It Begins
Last night I attended my first actual Sweeney Todd rehearsal. It was full cast and we ran music for the show. In all the time I’ve spent listening to various versions of the soundtrack I never realized how complicated some of the songs were. The casts always made it sound so easy and wonderful. Not that the music is bad - on the contrary, it’s quite amazing - but it’s difficult. I think, though, so long as everybody works hard, it’ll all come together and we’ll have a wonderful show.
In addition to numbers involving the chorus, we went through a lot of the solos and duets as well. I said it last night and I’ll say it again - Andy Laub never ceases to impress me with how talented he is. I mean, I’ve always known that he was good, but he just keeps on demonstrating how wonderful he really is. Mike (whose last name I will not attempt because I know better than to think I could spell it), who plays Judge Turpin, was fantastic last night. Maybe timing isn’t completely his thing yet, but we could not have asked for a more enthusiastic performer.
This is the first time I’ve ever worked with Erik Olsen. He’s the musical director and he’s great. He knows his stuff, he’s organized, and he’s got a great sense of humor. Another winning quality is that he good-naturedly takes all of my smart-ass remarks and believe me, there are many. Actually last night he rescued my bag of Cheetos from that piece of crap snack machine they have at WCT, so I owed him a sass-free rehearsal. It lasted a whole 10 minutes.
Really though, I’m already in love with this show and with the rehearsals for it. I can’t wait to go back tonight and try to work through the music and get to know more of my castmates. Then tomorrow we start blocking, which is always fun.
It’s going to be a good 8 weeks.
Andy Laub said:
You are really terrible at the “not-sassing” thing.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm #
Jill Knetter said:
You’re right…is there a rehab for that kind of thing?
July 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm #