Shivers and shuffles

Another great Thursday night rehearsal last night. We started out with the end of Act 1 - "On Thursday night you'll find him where you want him. Far from the crowds in the garden of Gethsemane....". Keith ran the chorus through the subsequent "Well done Judas. Good old Judas" a few times, then I led into it with my bit. Blimey, it made me feel funny when the chorus came in. This is such a big moment in the show...Judas loses all his sneering, edgy voice and delivers this betrayal in a soft, sad voice. He knows he has just condemned Jesus to death. What a way to start the rehearsal - shivers all down my spine!

Then to the other extreme, we did "Simon Zealotes". This sounded fantastic. It's a real driving piece, with a bit of a gospel feel. James (playing Simon) has a great voice and I think he will really grow into this part. The sound was amazing.

We then went back over "The Temple" and "What's the Buzz". Keith surprised me again by going straight through into "Strange Thing Mystifying". I had been singing along with the Disciples and wasn't ready at all. Another dodgy entrance!

We've had a bit of a shuffle round in the male roles. Some people who came for auditions have not turned up again, or have not come back since they didn't get the part they wanted (bit silly really). So we have a new disciple and some different lepers. John, the new disciple, has a fab voice though, so he'll really boost the sound in their songs. Anyway, finished up with "No, you're wrong, you're very wrong..", which did go wrong(!), but still sounded great.

Every Thursday night I am just blown away by the chorus work. I think most people overlook the chorus when thinking about this show and that is a shame. They are not big song-and-dance numbers, but they set the tone for the whole show...from the euphoria of "Hosanna" and "Simon Zealotes" to the wretched lepers in "The Temple" to the goading of Pilot. Without a good chorus, it wouldn't matter how good the principals were, the show would feel very flat. I know we won't have that problem.

Next rehearsal for me is Monday night with the Priests. Better get practicing "Damned for all time".