March 09, 2005
One day Marcy found me sitting on a table and staring pensively at the floor. Lying down on her back and facing me upside down, she asked, "Whatcha doin, Darin?"
"Thinking about dancing," I replied.
"You're thinking really hard about it, aren't you?" she remarked.
"Yep," I said. "I'm thinking about all those rock & rollers who thought you were all campy saps for doing this musical theatre thing, and now I'm like, 'Okay, smart-asses, you try to do it!'" She laughed.
John Lennon said
"Genius is pain."
I say dancing is.
And what we're doing here isn't even serious dancing, mind you, it's just movement, designed to help the rhythms along and add a little visual enhancement. But don't kid yourself, it's damn hard. Only when I got some one-on-one time with Joe and his assistant, Allison, did I realize just how much work I needed to do. I've made a lot of progress, but I still have a ways to go before I'm fit to be on a stage without a guitar or a drumkit to hide behind.
But singing hasn't been a problem. This show is not hurting for singers. Even those who've never done musical theatre can not just carry a tune, they can belt it to the back of the house. Marcy, in particular, has a rendition of Lennon's "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" that promises to rip any theatre off its foundation and hurl it like a grenade. A lot of voice coming from such a petite gal.
Ironically, with such a small company (nine) and so many songs (around thirty), it still seems like there aren't enough solo performances to go around. And this is the music of a lone ex-Beatle, remember? On Broadway, solos are a big thing. Some performers (none in this production) actually have them negotiated into their contract. So I learned the hard way that you don't fuck with any part of anyone's solo, even with the best of intentions. Fortunately this gang is very forgiving, God bless 'em!
And of course no week would be complete without pie from Mutha Ju'ia. This week's flavor: butterscotch pecan. Mmmmm!