So Much to say, Part III

I laid down for a while, and (pretty much) tried to reconcile myself with the review. Tried to embrace the audience's (very!) positive reactions to the show (and to me), and to simply let the review go. I had a little -- a very little -- success in doing that before I got to the theatre, but I had no idea how I was supposed to go out and perform again.

Yet, while not being able to be objective about my own performance, I knew how wrong he was about the other performers. The lady who played my leading lady was absolutely brilliant, with a glorious voice. Sancho was playing a part he may have been born to play.

Knowing it in your head and knowing it in your soul, though, are worlds apart. So with barely mitigated trepidation I went to the theatre.....

....where I was met by Kim, the leading lady, who croaked out a couple of sentences to the effect that her voice was g.o.n.e.; that she could (probably) get her lines out, but not be able to sing a note....not be able to sing a note in one of the most musically spectacular and difficult roles ever written for theatre.

Suddenly, my little "poor poor Ted" world became secondary.

Well, the show always does go on -- it always opens, it always runs, the stage is always filled -- one way or another.

We took one of the actresses (a good friend of mine with a really lovely voice) and asked her to sing the songs from off-stage while Kim lip-synced them onstage. Kim delivered her own lines, of course -- she simply got help with the music. We told the audience we would be doing that -- no sense in trying to fool them. It went, all in all, pretty well. Not perfect, but not that far from it, either. The singer did a great job with the music, and Kim managed her way through her part with her usual brilliance.

After the performance, I was still blue and unconfident, although having again heard some "bravo"s after I sang and when I took my bow helped a little. I know, it should have helped a lot, but Neurotic R Me. Still, despite my neurosis and blueness; and despite dealing with the logistics of Kim's vocal issues, we presented a good show that was well-received.

And that helped me feel better (and at least slightly more confident) in my own work.

That was Friday.