Two more weekends of NY cabbie, shrill high B’s and Godspell

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Tonight kicks off our second weekend of Godspell. Between tech rehearsals, shows, and starting rehearsal for Charlie Brown, not to mention work (oh yea, I still have to earn income...forgot about that...), I haven’t been able to blog about all the madness over the past few weeks. So, I’ll summarize here.

My birthday. I knew tech week would wear me out, so I kept birthday activities low-key. Prescott made me a breakfast-in-bed of cranberry pecan pancakes — scrumptious We also went skating and went to a Korean restaurant. My actual birthday fell on a tech rehearsal, and the cast/crew team got me the prettiest birthday cake I’ve ever had:

The butterflies are one of my favorite color combinations, purple, green and orange, which are the colors of my juggling balls that I use in a scene of Godspell. How perfect is that? Gaby says it was a coincidence, but I think there’s a little karma, too

Opening weekend of Godspell. Thanks to my wonderfully supportive friends, my kitchen is full of flowers (I took this photo with my rinkydink cell phone camera, since Pscott is borrowing my regular one for a trip to CA. I’m surprised it looks as nice as it does.)

Kara brought me the lilies, perhaps because we are Disney friends and my nickname was Tiger Lily in those days. Tom, who sings the role of Jeffrey in Godspell, is a sweetheart who brought us each a yellow rose. Steve and Steph brought me a big festive, colorful bundle, and Susan and Dianne brought me the lovely purplish-pink pastel bunch that matched my costume (they must be psychic!).

As I finally started to feel solid within my role, the show became an exercise in pure fun. I’m not worried about the high notes anymore — but thank goodness I don’t have to worry about the high C in “We Beseech Thee;” that’s all on Hannah — and I’m having a great time being a ham. There’s one scene where I juggle, there’s another where I talk like a Brooklyn gangster, there’s another where I play in slow motion à la The Matrix…The show is just full of gags.

And then, there is the music. The songs showcase a variety of musical styles, and it was a great learning experience to work on them all. And in terms of my featured solos, I don’t think I could have wished for better. “Learn Your Lessons Well” is a bratty, cheeky song right up my alley (hey, it’s fun to be a smartass), and I love the duet “By My Side” because it’s so beautiful with dissonance, both musically and emotionally moving. Also, two-girl duets seem more rare (like, i can think of the ones in Wicked, Miss Saigon … and nothing else). I had the higher harmony on the duet, and that was still about as low as I can belt. (I cracked once early in the song … good thing it’s supposed to sound painful!)

Finally, I never thought I’d feel much of a difference between singing and performing for an audience of friends versus an audience of strangers. But when I found Susan and Dianne by surprise at the end of the show (since they didn’t tell me they were coming), I was suddenly filled happiness, and all the blasé tiredness floated away. There was also a stranger who came up to tell me that she had also seen Final Respects and that she thoroughly enjoyed both performances. There is something magical that happens when all the elements are combined. I am glad and thankful to be part of it.

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