any event, the "VV" dance review was extremely helpful, as was the review for "Gimme,Gimme,Gimme" and "Under Attack", the opening of the second act.
Finally, we were ready for the run. As our director Martha pointed out, it really is one of the few (and last) times we will ever get to see the show ourselves since, once it's up and running, we're too busy paying attention to our own roles and putting on and taking off costumes and attending to things backstage to actually "see" it, so enjoy it while we can. Well, I have to say I took her advice to heart and it was wonderful. Even with the amalgam of newbies and veteran Mamma Mia cast members, the show had that rawness and that newness that comes with a first time run thru and it was magic. Things I never saw in the script were suddenly illuminated, performances (we shouldn't call them that since we're still in "rehearsal", but that's what they are) seemed to be growing before my eyes and the room was filled with a kind of awe and wonder. Alyse ("Sophie") and her friends ("Ali and Lisa") were an explosion of energy that started the show and filled the room. My fellow "Dad's" David and John were just fantastic, at turns funny and moving and altogether full of power and nuance. Alison and Judy and Eric and Michael ("Rosie, Tanya, Sky, Pepper") were all just great, and Beth ("Donna") - my God Beth was fantastic. I had the good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) fortune of sitting a mere ten feet from Beth and Alyse as "Sophie" walks in the room with her wedding dress (there were limited props, by the way, so most of this action was mimed) and confronts her mother "Donna" about her marriage and together they sing "Slipping Through My Fingers", a paean to a youth lost and the torch of one woman's strength and independence being passed to her daughter. I'd be lying to you now if I didn't fess up to the tears streaming down my face while Beth poured out her heart to her daughter. It was raw and real and gut-wrenching and, as we all know in this biz, it will probably never be that good again. But that's the beauty of live theater. It may never be that good, but that doesn't mean we won't continue to pursue that excellence in every performance. Of course there were mistakes. In fact, I made most of them. My favorite was during "Name Of The Game" (which, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is so beautiful as Alyse sings this song of desperate yearning and longing right to my face!), when, having listened to her pour out her heart, I just stared at her, completely forgetting MY lyric and recovering only after she prompted me. Nice work, Boll!
By the end, we were all on our feet (literally). The previous posting account of the bows; silent, dancing, singing - they all went off without a hitch and we ended the day, and the run, with the ever delightful "Waterloo", sans Spandex. But it's coming, just you wait.
Tomorrow we brush up a bit, then Monday we start in full time at the theater. We're getting down to the wire, people, and the "mess" is quickly starting to congeal into something resembling the hit show. Let's hope that my dancing doesn't hold us back.
"Uh oh. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We have to go THROUGH it!"
We actually started the day with a quick review of all the dance numbers - thank God! The dancing for "Voulez-Vous", though short, continues to be the bane of my existence. I'm getting closer with each rehearsal, but it's still fairly complicated, especially for a guy with two left feet like me. Plus, I went to my FANTASTIC guru of a Chiropractor yesterday, Dr. Shire, who diagnosed what I was afraid I had - shin splints! It's a painful strain in the shin (in my case on the left side), so every time I had to spin in the dance, which is often, I felt a sharp pull on my left shin. I kept trying to stretch and massage it, but it still bothered me most of the day. My "Rosie" ("nurse" Alison) was kind enough to offer me a Ben-Gay patch which helped to alleviate some of the pain, but for the most part I struggled through. (I love being in my 40's, except when I HATE being in my 40's!) In any event, the "VV" dance review was extremely helpful, as was the review for "Gimme,Gimme,Gimme" and "Under Attack", the opening of the second act.
Finally, we were ready for the run. As our director Martha pointed out, it really is one of the few (and last) times we will ever get to see the show ourselves since, once it's up and running, we're too busy paying attention to our own roles and putting on and taking off costumes and attending to things backstage to actually "see" it, so enjoy it while we can. Well, I have to say I took her advice to heart and it was wonderful. Even with the amalgam of newbies and veteran Mamma Mia cast members, the show had that rawness and that newness that comes with a first time run thru and it was magic. Things I never saw in the script were suddenly illuminated, performances (we shouldn't call them that since we're still in "rehearsal", but that's what they are) seemed to be growing before my eyes and the room was filled with a kind of awe and wonder. Alyse ("Sophie") and her friends ("Ali and Lisa") were an explosion of energy that started the show and filled the room. My fellow "Dad's" David and John were just fantastic, at turns funny and moving and altogether full of power and nuance. Alison and Judy and Eric and Michael ("Rosie, Tanya, Sky, Pepper") were all just great, and Beth ("Donna") - my God Beth was fantastic. I had the good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) fortune of sitting a mere ten feet from Beth and Alyse as "Sophie" walks in the room with her wedding dress (there were limited props, by the way, so most of this action was mimed) and confronts her mother "Donna" about her marriage and together they sing "Slipping Through My Fingers", a paean to a youth lost and the torch of one woman's strength and independence being passed to her daughter. I'd be lying to you now if I didn't fess up to the tears streaming down my face while Beth poured out her heart to her daughter. It was raw and real and gut-wrenching and, as we all know in this biz, it will probably never be that good again. But that's the beauty of live theater. It may never be that good, but that doesn't mean we won't continue to pursue that excellence in every performance. Of course there were mistakes. In fact, I made most of them. My favorite was during "Name Of The Game" (which, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is so beautiful as Alyse sings this song of desperate yearning and longing right to my face!), when, having listened to her pour out her heart, I just stared at her, completely forgetting MY lyric and recovering only after she prompted me. Nice work, Boll!
By the end, we were all on our feet (literally). The previous posting account of the bows; silent, dancing, singing - they all went off without a hitch and we ended the day, and the run, with the ever delightful "Waterloo", sans Spandex. But it's coming, just you wait.
Tomorrow we brush up a bit, then Monday we start in full time at the theater. We're getting down to the wire, people, and the "mess" is quickly starting to congeal into something resembling the hit show. Let's hope that my dancing doesn't hold us back.
"Uh oh. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We have to go THROUGH it!"
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