The Show Must Go On

You know that dream where you’re on stage and you haven’t learned the lines and don’t even know what play you’re doing?

Yeah, it’s a little like the one where you’re in a classroom about to take a test for a class you haven’t bothered to attend all semester.

I know there’s a meaning to those sorts of dreams but this is not a dream analysis blog so let’s get to the point, shall we?

The school musical program Alyssa has been part of since her freshman year always does performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday after several months of rehearsals. The Thursday performance is called a full dress rehearsal and is open to the public. There are no tickets sold for this performance and a free-will donation is accepted but not required.

Anyway, that’s a lot of stupid backstory.

At this year’s Thursday dress rehearsal was full of behind the scenes drama.

Wait, that was unnecessarily dramatic.

A dude got sick.

This was not nervous up-chucking. He was sick with an illness that his mother reported was making the rounds through their house. His older brother had been sick the week before. His dad was sick a couple of days before, it was just his turn to be sick. By Sunday his mom will probably be sick.

The problem is, this dude plays a pretty big role in The Addams Family musical. He’s not quite Gomez or Fester big but he’s the father of the guy Wednesday Addams is in love with, which means he has more than a few lines and even sings along during a couple of songs.

He showed up to the school, prepared to suck it up and get through the show.

Except…he couldn’t stop barfing.

Ewww.

And ick.

So, the show was supposed to start at 7pm. At 6:40, I looked over and saw the directors scrubbing the makeup off one of the guys in the chorus (the chorus members in this show are called “ancestors.” They wear very pale foundation and big black circles around their eyes. They’re ghosts and are supposed to look dead.)

This little fellow was going to go on in place of the cookie tosser.

No, he was not an understudy. No, he had never rehearsed this role. No, he had no idea what his lines were.

He was going to have a script in his hand while on stage.

It would be fine, the directors assured him as we reapplied his makeup so he looked alive and well from Ohio.

We found some Lysol and sprayed the hell out of the shirt the ralpher had been wearing and put it on the stand-in.

The directors came out just before show started and explained the situation to the audience.

And you know what?

It was fine.

It was better than fine. It was funny. He had his nose in the book because he couldn’t see the script very well with the stage lighting. But his dry read of the role was hysterical because the character was himself is supposed to be a tired, bored middle-aged dad.

The other actors did such a good job of leading him around the stage that it didn’t even matter that he had no idea where he was going or what he was doing.

Everyone was such a good sport about it all. The audience appreciated his gumption and the rest of the cast just rolled with the pauses and gaps in the performance.

Obviously, we hoped that the chunk blower was feeling better for the Friday and Saturday performances but the Thursday dress rehearsal proved that the show must go on and if everyone can go into a situation like that with a sense of humor, the show is that much better for it.