It’s at the theater…I’ve been in rehearsals. Lots of them. Mame opens tomorrow night. Actually upon looking at my clock, it opens tonight! Theater is such a wonderful place, experience, way to live. I love that as we stand around during rehearsal someone can ask, “Is it Christmas yet?” and the reply of “In about five minutes” makes sense. If you know the musical Mame, it features among many wonderful songs, “Need a Little Christmas.”
I have two great numbers in the show. Please understand–I am not boasting that I am necessarily great performing them, but rather that they are two great numbers to perform. “Bosom Buddies” and, my favorite, “Man in the Moon” are very funny songs. I have truly enjoyed working to perform these songs to even the smallest percentage of ability with which Bea Arthur naturally performed these songs when she originated the role. Vera is the type of role where one can almost selfishly not care if the audience finds it funny because it’s just so bloody fun to perform! Obviously, I do hope the audience enjoys it because as all actors know, if there is no audience, there is no show. Fortunately, one person counts as an audience. I’ve played to some small houses in my day. However, I know there will be at least five people there at opening night. My hubby and sons will be there watching the show with my folks. I don’t think my folks have ever missed a show that I’ve been in, except for the time I was doing children’s theater. They couldn’t get into the schools. I do think they saw the dinosaur play at the state museum. (Wow, if only I had known I would one day have a son who planned on being a paleontologist, I would have filmed that show!)
There is a smell in a theater that many would probably find unfriendly, but I simply love it. It’s the stink of all the previous shows. It sounds less than pleasant, but I love it. I’ve said it before (possibly in an earlier post even) and I’ll say it again. Theater is a place where you wear random clothes that you don’t know the origin of, share make-up without fear of cooties, and throw modesty right out the window because you only have a minute for the costume change so it doesn’t matter how many people backstage see you in your undergarments. During a show, everyone has got your back. We all check for skirts tucked into pantyhose, smudges on faces, and props being in the correct spot. You’ve got each others’ back because you don’t know what could go wrong. It’s great when it all goes right, and most times it does. But when it goes wrong, you’ve got to work together so the audience doesn’t know something happened that wasn’t supposed to. And all of that contributes to the smell.
The lyrics may be corny to some, but there is no business like show business. Would I love to make my living doing this? Of course. Do I? Nope. But in whatever way I can, I will keep theater in my life. Wow, that may be the corniest sentence I’ve written since junior high school. Corny, but true.
Still, that’s not the only thing going on in my life. My third grader and first grader have started off their school years with flair. My oldest is quite excited to be in the “fast paced” math class (even though he always said he was bad at math). My youngest was writing down all the words he knows how to spell. I suggested “evil”. He said, with perfect timing, “What about macabre instead?” Oh, my six year old…he’s a hoot.
My hubby just celebrated his birthday on Wednesday though we had a double surprise birthday party for my mother and him a couple of weeks ago. Now he’s Miner 49er plus 1-hee hee.
Still, the time is late and I must away. So I leave you with this…
The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Are secretly unhappy men because
The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Get paid for what they do but no applause
They’d gladly bid their dreary jobs goodbye
For anything theatrical, and why?
There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing
Everything the traffic will allow
Nowhere could you get that happy feeling
When you are stealing that extra bow
There’s no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Even with a turkey that you know will fold
You may be stranded out in the cold
Still you wouldn’t ‘change for a sack of gold
Let’s go on with the show
The costumes, the scenery, the make-up, the props
The audience that lifts you when you’re down
The headaches, the heartaches, the backaches, the flops
The sheriff who escorts you out of town
The opening when your heart beats like a drum
The closing when the customers won’t come
There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
You get word before the show has started
That your favorite uncle died at dawn
Top of that, your ma and pa have parted
You’re broken-hearted, but you go on
There’s no people like show people
They don’t run out of dough
Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack
And when you lose it there’s no attack
Where could you get money that you don’t give back
Let’s go on with the show
The cowboys, the tumblers, the wrestlers, the clowns
The roustabouts that move the show at dawn
The music, the spotlight, the people, the towns
Your baggage with the labels pasted on
The sawdust and the horses and the smell (there’s that smell again–see I didn’t make it up-it’s real)
The towel you’ve taken from the last hotel
There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
Traveling through the country will be thrilling
Standing out in front on opening nights
Smiling as you watch the theater filling
And there’s your billing out there in lights
There’s no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Yesterday they told you you would not go far
That night you open and there you are
Next day on your dressing room they’ve hung a star
Let’s go on with the show
Let’s go on with the show
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