[hiatus]

Greetings [tos]sers-

We have completed one full week of rehearsals and are now on a week long hiatus for Christmas. Rehearsals start up again on Monday, but this break is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to let things settle in and really start thinking about the show. The actors now have a week to sit down and start memorizing their music and lines which is something that rarely happens in a production. Usually the actors are expected to come to rehearsal all day, then spend more time at home learning everything, just to come back the next day and do it all over again. This will make everything less stressful and easy (hopefully).

As of right now, we have blocked a good chunk of the beginning of the show. It is really fun to see this show start to come together. I keep hearing people saying that [title of show] should not be done without Hunter, Jeff, et al, playing themselves as they did in NY. However I do not agree with that at all. The show, while about them, does not require them to play themselves. It is a concrete book musical, where as long as the actors are talented (and trust me, these 4 are not going to let anyone down), it doesn't matter who originally played the part.

I like to equate it to A Chorus Line. The characters, dialogue, and song lyrics in A Chorus Line were taken almost verbatim from the dancers who participated in that initial workshop organized by Michael Bennett. Even though the role of Cassie, for example, was a combination of a few different dancers/actors in the workshop, a good chunk of her story was from Donna McKechnie (who originated the role). The words of Cassie, were the words of Donna. I don't think anyone can argue with the success of A Chorus Line (It became the longest running show on Broadway for an number of years) and during the 6137 performances over 15 years, a number of women played Cassie besides Donna McKechnie to great success.