2004-03-26 - 10:01 a.m.
I went to see "Can-Can" at City Center last month. I thought the show was really good and I was curious about the reviews, so I googled it the next day at work...and way way way down the search list, I found a picture of myself doing "Can-Can" a couple years ago!
(picture by Mark Lanks)
So, naturally, I was all clapping my hands like "Yay! I'm google-able!", but upon closer inspection of the picture, I realized -- I remember the exact performance in which this picture was taken.
It was the first week of the run. The women's costumes were quite "involved", so we'd all go to the bathroom at half hour before curtain and then start the process: tan tights, garter belt and black fishnet thigh highs, lacy bloomers, push-up bra, chemise, corset, petticoat -- and that was just the underwear! Naturally, I always found that I had to go to the bathroom again by the time the stage manager called places. I'd shift uncomfortably from foot to foot while the overture played, but then the curtain would come up and I'd be as cool as a cucumber, knowing that right after scene 3, I'd have just enough time to change into my next costume and go to the bathroom before I was back on in scene 5.
On the night this picture was taken, I was in the process of changing into the orange dress when I hear
"RRRrrrrrrr...uh oh."
Yep. The zipper, which had been ripped off another costume and recycled onto mine, just decided to up and DIE on me right then and there.
Erica (she's a thinker, that one!) grabbed a box of safety pins and rallied the troops. Our dressing room was below the stage and we were listening to scene 4 thru the speakerbox as a few of my castmates were pinning the back of my dress like crazy.
About five lines before next our entrance, I heard "There! GO!" and felt a little push on my back. Erica and I raced up the stairs and made it into the wings literally three beats before our entrance for the Quadrille, our first big dance number.
This picture was during scene 6, which happens right afterward. The Quadrille ends -- black out -- and then the lights come up on the street outside the Bal Du Paradis. Hillaire attempts to chat up Claudine as she is leaving the club after her shift is over.
Granted, I had just finished a very aerobic can-can routine...but I always tried to look as if that had happened hours ago. On my insides, however, my heart would be racing a mile a minute. And on this particular night, I had just dealt with a costume disaster as well. I was feeling pretty hyper, but I was trying to just forget about it and get on as Claudine, having a conversation with Hillaire.
Then, Len took my hand, and I fell out of character because it felt....weird. And he's talking to me, as Hillaire, and inside my head I'm thinking, "Why does this feel weird tonight? No, seriously...this feels...weird..." Then, he goes in for the seductive kill and kisses my hand. I follow him with my eyes and all the sudden --
"Oh! OH! I forgot my gloves...I forgot my gloves downstairs. I did the Quadrille without my gloves! Was Erica wearing gloves? Was I the only girl in the last scene not wearing gloves?"
Meanwhile, Len is still talking at me and my inner monologue continues:
"Dang it. You know. It figures. I just managed to make it on stage in time due to my stupid zipper. Now, watch, I am going to get yelled at for forgetti---oooo, I have a line coming up...I better focus now."
So it kinda makes me laugh, because anyone else would look at this picture and think "Aw, that's cute."
But I look at this picture and think, "Aw -- now there's a fine mess: her dear little heart is about ready to bust out of her chest and she's all up-in-her-head because:
1) she's concerned about the missing gloves
2) she's got a mish-mash of pins stuck in her back (and a quick change into a nude bodysuit coming up shortly...)
3) she's missed her scene 4 'window of opportunity'...so now she has to really, really, really pee
4) and how ABOUT that nude body suit anyway?"
Yeah...How about it, indeed.
Reading: REiD's article in Time Out New York. Yay, REiD!
Watching: Top Model double-header TONIGHT!
Singing: "Tenebrae Factae Sunt" -- Urf. I need to get it together. It's gorgeous...when sung correctly.
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