Singing, Dancing and a whole lot'a Romancing.

"Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you." {Joey Adams}

I think I've lost half a stone in the last two days!!  The final two days of week one saw lots of dancing and singing and the slow development of "Buttons" the fool. 

I have a wonderful upbeat number in act one, with Cinders and the ensemble.  Considering I'm not a natural dancer, I was quite nervous about what Gerry and Jill May have in stall for me.... But I actually LOVED it!  I've never had so much fun learning a dance, and it's good for the ol' physique as well... Until I gobbled a box of mince pies to celebrate afterwards of course. 

The numbers got a bit of a rock'n'roll feel to it, so hopefully the audience will be jigging away in the aisles.  The other number we looked at was our "cutie" number from the kitchen.  It's a brilliant choice of song and Gerry has put together a lovely little sequence, with Buttons and Cinders creating their own ball.  Hopefully, it'll be the scene which really wins the audiences sympathy for Buttons and the way the scene plays out afterwards, will heighten it further.  Poor old Buttons is nothing but a tryer!! But will his determination pay off and win him Cinders?!? 

So all in all it had been a good couple of days.  Topped off by appearing on BBC radio Surrey and switching the Guildford lights on on Thursday... (See next post).  Friday afternoon brought a full run of the first Act, as much off book as possible.  Following everything we'd done, I was quite looking forward to showing it off... But of course there was an inevitable spanner heading for the works!  We got to the kitchen scene, and the time to sing.... But I was so out of puff, I just couldn't get the words out.  It was such a shame because I'd felt everything else had gone ok for a first run.   This is what rehearsals are for of course.

I was talking to Gerry before I left on Friday about feeling the need to try and be funny - which very often winds up being the complete opposite.  He reminded me, "well in that case, go back to the story.  Tell the story of it."  So I've got something to think about over the weekend and some tricky little dance moves to try and conquer!!

Just before I sign off, I wanted to mention Robert Maskell who's playing Baron Hardup.  This is Robert's first Panto... Not that you'd ever guess!! He's like an old hand - a complete natural... And I think from talking to him, over a coffee and biscuit, that he's enjoying it.  His characterisation is already hilarious, even without the boost of an audience.  I know  that the Guildford audience are going to adore his bumbling Baron and if Rob has caught the Panto bug, maybe he'll be saying goodbye to his Christmases from this year forward. 

Bye for now,

JB - BB