—Number 5, please.
—My name is David Gorsline, and this is from State Fair.
After years of protesting, “I don’t do musicals, if you heard me sing, you would understand,” I walked into RCP’s auditons for Guys and Dolls armed with nothing but my water bottle and the sheet music for “Isn’t It Kinda Fun.” It’s an uptempo showtune, which is what was called for in the casting announcement, and the music is by Richard Rodgers, who makes everyone sound good (this on my authority for all things musical, Leta).
At least Sue, the director, looked pleased to see me, as we have worked on one or two straight-play projects before. And Brian, the music director, had accompanied us for Seussical rehearsals, so he knew what he was getting. Elisa, one of RCP’s sweethearts, was at the piano.
This was a typical evening of wham-bam screening: with 40-plus actors to see, there’s only time to sing your song, crash through the dance combination, and be released. I made sure that I was there early (something I do anyway), so I was in the first group of twelve to sing and dance, and I was back in the car by 8.
I’m not really sure how the song went, but I got a clue from the more experienced singers on the bench next to me. One said, sympathetically, “It’s hard to go first.” This was the first time that I’ve sung this song with piano accompaniment EVER, so I’m not sure that I started on the C that I intended, but rather I may have wandered down to the G, which is the root of the chords in the intro. I got the ship righted in the second 8 bars, and Sue was bopping along with me, but Brian mercifully cut me off after the bridge.
Not everyone followed Sue’s request for “upbeat.” In my group of twelve, I heard some nice Lerner and Loewe, a couple of showcase pieces for good soprano voices, a G&S patter song, and (THANK GOD) since this was a show for adults, only one version of “Popular.” Mike (Horton from Seussical) was in the house, but not in my group, which is too bad, ’cause I wanted to hear him sing.
Choreographer Ivan then ran us through the dance combination, sort of a mashup of the steps he planned to use in the show from various songs. I unabashedly smudged my way through the bourrée that Ivan gave us, but he said he was looking for manly attitude, and I tried to focus on that.
All in all, no one fell down, no one threw up, so I’m calling it a win. Callbacks and casting decisions are this weekend. I’m only trying to get into the chorus, and maybe to do one of the character bits. This is all about pushing against the envelope.