Phew, quite a couple of weeks.
Right after my return from Rhinebeck, we had work, the one-two punch of losing Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, and auditions for 1776. I love Dolly in the same general way that everyone does, I guess, and the same for Tim Curry. (I have fond memories of losing my Rocky Horror virginity in Georgetown my senior year of high school, the night of the Thespian banquet.) Memorable re-viewings in college, particularly when I had a car and could drive everyone down to Hampton, and one in grad school which was particularly funny because a lot of the call-out responses were new/different. I’ve also admired Curry in many other movies, although I might be the only person in the world who didn’t think “Clue” was particularly funny. (I should try it again.)
I was really looking forward to 1776. Even though I knew VLOG would be doing gender-blind casting, a cast filled with old grumpy men characters seemed like it might offer something for me. Plus, I had a bunch of friends auditioning with me, and the music director is a dear friend and colleague of mine. First auditions were just a ’32-bar cut’, which I never take particularly seriously. As an MD myself, I know that means “give us a representative cut that doesn’t go on too long”. I walked in with both “Pretty Little Picture” (from Forum) and “Cool Considerate Men”, which actually didn’t ‘chunk up’ as nicely – ended up doing PLP, which was fun and went well. Waited around for my buddy Susan to do her audition, then we went out for burgers before training home.
Callbacks were slated for Saturday afternoon, and I got my invite on Friday. I’d been planning to spend my (free in the summers) Friday afternoon going to the movies, but ended up getting called back for not only Franklin and Dickinson (the two big roles I figured I was right for) but also John Adams, the friggin’ lead. So suddenly a lot of material to study.
Callbacks were pretty efficiently run, I must say, considering they had to cast 26 roles. They started with the “Adamses” – we got led in individually to do the opening monologue (I made the directors laugh when I slapped my head before “Good God, what in hell are they waiting for?”). Then we all went in, plus the Abigails, to sing “Piddle Twiddle” and “Yours Yours Yours”. There were five Adamses called back, one a woman (who was also called back for Abigail, and I sang against her for the duet). They also had Adamses sing against the ‘Sherman’s’, a side I had either not been sent or had not received, but I knew it. The ‘Sherman’ I sang against was a young woman, absolutely hilarious, who did the ‘shut it’ gesture at me during “You! But! You! But You!”.
Then much the same for the Franklins and the Dickinsons. There were a bunch of Dickinsons, seven of us, including both my Josephine and my Sir Joseph from last summer’s Pinafore. (Martin was commenting later that could anyone have guessed that there was a role that the three of us would all be called back for.) We did “Cool Considerate Men”, unfortunately not the same cut I’d learned for my audition, but I still knew it. Since we were all in the room together, we quickly fell into the ‘whoever’s not up sings the chorus parts’ routine, and when we hit that moment during my turn, I turned around and conducted them, making everyone laugh. (yay, me!)
There was a bunch of us called back for the smaller roles later in the afternoon, but we had at least an hour or so to wait, so we all went out for coffee (and some to drink, heh). Back and we literally (like 20 of us) formed a line to go in one at a time and read some little roles. I wish I had prepped for this better, in terms of actually figuring out what little roles I’d like and which I wouldn’t like, because they asked us which we’d like to read. And that was it, once we individually finished.
Sunday was about house catchup, and then I got the role offer of McNair, the congressional custodian. Not one of the big roles I’d been called back for, and not a role I’d particularly thought about. But it was clear that getting cast in this show, with the array of talent that showed up for it, was not at all a given, particularly since this was the fourth VLOG show I’d auditioned for and had not yet been cast. So, “yes”, of course, I’ll take it. And then IMing with my friends to see what they got. My Sir Joseph (Martin) got Dickinson, which made sense and he’ll be wonderful. My adorable Lauren (the Josephine), got cast as, get this, the old drunk congressman from Rhode Island, Stephen Hopkins. Who berates McNair for not bringing the rum fast enough.
So this should be hilarious.
Monday, I had (first) a dentist appointment, then was in the office to be followed by a nice dinner for my wedding anniversary. The dentist appointment was just fine, and amusing because Oscar, the dental tech, really likes me and we have great conversations about music and stuff. When he put my next appointment on the calendar, he put a ‘heart’ emoji in it, because I’m one of the nice patients, heh.
While I was getting ready to leave afterward, I saw they’d posted the whole cast list for 1776 online, so I walked to the office, had breakfast and studied it. Many friends in the cast, a whole bunch of talent. The only woman called back for Adams got the role, which is interesting and also wonderful, because she’s excellent. My buddy Chaz, Ralph from that Pinafore, is Richard Henry Lee. (of course, there are other friends of mine, quite wonderful, who did not get cast, and that’s a shame). But it’s going to be quite a show and you should come see it.
Didn’t get a lot of work done, because was all caught up in the show casting and the emails back and forth, and the emotional whipsawing of “I got cast in a show!” and “It’s my wedding anniversary and my husband is not here to celebrate it with me.”. This was the fifth anniversary without him, we only had seven together, and “pissed off” is pretty much how I feel about that. I make less of a deal of it every year, which is fine – he does get farther and farther away, which is not fine, but expected. My nieces both reached out to me, which is sweet, and so did many friends. I took myself out to dinner at Avra Estiatorio, a Greek restaurant that we both loved. Funny, though, there used to be just one location on the East Side, but that one’s gone and there are multiple new ones now, one of which is just a few blocks north of my office. And it turned out I’d made the reservation at the wrong location, arrrgh. But fitting in a single diner at 5:30 on a Monday wasn’t a big deal.
The meal itself was lovely, but it wasn’t the reflective experience I was hoping for. One thing that was distracting is I was seated directly viewing the bar, which was populated with business bros doing happy hour, loudly and bro-ly. And of course, thinking about the show and all that. But I have all days to be reflective, it doesn’t have to be just that one. I had a big salad and then swordfish and probably a dessert, too, although I don’t remember what it was. And then home to get back into ‘normal head’.
Coming up: rehearsals start! End of the summer. And (*sigh*) 9/11.
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