Thursday, January 13, 2011

Stumbling toward GYPSY

Tonight we had the first "stumble-through" of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Gypsy. A stumble-through, I learned tonight, is an extreme "rough cut" of the show. Which I assume is like what the preview performances of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have been about so far... but without all the injuries.

So since getting involved with community theatre three years ago I have been, in chronological order: a biblical patriarch, an undertaker, a pirate, a firefighter, a Siamese court eunuch, a plainclothes detective, a firefighter again (both times for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever)...

...but only tonight did I discover that of the two roles that I'm playing in Gypsy, that the part of Cigar is, for all intents and purposes, the manager of a strip club.

(Somebody tell me HOW is it that we can do a show like this but we CAN'T mount a production of Sweeney Todd...?!?)

And if you come you're gonna get to see Yours Truly not only with quite a lot of lines but also being a total sleazebag. And I get to yell most of my lines too! Yes: REAL SCRIPTED LINES!! Which'll be a change from the ad-libbed stuff I've done as Fireman #1 these past two seasons for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever :-)

Well anyhoo, Gypsy is actually quite a decent - and fun - show! Considered one of the greatest musicals ever, Gypsy is based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee and her life during the Great Depression, with particular emphasis on her outrageously overbearing mother: the ultimate showbiz parent!

We'll be doing three performances of Gypsy from February 4th through the 13th. Click here to visit the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's website for more information. And we're looking forward to entertaining you!

at January 13, 2011

3 comments:

  1. Marc8:20 PM, January 14, 2011

    "Somebody tell me HOW is it that we can do a show like this but we CAN'T mount a production of Sweeney Todd...?!?"

    I wonder that. Could it be too expensive license fees? Maybe it costs more to get the license for Sweeny than Gypsy? Maybe its subject matter? Strip club isnt as bad as serial murdering barber whose victims get baked into meat pies meant for human consumption. Maybe it just costs too much to produce?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Knight8:23 PM, January 14, 2011

    Everyone in Theatre Guild knows how badly I wanna play Sweeney Todd :-P

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marc12:15 AM, January 15, 2011

    Here's part one of Sweeny Todd. A revival in Los Angeles starring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83F_OHrnhgo

    Unfortunately the person who uploaded the whole thing did it in increments of around 4 minutes. So theres like 27 parts.

    Yeah, I can see you as Sweeny Todd, but youre going to need a good solid singing voice for that role. So start practicing :-)

    ReplyDelete