SHOW GIRL posts are for paid subscribers and will chronicle my experience performing in a local theater guild’s Fall 2024 production of The Music Man—my first foray into musical theater in over 30 years. Get the background here and here, and please consider upgrading your subscription to support my future writing (and entertaining!) efforts.
First I was given a daughter, then a small dancing bit, and now I officially have a line! Oui, c’est vrai. Those who come to see the show will have to wait two acts and a total of 18 scenes to hear me say:
“That professor collected nearly $300 for uniforms just tonight!”
Wondering about the context? Same!
The thing about having a line is you need to understand the general goings-on of things to act it properly and I’m still confused about the emotions we’re meant to be emoting throughout this show. Yes, once again this is partly my fault for not previously knowing (and being committed to retaining) the overall story. But we’ve also been rehearsing songs out of order—without the nonmusical scenes in between—and what I do know is that The Music Man itself involves some swindling and bamboozling. There is all sorts of “fake news” being spread. The man character himself is acting like someone he’s not so that doesn’t exactly make it easy to keep things straight.