"Annie Get Your Gun" Opening Night

This musical seems so-o-o-o long! Or, the rehearsal period was so-o-o-o short! One or the other!

One of the consequences was - there we were, 6:30 p.m. on opening night, starting to choreograph the end of one of the dance sequences. Fortunately it wasn't the entire ensemble, just three of us, and even though the timing was slightly tricky, the dancing itself wasn't terribly complicated, but even walking across the stage can be a challenge if it's only the second time you've ever done it. My frame of my mind going into opening night was that it was going to be an interesting evening.

Actually, the problems seemed to fairly-manageable. There were some glitches. I forgot to open the traveller curtain in the back from half to full open for the Indian dance number. Getting unified motion in the Haley-ha-blu-eh-ey section of the dance was a challenge, as well as with the most-recently choreographed section, but the dance allowed enough time for correction that nothing bad happened.

The singing in 'Sun In The Morning...' could have been better. And the dancing too.

Apparently the key to the gun case got lost, or something, so the gun-tampering scene got abbreviated. Whatever it was, I didn't have enough time to change back into my Indian outfit for the last scene. I barely got my shirt tails tucked in. I also failed to get my belt buckled, or to zip up my zipper. So there I was, standing right next to the audience, with a dangling buckle and an open zipper. The consolation was I had a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, so I didn't think anyone could notice. So I'm standing there, in the interminable last scene, trying not to telegraph my discomfort, or to unwrap the blanket inadvertently, which worked until the final bow, when I finally opened the blanket. By then, I was in the back, so I hope no one noticed.

I guess we all had things to hide. At one point, I heard a rude noise on stage.

Still, set changes seemed to go smoothly - always a danger spot on opening night.

One stellar portion: - newcomer Jennifer did a great job with the light board. Lights have always been a challenge for DMTC openings, but Dannette got them finished early, and Jennifer applied herself hard, and so what few glitches they had were so minor as to be unnoticeable.

And Lauren and MikeMac were fantabulous!