Things actually went reasonably smoothly for opening night of “Man of La Mancha.” I’d say the venue was about 3/4 full, which isn’t bad at all. My castmates did a great job, with high energy and everyone on top of their cues. We had a few mishaps with microphones, but they were easily fixed on the fly.
The one heart-stopping moment came toward the very end. A stairway/bridge is supposed to lower as Cervantes and his servant (me) are summoned to the Inquisition. But the bridge only came 3/4 of the way down (the mechanism got hung up on one of the side curtains.) I was supposed to make my exit up the bridge, but it was dangling a foot above the stage. I could have just walked around it and exited off to the side, but that would have broken the illusion. On the other hand, if I stepped on the bridge and forced it down, I was worried I could shatter the entire mechanism. Opting to maintain the illusion, I walked forward carefully, placed my foot on the bottom step and pushed down as hard as I could. It slammed the bridge down to the floor and I was able to walk up it. I didn’t hear any accompanying breaking noise, so I’m hoping I didn’t break the stairs.
Ah, the excitement of live theater.
Howard Margolin was in attendance. Hopefully other web denizens will be able to make it.
PAD
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Pad, Congrats on your opening night. I wish I could have seen it!
JAC
There’s a weight lose joke in there somewhere.
Anywho…
Congratulations on the successful opening night.
Congrats! I miss the theater, I haven’t had the time in recent years. My last play was Marvin’s Room (before the motion picture) as Doctor Wally. First night went perfect, our 2nd night many things went…well, wrong. From missing the tourniquet I needed as Dr. Wally(which is mentioned in dialouge), to the scene that was done basically in reverse.
I do miss the theater.
Hopefully, if you have a DVD player backstage, for the final performance you might dig up the Pinky and the Brain episode “Mouse of La Mancha” and play it for the cast.
I’ve just arrived home after seeing the Saturday night performance.
If any of you are going to be on Long Island next weekend, I highly recommend seeing the show. Just two words of advice: get there early – the nearest parking lot is small and don’t sit on the right side (facing the stage).
…and for those who were wondering, the bridge appeared to work fine tonight.
PAD – I trust you will sign my program if we both make it to ICON next year. 🙂
Well, heck, Christine, you should have hung out after the show; I would have signed it then.
Actually, in the final sequence, the bridge got to halfway and halted for a moment and everyone on stage thought, “Oh God, not again,” but then it went the rest of the way.
The only thing that almost threw off everyone was, at at climactic point in the show, “Doctor Corosco” is supposed to shout, “Senor Quijana!” And for absolutely no reason that anyone, including the actor, could later explain, he spoonerized it into “Quenor Sijana!” And everyone was desperately trying not to break up. I’d love to get buttons made up for the cast that say “Quenor Sijana”: Spanish for “What did I just say?”
PAD
You know, I heard that “Quenor Sijana” and figured it was my hearing, not him misspeaking. (BTW, there’s a regular ICON vendor that will make up custom buttons. They have a website, I can see if I can find it if you want. Just say the word)
To be honest, I hadn’t thought to hang out after the show. I figured you’d be too busy with family and friends. 🙂
On a side note, do you know what “two Broadway flops” (to quote his Who’s who bit) John Simpson was in? When he come on stage as the barber, he looked and sounded very familiar, but I can’t place him.
Cervantes? Spanish inquisition? A month ago, I would have wondered what crazy version of La Mancha you were doing. However, I recently saw a deftly staged version which took place with Cervantes in a dungeon awaiting the inqusiton and telling the story of Quixote during a trial by his fellow prisoners.
It was an incredible interpretation done at the Cleveland Play House (Cleveland, OH). If you did the same version, my hats off to you. It didn’t look easy compared to the normal musical, but the results were highly satisfying. It was a far cry from the La Mancha I once did at a community theatre.
RAD
“Cervantes? Spanish inquisition? A month ago, I would have wondered what crazy version of La Mancha you were doing. However, I recently saw a deftly staged version which took place with Cervantes in a dungeon awaiting the inqusiton and telling the story of Quixote during a trial by his fellow prisoners.”
“It was an incredible interpretation done at the Cleveland Play House (Cleveland, OH). If you did the same version, my hats off to you. It didn’t look easy compared to the normal musical, but the results were highly satisfying. It was a far cry from the La Mancha I once did at a community theatre.”
I have no idea what the heck you did in community theater, but what you saw at the Cleveland Play House, and what we did in Bellport, *is* “Man of La Mancha.” It’s the Dale Wasserman musical. If you did a version that didn’t have the Spanish Inquisition and Cervantes in a dungeon telling Quixote’s story to prisoners, then either you didn’t do “Man of La Mancha,” or your memory is faulty, or the version you did was butchered.
PAD
Heh, what theatre doesn’t have mic problems the first night?
Congrats on opening night! I just finished week 3 of Ðámņ Yankees (there’s a clip I posted on YouTube, if you want–search for Ðámņ Yankees TMP) doing lights, but I have done sound and know how troublesome mics can be. Tonight an actor managed to mute himself right before his big duet.
Hope your problems get fixed! Break a leg next show!
Posted by Jerry Chandler at October 20, 2007 05:57 PM
There’s a weight lose joke in there somewhere.
So you might think. But! A truly overweight person would not need to push down on the bridge with his foot, he would merely need to rest his piggies on it for the desired effect!
So congratulations on your performance, Peter, as well as slimming down!
I’m glad to read that the performances went well, overall. It sounds like everything that went wrong was minor and didn’t detract from the audience’s enjoyment (if they noticed it at all). As a member/treasurer of a 150 member community choir, I know that that’s the type of thing that can turn into amusing stories instead of the type of thing that makes you wince whenever someone says “Remember when [Name-Deleted Person We Couldn’t Say No To] decided to sing with us?”
Thanks PAD! I dug up the 19 year old videotape of the show I did, gave it a looksee, and sure enough have confirmed that my memory is what was butchered, not the show. Thankfully, I will probably forget that fact in the near future.
Apparently, I was thinking that the musical seemed so different than I remembered due to a new book. In fact, it was because it was a dark interpretation by director Amanda Denhart (think more along the lines of Marat Sade) with overtones of secret prisons, profiling and surveillance (I was almost expecting Bush to make an appearance). It was not the whimsical and idealistic show whose impressions were still lingering in my head.
Anyhow, congrats on your opening night and thanks for setting me straight!
RAD
That must have been fun. I was in Theater in High School, but I was part of the lighting crew—I tend to get dry mouth and tongue-tied while on stage.
PAD SEZ:Ah, the excitement of live theater.
Actually I can vouch for that. When I was an undergrad at University of Utah, I saw Richard the III, (performed by professional theater actors not theater students, thank you very much) anyway, the scene where Richard gathers the guys so that they can talk about whether he was the guy they Wanted to be King, Richard does a few attaboys for them getting together and was supposed to leave through a door. However, the door was jammed. Richard tries this for about a minute then when the door finally opens. Pause. Aside to Audience: “I Go.” Best moments are usually the unscripted ones.