Five: Number of Performances I've Neglected to Review

Have I mentioned I've been busy?  Oh, I have?  Well, I'll say it again - I've been busy!

Plug for my ginormous (guest list over 40!) "5th Annual A Christmas Story Pajama Party" tomorrow night (Saturday December 10) at Jacob's! (it was at Dallas's but due to an emergency situation, we've had to have a change in venue - please send some good vibes out to Dallas and his fam) Ample food and sugar comas for all - text or call if you didn't get the Facebook event invite or evite and want to come. 

Back to business.  I've seen five shows that I have neglected to review, two of which I promised I'd write about.  Thus, I give you my quick thoughts on each of the shows in a very non-review format.  Enjoy!

Sleepy Hollow at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre
You probably all remember my long, overdrawn account of auditioning for this show.  I am glad to report that it was everything I expected and all of the young ladies who played the parts performed to a much greater caliber than I could have.  Have I mentioned I still can't sing to my full extent?
One of my besties, Megan, decided to treat me to this show for my birthday!  I love Megan dates!
The well-known classic story is twisted in a way that ads intrigue and more excitement.  A few tweaks need to be made, abundant ballads always slow shows down to me, but this is well on it's way to being a Halloween classic all over the nation.  I wanted to see the show again, but it was closing week.  If you ever get the opportunity to see a production of this, I'd take it. 
The part that touched my heart the most was when a mother sang a song about her missing children - I don't think there was a dry eye in the audience (except mine, as my comfort level with crying is sub par). 

The Masque of Beauty and the Beast at Salt Lake City's Children's Theatre
My darling Megan performed the role of an evil stepsister in this production, so naturally I saw her twice:-)  You may be confused by the mention of a stepsister in Beauty and the Beast.  This production is actually based upon the original, non-Disney story and is all in poetic verse and without song.  I'd never been to The Children's Theatre before and found the way they stage their shows (audience on three sides) and the animation with which the actors need to perform, quite well-done.  Although not as aesthetically stimulating as Disney has brought us to expect from Beauty, there was much charm and talent and the little girls went crazy for it.  I finally got to see a darker side of Megan of which I thought the existence was impossible and I couldn't have been more proud of her!  She is an actress indeed.

A Christmas Carol at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre
I have to start with the disclaimer that I am not a huge fan of the whole Scrooge story.  I know, I know, this makes me entirely uncultured.  It's just overdone.  I mean, c'mon, there are many other Christmas stories aside from A Christmas Carol and yet the two largest theaters in the Salt Lake area do the show every single year.
That being said, Centerpoint Legacy chooses to perform the more entertaining, less traditional "Madison Square Garden" version of the show - complete with cabaret dancers (hopefully Dickens doesn't role over in his grave).  Children and families will love this show. The sets provided a new world to look at - at one point a two-story tall chair rises out of the floor in full decorative glory.  Then, the character atop the chair slides down a pole like a fireman - such fun!  One or two of the lead characters left some skill to be desired, but I'm guessing there was illness at play with at least one of them.  Dave Hill, as Scrooge, has me completely in awe - I will see any show he is a part of any moment any day.  The man is phenomenally talented and embodies the character.  The cast was almost an entire city's worth of people, with action happening in every corner.  Sometimes this made me feel a little chaotic, but overall I feel that audiences will enjoy this show and all the holiday spirit that comes with it.  
You can buy tickets here through December 22.

Scrooge at The Empress Theatre
I love Dennis Larsen!  He plays the character of Bob Cratchit with such sweetness and sincerity, you cannot help but fall absolutely in love with him.  With Tiny Tim upon his shoulders, he sings "Christmas Children" with all the velvet softness for which the crooners of old have set the standard.   
His counterpart playing Scrooge is also of noteable talent and earned his part well.
Now, the show itself is a little slow because of too many slow ballads, but the performers themselves do some fine work on that little Empress stage.  You'll be humming the tune to "Thank You Very Much" all the way home.
You can still buy tickets here through December 19th here.  Do it fast, one night is already sold out.

White Christmas at BYU
My favorite!!!
I loved this show!  This performance, in particular, was outstanding without a weak link amongst all the performers. 
I saw White Christmas two years ago for the first time on stage on Thanksgiving Day at the Marquis Theater in New York City.  What a way to bring in the Christmas season, amiright?  As if Santa waving at me at the end of the Macy's Parade wasn't enough. 
Last year, I saw this show at Pioneer Theatre in Salt Lake and I fully expected BYU's production to be at the bottom of the White Christmas trifecta.  Not so.  BYU's production was most definitely better than Pioneer's, save for a few obvious budget differences in sets.
The talent, the costumes, the colors, the warmth, the ambiance, the dancing(!!!) - I just can't rave enough.  I wanted to see the show again (and again and again...)  I knew they'd extended the run.  Sold out.  Every performance.  It was (closed last night) that good.
I'd tell you my favorite part, but that was pretty much the entire show.

In the next week, I have plans to see Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place, Oliver at the Dicken's Festival, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with Jane Seymour and Nathan Gunn.

Sleepy Hollow: Audition Dream and Nightmare

I was planning on saving this post until I knew the results of the auditions, however, one slip of the finger and I accidentally published and Google Reader left the fragment posted (grr).  I was immediately contacted by several of you for the remaining details.  So, for all of you inquiring minds - here you go.

When friends of mine go on and on about how they botched an audition, I think to myself, "You are ridiculously talented, there is no way you could botch an audition so badly that they can't see through the mistake and into your talent."  I could not wrap my brain around this concept.

Well, I am here to tell you that I now get it.  Don't worry - there is a positive side to all of this!  Remember how I like to take the good and run with it and how a good story is always worth it? 

Sleepy Hollow is not just any show.  Sleepy Hollow is written by Jim Christian, theater director at Weber State University and winner of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival award.  Guess who was conducting auditions and is directing the show?  Jim Christian.

Centerpoint Legacy Theater is not a venue in which you are used to seeing me perform.  The building is brand spanking new, 516 seats, and about as high-class as "community" theater can get.  Their most recent show, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, has sold out most performances - even at $18 a ticket, a rare occurrence considering Utah cheapskates. I was actually called back for Seven Brides but accepted the lead in All Shook Up and therefore regretfully declined the callback invitation.  Here are some actual photos of the place:

For my initial audition on Saturday August 13, I sang "Once Upon a Dream" from Jekyll and Hyde.  Hey, they requested Wildhorn, so I delivered a song with which I would normally never audition.  Needless to say, I was thrilled (!!!) to receive the e-mail with the great news that they were considering me for three roles (ranging in age 14 years), including the leading lady, Katrina Van Tassel.  I do happen look like Katrina from Tim Burton's crazy version of Sleepy Hollow, don't you think?

I expected the first night of callbacks to be crazy.  Even in the most whittled-down of callbacks I've attended, there are at least a dozen young ladies fighting for the role.  Imagine my surprise and joy when I found myself in the company of five other amazingly talented stars.  How did I get into this exclusive group?  I quickly discovered that I was clearly the only one not classically trained.  Which is super awesome (or not) for a song in consistently high soprano.  In spite of this, high soprano notes have won me several roles.  Typically, the auditors and other singers are in awe of my soaring melodies.

I felt confident in the song.  I got up to sing.   I'd say I sang, except that nothing came out for the first 8 notes.  By nothing, I mean that the notes came out in barely a whisper.  What the?  This has never ever ever happened to me before!  I continued to sing, but instead of trying to fake classical training I have never had, I just belted as much as I could and then flipped to head voice.  But once you start off on the wrong foot, your nerves tend to get the better of you.  I had to hold the music with both hands because I was shaking so badly.  I guess the good news is that I really stood out:-)  Ha.  I have honestly, before now, never felt embarrassed at an audition. I've never even felt as if I messed up.  Heck, I usually 1,000% rock my auditions.  I usually can confidently say I'm one of the best and know a role is coming my way.  But I blew it.  And I knew it. 

I felt I redeemed myself with the acting portion.  I'll even go so far as to say I felt the tops about my acting, giving myself the chills a little bit.  I'll go even further and say that might have been the best cold read I've ever had.  But in a musical, no amount of acting will make up for terrible (or non-existent) singing.

I had a dream (nightmare?) Wednesday night that the director asked me to not even come back for the next night of auditions to which I had already been invited.

All day Thursday, all I could think about was redeeming myself - going back in that room and knocking their socks off!  I walked into that room already feeling confident, at home and amongst friends, as the ladies from the previous night were all there again. We also found ourselves in the company of about 6-8 additional women and about a dozen men.

We first learned a 4-part harmony song and I took the soprano, a little fearful considering my experiences of the previous night.  All the other groups were pretty balanced, but I was quite good at outsinging the other three in mine.  For the record, and for all of you non-singers, singing louder than everyone else when you are supposed to be blending is not the best thing to be doing.  They were all even following my tempo, which is a weird feeling when you realize you are leading.  How is it that one night nothing comes out and the next I'm explosively too loud?  Alas, I felt pretty good about it. 

Next, we learned a six-part harmony.  My heart began to palpitate a little as the music is gorgeous, yet intricately difficult.  Ooo...I'm so excited thinking back on this music!  I can't wait until there is a CD someday for me to listen to.  Really, folks, this is the perfect Halloween musical!  Okay, back to six-part harmony.  I learned all three women's parts to figure out which one to sing.  Our lovely music director, Julie, told us to pick the part of the character we were called back for.  I had been called back for all three, so I picked the one that suited my range the most after learning all of them and getting myself confuzzled.  All in all, when my turn with my group came, I felt pretty okay about it all and rather impressed myself.

The third task of the evening was to learn a solo part in a song that is the telling of ghost stories.  Oh how I loved this part!  Every note fell right into my sweet belting range and they even told us to sing in a brassier tone.  Be still my heart!  This was my chance for redemption!  I was clearly the only lady there who preferred belting over the classical style.  I picked up on the song very quickly and felt I even had character behind it.  I jumped at the opportunity to perform second, not wanting anyone to use the ideas I had for the song.  I was into it, telling this ghost story as if a child around a campfire and the room was enraptured silent with suspense.  Then, I turned the page only to realize I'd turned to the wrong page.  For the love!  I hummed a line while the pianist vamped and then I just jumped back in where I thought she was.  Unfortunately, my gripping story-telling then turned back into methodical singing of notes because I didn't want to get so wrapped up in acting that I made another mistake.  I was given the perfect chance to prove what I've got, to show them they need to cast me and I turned a page wrong - something that is no indication of performing talent at all.  Really, you just have to laugh about it.  By the end, of the dozen or so people, I bet at least half of us made some similar error and we all learned to have a good laugh at our own expenses.  Life happens.

What I really love about working with Jim and Julie is that you can tell they can see past those mistakes.  They heard you hit the note 5 times, just because you didn't hit it once doesn't ruin your chances. 

The conclusion of the evening for me, and the other younger looking ladies, was the acting.  Jim picked a scene where there are eight characters interacting and had us read together, regardless of whether or not the part we were reading was a part we were auditioning for.  That saved a lot of time, as we only had to run the scene three times.  I loved this portion of the audition.  Really, he just needed to see if people can act and become another character.  My favorite was a woman who had to be late 40s or early 50s reading for the part of a 15-year old.  I also got to read as the 15-year old, perhaps because I jumped up and exuberantly offered myself up for that part, but I can do 15 and boy did I ever.  I felt like my character was Jim Carrey amongst a group of Shakespearean actors.  There is no question left if I can act in an animated way, I'll tell you that. 

When all is said and done, I have come to the conclusion there is really only one part I may still be being considered for - a 19-year old bubbly flirt who sings in a brassy belt the whole show - umm...hello I am perfect for this.  But there were four other adorable women who would be brilliant in the part, and only two of them are going to get cast.  And that's if there is no one being considered that wasn't able to make the callback.

If this were based on acting alone, I'd have a part nailed.  But my singing.  Oh my singing.  This is very ironic to me considering that my singing is usually my strongest suit.  I have no idea what happened.

I hope to be involved in the production in some way.  I honestly have no idea what my odds are and writing about an audition before I know about the results is a never-before-been-done thing for me to do.  Supposing the director googles me for some reason and finds this?  I don't want to shoot myself in the foot!

The thing is, I am so very proud to have been part of this callback process.  Every single person at that callback had talent oozing from every pore.  I'd accept any role to be a part of this show.  Even a horse - apparently the Headless horseman's horse does flips (according to the youtube video) - I can do that!  Pick me, pick me!

After spending 5-6 hours with the pro team, I would be forever grateful to be part of this production with them.  I am already, in-the-now grateful for them dedicating that much time to me.  I, honestly, am not expecting to not be cast, but I am not expecting to be cast.  If I don't get to be a part of this show in some capacity, I know there are other plans in store for me.  If I do, I am going to have the time of my life with this one.  The music is so hopeful and suspenseful and touching and I am definitely going to see this show no matter what happens.  Have I mentioned how everyone there blew me away with their talent?  Oh I have?  Well, again, they blew me away and I am beyond honored to have been a part of such an unbelievably amazing audition group.  Best wishes to everyone!

To top it all off, I had a dream last night that they narrowed the part I am in the running for down to six girls and the musical director suggested they eliminate another girl and myself, while the director disagreed and wanted different people eliminated.  Oy.  I'll sleep better now that auditions are over.

In short, this is the best and the worst audition I have ever had.  I know I will end up where I am supposed to be (but I've still got my fingers crossed!).

On to the next adventure!