Opening Night

And so it begins …

UPDATE: Opening night for the Cotton Patch Gospel at our church, with yours truly in the role of Matthew (the narrator and, so I keep being told, the star — which just seems wrong). The results?

THE GOOD

• When we were in the groove, we were smoking. Great energy, great harmony great work.

• Lots of good laughs, lots of applause after tunes (even some of the less well-performed ones), lots of enthusiasm from the audience.

• Some of the really rough spots, even from last night’s final dress, were in good shape.

• Lots of kudos from the audience after the performance. You’d think it was the greatest thing they’d ever seen — which, for some of them, I know it was not. But whether it was very vigorous politeness or real pleasure, it was quite gratifying.

THE BAD

• A few line flubs. Nothing too bad (only one set piece really fell flat because of it), and mine were no worse than others. But despite the folksy nature of the dialog, and the general unawareness of the audience of 90% of the errors that the actors are aware of, there was definite room for improvement tomorrow.

• The above included problems with some lyrics in the tunes, which is inexcusable at this point. One phrase in one song is particularly difficult for me to remember.

• Energy level was very uneven. Our Second Act opening tune was just woefully underpowered>

• My voice was not what it should be. I think a week-plus of nightly rehearsals is beginning to take its toll. I need to be careful.

• My wireless mic was, evidently, out for at least 2/3 of the show. Fortunately, of all the folks in the cast, my projection is such that I need a mic least, but it was still a problem.

THE UGLY

• There was at least one of the various a capella tunes, in close 3- or 4-part harmony, where I just plain ol’ started on the wrong note. This has been a real problem for me, because of my (a) lack of current musical training, (b) the lack of practice we did on them, (c) their absence on the soundtrack. Need to fix that tomorrow.

• Some very inconsiderate parents (some of whom I was really surprised by). I don’t mind that the little ones, aged 3-6, wanted to dance in the aisles during the music. It’s actually kind of cute. But when (a) it moves into the “stage” area, and (b) it turns into general running around and wandering about and taking guitar stands and going up and down the aisles, whether it’s music going on or dialog, and (c) all it draws is a “Shep! Bad dog!” sort of useless posturing (as opposed to grabbing the kid and dragging them back to their seat, or even outside) — then it’s a problem.

  Frustrating. And distracting (for us and for the rest of the audience.) Rrg.

IN SUMMARY
As Lynn would put it, “It didn’t suck.” Some great moments, a few not-so-great moments, but the finale and encore were on the money and the audience walked away very happy.

And, thus, so did I.

It will be better tomorrow.

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