One thing that's certain around here at KTB Music Theatre Chorus: no matter how long you've been away, you will be welcomed back with actual cheering and applause. If you have ever wanted to experience an entire roomful of people excitedly calling your name and waving, just join us and then take a couple of weeks out.
We've had absolutely gorgeous weather in this part of the world over the last couple of days, so starting the evening with "Singin' in the Rain" might have felt a little like tempting fate, but we finger-snapped and toe-tapped our way through it with relatively few rhythmic hiccups, ready to move on to "Without Love" from Hairspray.
Now, I talk a lot about the soprano section in this blog, and that's largely because this writer happens to sit over on that side of the room. But I do have to apologise to the altos for continually failing to mention the amazing sound that comes over to us from across the giant gap on the floor. "Without Love" gives the alto section a lot of Tracy's lines, and they truly sounded awesome. (The mischief that would probably ensue if we were seated next to the altos is possibly why the room is arranged that way, but I'm sure there's a legitimate musical reason for it.)
From Baltimore to Paris, then! "The Bells of Notre Dame" (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), with our super-talented soloists leading us up the bell tower in a dark and tragic tale. Even the Universal-rated version couldn't fully quieten all of the unsettling story elements here. And then, of course, the top sopranos are unsettled for a different reason... Hopefully Everything Looks Perfectly Unbothersome Soon... I'll Try Some Really Encouraging Affirmations Like "Love Yourself" & "How Inspiring Going High". If we need rescuing, we'll send out an awkwardly-worded coded message in this blog.
Given that we occasionally have a hard time remembering to be quiet when it's time to sing (sorry, Katy), tonight was plagued by a strange outbreak of the exact opposite: opening our music, but forgetting to actually make the music sounds. Multiple sections struck by confusion about which bar we're supposed to be on, overwhelmed listening to our brilliant soloists, or just zoning out. "Somebody To Love" (We Will Rock You) was definitely not the only one of those moments, but it was the one where we all cracked up the most. It's going to sound so good! If we remember that we're supposed to be singing, that is.
On to chorus favourite "Oh Happy Day" from Sister Act 2. Our incredible soloist gets free rein here, with excellent reason (buy-your-tickets-buy-your-tickets-now), and it's so fun to just really go along with the music and let yourself Sing, with a very deserved capital S. We play a lot with dynamics in this one, and it's absolutely stunning when we're all tuned in. There's that bit of oft-repeated research about heartbeats syncing up when you sing in a group, and this is one of those numbers where you can really feel like that might have just happened.
As we are now off for two weeks (awwwww, noooooo!) for the spring holidays, "School Song" from Matilda certainly felt appropriate. I'd say you wouldn't want to meet our Scary Big Kids in the playground, but that would be a lie, cos they're all lovely.
We're getting close enough to the concert now to start tackling some of the song transitions, starting with "Stampede" from The Lion King. For our returning chorus members who hadn't had chance to hear this one yet: we hope we managed to give you a good grasp of how it sounds. Katy's attempts to Pavlov us all into getting the timing right on the post-instrumental section will continue.
Welcome to the house... the house of chorus chaos, and seated club-dancing, and going for it with the character accents as our soloist was away and we wanted to do her justice when singing in for her. "The Haus of Holbein" from Six really brings the energy. Oooh, ja, it does. This was quick and snappy, as was our brief recap of the end of "Let It Go" (Frozen).
"Tomorrow" from Annie is coming together nicely, and we've been told a few things about how it's going to work in-concert. It's going to be so atmospheric (so buy-your-tickets-buy-your-tickets-now)!
Two more seat-dancing numbers up next on the rehearsal list: "I'm Still Standing" (an Elton John classic), and more fantastic solo vocals in "Come Alive" (The Greatest Showman). These higher-energy ones are often the ones that really get stuck in my head after rehearsal, but it is still nice to sometimes end things on a more relaxed note, and have our final brilliant soloist of the evening lead us through "Any Dream Will Do" (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat).
A very packed rehearsal before our two week break (again: awwwwww, nooooooo). We're all keeping an eye out for the new helper tracks, and we promise we will try to get some practice in before we get back in April. This is usually the point at which the rehearsal time seems to compress into nothingness, and before we know it we'll be trying to arrange the rehearsal room into stage configuration.
Deep breaths. Controlled, musical screams. It's all getting exciting!
Written by Aeryn Isherwood