Adelaide, Adelaide!

   On Monday I had the pleasure of a lengthy chat with Amanda, our Adelaide, who very kindly dropped in on her way home from work.  I was surprised to learn that Amanda, who is a scientist in pursuit of the elusive cancer cure by day, has only been a member of BCOS since they did The Mikado, two autumn shows ago.  This is her second named role, funnily enough playing Adelaide in Calamity Jane last year, though that was a rather different character.  Amanda auditioned for both Adelaide and Sarah, but “I knew who else was auditioning so I didn’t really expect to get either of them.”
  But now that she’s got the role of Adelaide, how is she approaching it?  “My lib is full of Post-Its on each page,” Amanda told me, “with notes on what the purpose of that scene is.  Some of the scenes begin the same way, with ‘Hello, Nathan’,” she lapses into her Brooklyn accent briefly for the line, “but I need to remember whether I’m cross, or pleased, or whatever.”  Luckily, Amanda has always been quite good at accents, but she’s still thinking consciously about it as she learns the lines.  She’s discovered she’s talking to herself a lot, and singing along with the Broadway recording in the car, so that her daughter is also becoming very familiar with the songs.  Learning the cues is part of her strategy at the moment too, covering lines and trying to remember what comes next.  The lib will be joining her on holiday too!
   I asked her what she was most looking forward to in the role.  “Oh, all the brilliant lines!  She’s such a fun character,” Amanda said.  Her favourite line is probably when Adelaide says bitterly, ‘I didn’t get close enough to the church to get left at the altar.’  “It just shows how witty she is.”  Filling her with a little more concern is the dancing.  “I’m not a natural dancer,” Amanda told me, “so I asked Ali if that would be a problem, but fortunately she said she sees Adelaide more as a singer who does a bit of dancing than a dancer who also sings.”  Some of the costumes may be a bit of a challenge, particularly singing in them, but Amanda says the diet has already started.  “And I’m hoping for a nice wedding dress at the end,” she said wistfully, clearly thinking of some dresses that we’ve seen on tv recently.    Here’s hoping that Gillian the costume lady has found this blog!