Draining Dress Rehearsal

Well, that was that. The final rehearsal before the curtain goes up tonight at 7:45. Help! :-0

The dress rehearsal went well in general. The only main problems were sound (the band can't be heard too well on the stage) and people being seen in the wings. Not insurmountable problems I don't think. Hopefully they will crank up the sound from the monitors on the stage, so the chorus can hear what the band are playing in the big numbers.

As for my performance, I felt it was OK...my voice was not as good as it could have been - I just dry up so quickly on this stage. I am drinking lots of water and sucking on throat sweets before I go on, but within a minute my throat is dry as a bone again. Also, my stomach is still feeling a bit empty after my sickness on Saturday, so my diphragm breathing is all a bit to pot. Hopefully that will improve over the next 24 hours.

So, a quick run-down...(not as long as yesterday's entry I promise!)

"Heaven" was okay...my voice cracked a bit at the final "sour", but I felt my movement was better this time - no falling off the steps!

"What's The Buzz?" and "Everything's Alright" were both good.

"This Jesus Must Die" sounded fine, although I was up in the changing room gulping down water at this point.

"Hosanna" worked a lot better this time. Pete seemed to be in place without having to sprint.

"Simon Zealotes" - James seemed to fly past even faster than before...I hope he doesnt ever trip, coz he'll take a hell of a tumble. Sounded good tho.

"Pilate's Dream" - didn't hear it unfortunately - more water!

"The Temple" - looked great again. There's a nice bit before the lepers where Jesus has screamed "Get out!" and the people disperse. He sings "My time is almost through..." in a spotlight on the floor and I move to stand in the centre of the balcony. It looks like I may come down to comfort him, then the lepers appear, so I move off. Simple but effective (I hope)

"I don't know.." was great as usual. Caroline just has to make sure she lays Pete down in the pool of red light on the stairs.

"Damned..." was a strain on the voice - it's always been my nemesis and if I'm not on top form, it's the one that always gets me. But I think I managed to just about pull it off. We had to re-do the ending as the bag of coins was descending, but I couldn't see it, so we had to shift things around a bit (Need a bigger, shinier bag!). I also need to keep an eye on the lights as I go up the steps, and stay in my pose till the blood red fades to black. Nice!

In the interval we practiced getting me off from the hanging. When we did it on Saturday there was no handrail on the set, so I could be taken straight off into the wings. Now there is a handrail in the way, so I have to have someone to catch me at the edge of the set and unhook me so I can get down the stairs.

"The Last Supper" had real bread and real ribena! (Had to change the words to "Wine" coz "pool of Ribena" doesn't rhyme with "life is fine"! :o) )

"Gethsemane" - only heard a bit of this, but it was outstanding as usual. More water!

"The Arrest" was okay, although the individual singers ("Tell me Christ..." etc) struggled to keep in time - hopefully increased volume on the stage monitors will help this. And Annas looked up at me on his line "Judas, thanks you for the victim" - nice one Gary. Followed by a brief glance from Pete as well. Nice touch mate.

"Pilate and Christ" - again, I missed most of this, and "Herod's Song" unfortunately (good to see the Harem girls get their costumes at last! ;-) )

"Could we start.." was beautiful as ever. I think I'll have to make my entrance after this from the front stairs as I am fighting to get on past the apostles.

"Judas' Death". Well, I milked it a bit more than last night, hopefully the band got to play their extra few bars! I just love this scene. It's so harrowing, but so exciting to do. I really can't wait to get the noose round my neck and step off. We are supposed to have a blackout so I can get down without being seen too much, but that never quite worked out, so I ended up running into Jesus as he was coming up the stairs - not ideal. Hopefully I'll have time to get down beofre he comes up tonight. I was totally shattered after doing this and really just felt like going and collapsing in the dressing room, but I have very little time to get changed for "Superstar", so I had to dig deep for some more energy.

On came the legendary suit for "Superstar", I swapped my mic over and sprinted over to the other side of the stage to get up to the top back door. I think I'll have to devise a better plan for getting there in time, coz I was even more knackered by the time I got in position! But anyway, I managed to find a reserve of energy and adreneline and did an even more funky performance than before. My voice wasn't great and had virtually disappeared by the end, but I think the performance maybe distracted a bit from the vocal inadequacies. At the end of the night Geoff suggested I give it even more - handsprings, the splits, pelvic thrusts! Not sure about the first two, but I may be able to manage the last one. I just feel sorry for the poor folks in the stalls!

And I'm sorry to say I never saw "The crucifixion". I was in the dressing room in my shorts with a towel over my head thinking "can I really do this every night?". Of course, I know that I can and I will. I think it might take me a while to recover afterwards tho.

And so that is it. Tonight is opening night. I think we're ready. I certainly am. I need an audience now. I just now this is going to be amazing...my dream finally coming true.