Well, you probably saw that post title coming....."Annie" opens tomorrow at the Oak Ridge Playhouse and runs this weekend through next weekend. I'd like to invite any local Knoxville bloggers to come see the show and enjoy a couple hours of fat-free, low-cal musical theatre during and after the big Thanksgiving holidays...
Our final dress rehearsal is tonight, and the band continues to gel. Actually, my friend Michael the Bass Player is chronicling events as well so you can visit his site to get a play-by-play of how last night's Dress went.
As he mentions, this is the first time I've really played lead piano in a show before - I hadn't considered it that way, but it's actually true. When I lead a band I typically play supplemental keyboard, which is using an electronic keyboard to simulate parts that aren't present - trumpets, strings, that sort of thing - and which are needed to create that full orchestral sound. In this summer's "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" the other keyboard player and I switched around a bit, one playing lead sometimes and one playing other, while we also alternated on supplemental.
But I continue to find my own performance skills leave a lot to be desired - I'm not that technically proficient, and I tend to try to play about my skill levels at times. For one thing my hands get sweaty a lot, and trying to play intricate melody lines on piano can generate a lot of wrong notes - especially in parts I'm not quite as familiar with. The folks backing me up are a lot more experienced in actual performance than I am, so I hope I'm not holding us back :) That may just be my paranoia talking, but it exists and I have to deal with it.
Otherwise we sound fine, the cast sounds fine and a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Come see. Tomorrow - it's only a day away.
Betcher bottom dollar...
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