"Victor/Victoria" - Third Weekend

We are at our best now: most of the set issues are at least manageable. Interestingly enough, Friday was our best show this weekend.

Several goofs happened on the weekend. On Friday, Jebriel stumbled on the steps in the final 'Victor/Victoria' number, and on Saturday, Jason did likewise. I didn't see either event, no doubt in part due to performer's tunnel vision, but then again, no one I talked to in the audience saw it either, so both of them must have sprung up almost immediately. Still, it kind of shook both of them. The steps have always scared me. I'm paired with Jebriel, and we are both often on the highest step, where it would be laughably easy to topple off the side completely. Sobering! I know it restrains my performance up there. Courage is my watchword, and fear is my companion.

On Sunday, walking backwards in line, on Marcy's second entrance in 'Le Jazz Hot,' I suddenly felt I wasn't moving fast enough: either we were late or Marcy was a couple of seconds early. I'm the last to clear center-stage in that line. I tried to speed up and stepped on Diane's big toe instead (but fortunately, the good toe, not the one ground into hamburger by the set last weekend). Embarrassing! Some day, I know, I'll fall backwards, and all of us will fall like dominoes.

On Saturday, in the final 'Victor/Victoria' number, Bob Roe's beaded headdress fell off, and it landed directly under my feet, but again, due to performer's tunnel vision, I didn't see it happen. All I knew was that I was suddenly getting really bizarre sensations through the paper-thin soles of my shoes. According to Keri, I had plenty of opportunities to kick the headdress into the wings (with the implication that only a moron wouldn't have done so immediately), but in order to do so, I would have had to look at my feet first, which would have violated a fundamental rule of performance dancing, which is: DON'T LOOK AT YOUR FREAKIN' FEET! I am proud to have maintained discipline, never looked at my feet, coped with the slippery beads, and pounded the frilly thing into the stage instead. Kicking the headdress into the wings would have been the coward's way out.

On Sunday, Bob Roe had laryngitis, which was a problem since, as Toddy, he's a major, major character, but he did the best he could under the circumstances. The audience respected his effort.

On Friday, the Kulmann's came and watched the show again. It was a pleasure to meet Mike MacElroy's parents on Sunday (they sometimes read this blog!). Bob DeLucia came on Saturday, as did Amber Jean Moore and Laurent Lazard. Amber teased Jake Montoya for his character (probably just at the start of his Apache dance with Scott Griffith). Jake said, with an ecstatic, breathless gasp audible to the audience: "What a man!" I couldn't tell if Amber admired Jake for effortlessly pulling off such an over-the-top moment, or whether she felt scandalized, and protective of the ears of 9-month-old Juliette, or perhaps some other mix of emotion. After the show on Saturday, Bill, Monica, and I had a nice dinner at Tapa's.