I am so lucky to know my high school theater teacher.
I’m always well aware of that. I am always thankful for her, for practically a trillion reasons… And as if she somehow wasn’t cool enough already… She got me into rehearsals for Disaster! The Musical.
One of her alums wrote and directed the show. (Of course, right? My goodness, she has nurtured so many super talented people over the years.)
He asked if she’d come along to see the process (because we all love and adore her), and she brought me along (because she’s kinda the best in the universe).
I’ve been to tech rehearsals of shows before, and I’ve been to Broadway shows before. But I’ve never been to tech rehearsals of a Broadway show… until now!
It was basically everything you’d expect. There were all the tables downstairs for all the various technical departments. There were also some people working upstairs. (And we got to sit up there too.)
We got to see props and costumes being worked on and changed out. Everyone was so fast and wonderful at their jobs.
We got to see some awesome numbers that brought down the house. [Edited to add: I’m totally down with #PutSimardOn]
One thing I really loved was seeing Adam Pascal work. Obviously I’d heard a lot about him growing up, but to really see him work in technical rehearsals – it was amazing.
First off, he could sing his absolute face off over and over, starting from anywhere at anytime. He also was the consummate professional – so wildly nice to everyone, and such a fantastic listener with a great memory. It didn’t matter what entrance or exit or position they changed, or how many times they changed it, he did it correctly during the next run of that number.
I was wildly impressed.
Basically, it was a really fun time. It’s funny that just watching people do their job was fun (as so many people in theater always like to joke about how tech rehearsals are so tedious, and the worst weeks)… but as spectators, we had a fantastic time!