BB: In Absentia, or Act Two: The Important Bits

Huge thanks to all of those who sent me info about Sunday's rehearsal - I have attempted to blend your comments into a coherent whole.  With varying degrees of success.  Some key points i.e. several people raised the same issue, have come out of this exercise:

-  Andrew is very tall.

- Nobody knows all the dance moves yet.

- There is likely to be a queue to be the Beast's understudy.

-  Squirting your wife with water in public is highly entertaining. (I'm tempted to add, only if you're Nick, just in case Rod gets any ideas.)

- Charlotte appears to take after her mother in the singing stakes.

So, with apologies to anyone who meant to send something and hasn't quite got round to it yet, and to anyone else who feels slighted in any way, shape or form, here is this week's blog!

ACT TWO - THE IMPORTANT BITS!

The evening started with several cast members handing Christmas cards to other cast members, usually resulting in the traditional Christmas greeting: "Oh. I haven't started writing mine yet."

Martin's voice is going, so Celia asks chorus to be quiet as Martin was talking - he's not got much voice and if he shouts too loud he won't be able to speak to Celia on Monday (or was Celia inciting chorus to be noisy anyway?) Then we get into Act 2, which is simulated by the band starting to play with the lights off. Lights up, and off we go.

There was the part when Suzanne came on and she (and most of the cast) thought Martin was talking to her and giving her directions, when in fact he was talking to the teens.   He said she had to come on using all 3 entrances.  Her reply was, "I know I'm good but I'm not that good."  

There was the time when Beauty was going on her journey and she asked which way then pointed towards the toilets when Miles called out, "Not that way, that's the way to the bog!!!"

There was an awkward pause whilst Tina and Diane had to determine which of the comedy duo men  they wished to flirt with for the duration of the story; Diane did the decent thing and chose her real life husband. Two seconds later, Tina realised  her real life husband  gets to squirt her with water. 

Nick was told he was the washing machine so he can get up to all sorts of nonsense as it is used in one of the messy scenes and was very pleased to hear that he has to squirt Tina in the face!   About to rehearse the washing-machine scene, Martin calls out "Nick: you're the washing-machine, aren't  you?", to which Mark replies "Is he a top loader?"  There follow many bad washing-machine jokes, such as Mark's lame attempt at a joke by saying that someone had 'Nicked' his washing machine!

One of the best bits was when Beauty (who was Beastless on Sunday) was singing one of her songs with Martin when they decided as there was no Beast to leave it - but Steve carried on playing the whole song oblivious to the fact they were no longer singing!

Martin explains to Blossom and Petal that "You're airheads really."

As the teens meet up with the baddy, Martin tells them that they need to be nastier.

There is much excitement from Shirley when she realizes that she gets to slap her thigh!

Martin discovers that Andy (the 3-foot tall goblin) can whistle by putting his foot in his mouth.

After the teen song, Martin comments that the band's volume needs to be about a quarter what it was, and the teens' needs to be about double.

There is some hesitancy to the first attempts made by both teens and adults to rattle off a list of words, one per actor, at speed.

Chris sort of screamed when Martin encouraged the teens to be excited by the baddy.

Charlotte's song was fantastic -  made everyone stop and listen! 

The teenagers' scene with Suzanne... one of the lines they all have to say a word 'mischievous, etc' and it is beginning to shape up as a very funny scene. 

Our lack of knowledge of the penultimate song - some did not even remember we had learnt it... one writer only knowing she stood next to Rod and Jackie, and Ellie only remembered because she wrote it down.  Luckily Lauren will be there next rehearsal!  Or as another cast-member put it, " The chorus forgot some dance moves...."

No need for chocks away, marks off!, we began marching at the start of the penultimate song long before the music had even begun!

Lots of dance routines that people can remember some of but no one can remember all of.  

The words are "we've all had a JOLLY good time"

Smile...smile....smile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dancing was lacking a leader - we miss you, Lauren.

The solos were brilliant tonight - Obviously lots of work has gone into them already - we have some great singers again this year.

Good Fairy was meant to say "I'll whistle them up" but ended up saying "I'll whistle up them."  (Ed: No flute, then?)

Mark trying to make a scene with a tent look realistic with only a hoodie for a prop - it was an intents scene though...

In one scene, Suzanne refuses to continue until the rest of the people on stage react to her line with the required excitement.

Chris was on form tonight - the most enthusiastic teen of them all. And the moment when Beauty looked up and up ... and up at Andrew. She suddenly realises that both Andrew and Christopher are absolute GIANTS (and it isn't that she is a little vertically challenged) - shame we are doing Beauty & the Beast and not Jack & the Beanstalk!!! - they could play the Giant or the Beanstalk!!!  

Shirley discovers a blindfold causes additional problems when you're not off-script yet.

The beast couldn't get to rehearsal this evening, so Martin stood in for a scene: Beauty and the Director.  Martin Evans reading in for the beast when suits - he was sussed when Beauty was about to kiss him to turn him back to prince!   Beauty seems to have been stood up at the altar......boo-hoo!!!!! 

Catherine got the audience doing farmyard bird impressions.

Walkdowns. Martin realised he's not thought about the order, so Celia stepped in with a decisive, if uncontroversial suggestion: "Children first." Greeted by cheers and laughter, so that's all right then. There is consternation in the band about which tune to play for the walkdowns, with most suggestions having to be rejected because they have just been played or are just about to be played.  They finally settle on Song 1, but in a slightly different style.

Song 18: a few people can't remember where on stage they're meant to be for it. Rod and Cathy discover that it's hard to hold hands if you're on opposite sides of the hall.  Almost everyone forgets to slow down at the end of the finale song, which is then re-run a few times until the speed change has settled down; some members of the cast take the opportunity to suggest modifications to improve the flow of the words.  Finally everyone is happy, and that's a wrap!

At some point there was an interval with some announcements: a request to the carol singers to arrive at Carol and Patrick's fairly early please as they are off the following day to India.  (Presumably they want to do some packing?)  And DVDs of this year's Summer Show were avilable from Simon for a massive £2 - there will also be DVDs of last year's show available next weekend. 

I hope you've found this blog helpful as a summary of events, because I can't be at next week's rehearsal either, so the next one may be a little like this, once we've all *mulled* it over...