Because it makes you remember the true meaning of “company”. Last night I decided to go to see “The Bourgeois Gent” again. When I got there, the house manager was running a little short on hands, so I took over concessions. Then I noticed our director making several trips to the dressing rooms. This is not normal…normally he leaves the actors alone pre-show to let them get ready. After I closed the concession stand and we went up to our seats for the start of the show, he tells me what’s wrong…
Apparently one of our chorus members, who is onstage for the first 30 minutes of the show and starts off the show with her singing, has been puking up her guts for the past half hour. She isn’t going on. Our stage manager is going on in her place. Who’s in the booth, running the cues? The house manager. Well, who’s going to make the curtain speech? The Artistic Director, who has just been called back – he was on his way home. I got promoted to ASM (we normally don’t have one, but the Stage Manager couldn’t strike props at intermission in costume). And of course, we had a reviewer in the house. So the whole situation was explained to said reviewer, who stuck it out with us. And the curtain speech explained the situation to the audience. And we started.
Let me just tell you, I have never been so proud of and impressed by a group of actors. They had to rearrange musical numbers with almost no notice, re-choreographing several of them on the spot. Our stage manager, who does not like to be in any kind of spotlight, went out on stage and sang and acted her heart out. We had a bit of a rocky start, but they were troopers and won the audience entirely over. And because they were trying so hard to cover, they were selling it in a way they never had before. It was one of our best performances so far.
Of course, something had to jinx it. After coming off stage, the stage manager ran into a wall (not as hard to do as it seems), and when I last saw her had a lump the size of a golf ball coming in over her left eye. She does not respond well to being called “Lumpy,” even though the Artistic Director and I found it hysterical (of course, the AD is also the one who, when he found out my mom is a nurse, asked if I had ever said “Mom, I need milk. Stat!”).
Hopefully our chorus member just had food poisoning and it’s through her system now. Hopefully if she didn’t, our choreographer can fill in the role tonight. Hopefully if that doesn’t happen, our stage manager’s lump has gone down and she can see out of her left eye and can go on stage. Because if none of the above happen, guess who will be making her off-Broadway debut tonight? That’s right. Me. Keep your fingers crossed this doesn’t happen.
And give a mental round of applause, if you would, for my cast and crew, who are wonderful and deserving of glowing reviews and everlasting fame. 