Time for an early break

Bugger, just heard from Keith - no rehearsal tonight. That's a shame as it would have been my last one before going away. Looks like I'll have to wait till 4th July now. Hope I can pick up where I left off when I return.

More Last Suppers

A very different Thursday night rehearsal last night. Just Jesus, myself and the apostles. It was very odd just being us few in the big echo-y hall...but it worked out well. We did a lot of work on the Last Supper (yay!). Keith worked on the harmonies for the Apostles ("Look at all my trials and tribulations...") and Me and Pete fitted in our argument around it. By the end it sounded great...the guys really started to get to grips with the harmonies, and me and Pete really nailed our sections. I just think this is such a fab song...my favourite bit I think is the reprise of "Every time I look at you..." at the end. I really get behind that and especially the wail at the end...it starts me on the slippery slope into madness.

I also think I've now got my head straight about these Thursday rehearsals. I've stopped worrying about trying to make a good performance and am now just relaxing, concentrating on breathing and making it sound right. The results, I have to say, are much better. Hopefully I can maintain this when I come back off holiday.

Put my name down to be involved in the Carnival as well. It's only right I should be there.

Back on track

Fantastic rehearsal last night. Just me and Pete (Jesus) at Keith's house. We ran through the whole show and it was great. I have got over my crisis of confidence and pretty much nailed all my numbers, with just one or two places still needing real work.

The best bit was doing act 2 tho. This is by far the better half of the show for me, as it's got so much more action...lots to really get into. I was so looking forward to "The Last Supper" and I wasn't disappointed...my favourite scene from the show and it felt great. Can't wait to put it into action on stage. Pete and I have real contrasting voices...his is more mellow, mine is a bit more rough round the edges! But I think this difference really helps to define the characters and makes for a great sound.

Of course, it was good to do "Judas' Death" again. I haven't really done this properly since the auditions and it felt really good to let go again. I could see the look of concern in Keith's eye as he thought about me maintaining this for 6 shows on the trot, but I know I'll be fine. The shrieking I can maintain...it seems to be the lower-register singing that I need to focus on.

I'd like to do "Judas' Death" in a Thursday night rehearsal as I don't think that the rest of the cast are quite convinced yet why I got the part. Don't get me wrong, everyone has been really supportive, and those that were on the audition panel have heard me do things well. It's just that, as I have mentioned before, Thursday nights have been a bit of a let-down for me and I haven't really performed as well as I can. We spoke to Keith about this actually last night. I said that I felt somewhat intimidated sitting at the back after the chorus have just done some huge number, trying to work myself up to make a good performance. Keith is going to rearrange things from next rehearsal though, so people are grouped by roles, not by singing voice, so me, Jesus & Mary etc at the front, maybe the apostles behind etc. This should make a difference.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better about things now. Hopefully this Thursday will be better than most as it's just me, JC & apostles.

Coverage and Carnivals

OK, so I'm on a bit of a low ebb after Thursday night, but, for everyone else, I think the rehearsal went really well. We ran through most of Act 1 and it sounded really good. Caiaphas (when he was allowed to sing on his own!) did really well, and David W sang "Pilot's Dream" perfectly, earning a deserved round of applause.

Also, more coverage in the telegraph! It gives a quick run-down of the main characters (although, being picky, it lists Annas and Caiaphas as 2 of the disciples, but who's to know?) and says that Judas is "seen by many as the show-stealing role". I hope I can live up to that! Good to see that they're keeping the profile up. Would be nice to see some cast pictures soon.

Incidentally, it seems that we are due to be providing a float for the 2004 Cleethorpes Carnival. Should be interesting...we are apparently getting t-shirts for the day. Cool! ;-)

Ciaphas cock-up and confidence cracking

Had a bit of a bad night last night at rehearsal....I'm never very involved in the Thursday night sessions, as Judas doesn't sing anything with the chorus. I'm only really there to provide cues. So, I started to switch off a little....not very professional I know, but inevitable. I try to join in with some songs, but I'm stuck between doing too much and straining my voice and not doing anything and feeling like a spare part.

Anyway, we started to do "This Jesus Must Die" and Keith said, so I thought, that we only had one priest. Ah, thinks I, I'd better sing Ciaphas in for him coz the chorus need his note to come in. Off I went, sang my best Ciaphas..."Ah gentlemen, you know why we are here..."....got some funny looks, but I thought this was just from people wondering who was singing. Unfortunately it was actually because Kevin, who plays Ciaphas, was actually here. He was sitting 4 seats away, wondering who else was singing his part! I just died. I couldn't sing anything else for the rest of the night. I just wanted to up and leave. At the break, I went and apologied most profusely. Luckily he's a nice guy and didn't seem too mad. Not a good experience tho.

Anyway, I then sat in near silence for the rest of rehearsal, as I was so mortified about my blunder, I just couldn't bring myself to join in. And anyway, there was nothing else for me to do. Or so I thought. Keith decided that I could sing through "Damned for all time", not my best song...and I did a fairly poor performance of it. Damned indeed.

Not a good night. Although I was distracted by my Ciaphas cock-up, I just can't seem to produce the goods on a Thursday night. For some reason my voice just goes totally off the boil. I'm fine at home, and I'm OK on a Monday night, but it just seems that Thursdays don't really work for me. Strange...Perhaps it's because we sit down. Maybe I should stand when it comes to my bits. But then I might feel a bit odd. But should that matter?
I think I'll talk to Keith on Monday, see what he thinks. At least we're getting on to act 2 next week, which should be better for me.

On second thoughts...

...OK, maybe I'm not that bad. It was the middle of the day and I wasn't warmed up too well....

Make it stop!!!

Jeez....just recorded myself singing along to the soundtrack. How the hell did I get this part? I sound terrible!

I've certainly got a lot of work to do...

The Pharisees and Priests are here for you...

Another successful Monday night rehearsal last night: Me, Annas, Ciaphas and the priests. We started with "This Jesus Must Die". This is going to be great. These guys have really strong voices and I think they're really going to pull this off. "He is dangerous..." sounds really menacing. Oh, and I got to stand in for Priest 3 (really low) which made a nice change from screaming out top B's!

Then Mark & John (Priests 1 & 2) left and we went on to pick up the other sections for Annas and Ciaphas, including "Damned For All Time". This is starting to come together for me...it certainly made a difference having the guys sing their parts in.
After going over the priests bits in Act 2..."Jesus you must realise the serious charges facing you..." and "We turn to Rome to sentence Nazareth...", the rest of the guys went.

Keith suggested we sing through "Superstar"...not my favourite song in the show I have to say. It does go on a bit and it's not that nice to sing. But it should be good when we get to put the performance to it. I imagine that, knowing the Soul Girls as I do, it should be a real laugh. Anyway, I had a bash through it and it wasn't too bad. I'm still tending to push my voice too much....I really need to relax a bit. I think I'm still just so amazed that I'm actually singing this part that I am not thinking about how I am singing it. I've really got to start concentrating, or I'm never going to do it justice.

June already huh? Only 16 days till we go on holiday...