We had already been warned that tonight we would be auditioning repetiteurs and we certainly began to understand the similarity between the word 'repetiteur' and the word 'repeat'. However, on with the blog!
First, a quick welcome to Simon, here to audition as repetiteur. (Joe was equipped with a smart phone for the duration: texting? Angry Birds? He was busy while Simon played, anyway.)
Straight on with Follow the Fold for the whole choir, all harmonies present. Sounded quite convincing. Then the ladies only had a go at A Bushel and A Peck. The gents were then challenged to sing the 'doodle oodle oodle' in a more girly voice than the ladies. At their own pitch. And then falsetto. They were so good (worryingly so!), that Martin is thinking of adding them in from the wings for the final 'doodle oodle oo'. But time for Adelaide to practise her lines with the chorus backing her. The men still aren't sure if Martin means it about making them join in.
An opportunity now for the men to demonstrate their skills. Luck Be A Lady, as rehearsed last week. Once they remember how they did it last week. Sky did his solo lines with the male chorus joining in as appropriate. 'Remarkably abysmal' was the MD's verdict. Back to the tricky bits around 'roll 'em', several times, basses first, then with tenors joining in. They all got a bit carried away and had to back up again, but it was improving each time. Still a little lacklustre, though. Standing up might improve it further. Because singing in the sewer is always such a wonderful thing! 4 out of 10 for excitement, Martin said, and 6.5 for accuracy. But the ladies applauded - are we too easily pleased?
On to Sit Down. Partly to put the new chap through it instead of Joe, but partly to see if we could remember what we did last week. Had to pause at 'and as I laughed at those passengers to heaven' because we'd all got a little too ahead of ourselves. Otherwise, not bad. So obviously we had to do it all again, standing up. Verdict at the end - good. Did we hear that correctly? Of course now we need to do it without books (but Martin was feeling kind - only the last three pages). Turns out we do know that bit, even without books.
Round of applause for the repetiteur, and our next victim, Ali, arrived, ready for us to do the same songs all over again. Literally. Starting with Follow the Fold... Less boring for the repetiteurs, I suppose, though each song was done at least twice for each of our auditioners.
Follow the Fold went well, even trying it without books, though Martin had to shout some of the words to ensure that everyone knew what they were supposed to be singing. Then on to A Bushel and a Peck. Not without books yet - Martin is saving that for later in the evening. But it has to stay really really girly.
Luck be a Lady. The biggest challenge seems to be not being the last person to sound the t at the end of 'tonight'. Then without books, Andrew having to demonstrate that his hands were empty before they started singing. All you need to do is arrange the book of the person in front of you carefully on their seat (and hope that Martin isn't reading this)!
Ladies then, doing the oo section of Sit Down. With a combination of people finishing early, late and on time, the overall impression was of a lack of coordination. Once this had been pointed out ,of course the ladies perfected it. Time to add the gents. Martin was temporarily lost for words. Even the tenor part was nearly correct. With Martin's support, they were better, though there was some frowning at the quality of 'to resist', and not just from Martin.
Pause for coffee since the urn is on, and announcements at the end. No rehearsal next week as logistics for auditioning a new MD haven't worked out. Instead, it will probably be 14th September, when Ali is unable to be with us anyway, so it won't lose a week to rehearsal in the same way. Rehearsals otherwise will restart on Wednesday 31st August. Amanda also put in a plea for subs to be paid - if you don't pay your sub for the show, you're not covered by the insurance - and a reminder to new members to complete their welcome packs. Andrew then asked for assistance with the set - building it, painting it and storing it. Farmers or people with spare barns in particular might like to volunteer. There was a veiled threat of people being volunteered forcibly if no one has come forward by September. Please, someone, volunteer and spare the rest of us!
Then on to the next audition, with Paul. Strangely familiar structure to the proceedings, with Follow the Fold to begin with, although even parts of that had a slightly dodgy rhythm until Martin had singled out the person he thought responsible for doing Pavarotti impressions. A Bushel and a Peck, and it seems likely that many of the words are known by heart by now. We've only sung them about a zillion times this evening. Just for variety, Martin asked for one phrase - about you - to be more butch, even though the rest needs to be incredibly girly. Cue fits of giggles, girly, butch and otherwise.
Luck Be a Lady. Twice with the book, then once without. Unfortunately, the gents didn't even seem to manage the first two phrases with the book. Deep breaths all round, start again. This time it went slightly better. By the time they were trying it without the book, there was more confidence generally, with instruction to sing blaa di blaa, with an American drawl, if they weren't sure of the words. It wasn't quite enough and Martin had to pause them and restart after a minor collapse of crapshooters, though even then they were not far short of a 7 out of 10.
As with the previous auditioners, next up was Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat. This time Martin took the choir through the mmms and aaahs, without the soloist, which made it considerably more challenging. It seems that watching the conductor, i.e. Martin, is required under these circumstances! Who'd've thought it?! By the time we were on to singing it right through without books, Nathan knew all his lyrics and could also do it without the book. He has sung it about a dozen times tonight so perhaps not so surprising. It sounded pretty good and Martin wouldn't be drawn but also decided not to punish us by making us walk around the room singing it at the same time, so we must have done something right. Once more standing up without books, must be the charm. We all clapped at the end (except Martin, doesn't do to let us get complacent!).
Applause to Paul, and finally an opportunity for Joe to play the piano instead of Angry Birds. Strangely, Martin didn't want to do Sit Down with us again. Instead, on to the finale number Guys and Dolls. But at least four times, so that we become as sick of that as we are of all the other songs we've practised tonight. The excitement with which this was tackled, being a wonderful change, nearly lifted the roof off but the school will be relieved to know that it was only nearly. We even managed it without the book, sort of.
Parting instruction, to listen to the CD all summer so that we know the words of the songs by the time we come back. (But not the Paul Nicholas version! And I would also say, not the Frank Sinatra version I've got, because although the Rat Pack are good as gamblers, Debbie Reynolds is surprisingly awful as Adelaide.) The version with Nathan Lane is apparently very good, and looking on Amazon I see there's even a version with Bob Hoskins as Nathan and Julia McKenzie as Miss Adelaide. Lots to choose from, then. Happy lyric-learning!
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