Dancing all night

MY FAIR LADY Day 13
September 12, 2006


We spent the last two days of rehearsal just reworking act one. You really forget what a big show MY FAIR LADY is — no wonder no one ever does it in professional theaters! It’s been rehearsal time well spent — really blowing apart the show and redoing a bunch of the production numbers. The show is very tricky in tone and visual style due to the unique way we’re doing it. The choices have to be very specific and connect to each other. We found that some things we were doing were just too ordinary in their staging and we had to think outside the box. It’s been good though, as many of the actors have commented on what a great two days of work we got done. We haven’t touched act two yet, which is a little daunting since we start tech in a week. It’s a lot shorter than the first act which runs 85 pages. The show’s very tight, but the first act is quite long and we’re not allowed to cut anything from the script. Today we'll dive into act two, which we should accomplish in three days. It’s only six scenes long with one big production number... but that one number is a BIG one — especially with what we have planned for it! The entire company has been great about Karma and I throwing changes their way. I think they’re all really starting to see the world of the show coming to life. I do have to say though, this show is much harder to produce than anyone realizes. It's very complicated in the emotions, the attitudes, the scope and just the quantity of musical numbers, which all require specific stagings. We're on a very tight schedule, so we don’t have any time to waste. I'm happy with where we're at in the rehearsal process, but I do wish we had two more days — then again, you always want more time regardless of what show you’re working on!

— ES