The final day, the final two shows. Sad but true. There is a lot of energy in the cast, but, unfortunately a few members of the cast were sick, including (as far as I know) three members of the ensemble (one of which wasn't able to make it for these last two shows, and one had to leave after the first show of the day), and, last but certainly not least, the Cat's buddy Jojo! She'd lost her voice the day before, and had gotten it mostly back, but wasn't as strong as she could go. ...GULP....
But in the theatre no matter what, the show MUST go on! And it did! It went okay, nothing really special, just another fun time in the world of Dr. Seuss.
Since, unfortunately, Jojo couldn't sing I helped her with "Anything's Possible", a fun song, that I'd wanted to sing since we'd started the show. So, if anything good came out of her sickness, it was me getting to sing that song... sorry, Lizzie....
- Talk Show line- For once in this show I stuck with the script... hard to believe, I know.
- Waking Jojo up- I rounded the corner blowing my nose into a tissue, "That was beautiful, man!"
- Auction- Offered the Bird Girls again, with the same "sing/narrate your day" line, at the request of one of the girls.
The forty min. break between shows went by very quickly, I had just caught my breath when they called places again. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it wasn't the break I'm used to.
The second (and final show) went by way too fast. During "Oh, the Thinks you Can Think" it hit me that this was the last time I'd be telling this story, it hit me again during "Anything's Possible", then yet again during "Amazing Mayzie", "Monkey Around", "How Lucky you Are", and especially during "Solla Sollew". I later got word that a few ensemble members shed a few tears during this song.
During "The People vs. Horton the Elephant" I used a different accent for the "Marshall of the Court", and then decided that I was going to make the most of what I had left, I amped up my energy and flew through the rest of the show. The audience was great, the best you could ask for on a closing night, I even hammed up a little more because they were so responsive (especially with Dr. Dake).
- Talk Show line- "...Cooking with Sam-I-Am"
- Waking Jojo up- "...oh, yeah, well you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!"
- Auction- I'd had a special auction in mind since the beginning of the show for closing night, and I used it, to great response. "Since this is our final show, everything must go! We're talking elephant, Bird Girls, monkeys, kangaroos, and the entire 10-piece ensemble."
The show went very well, as I've found a lot of my closing-night shows do. I had the honor to speak about our production crew, and director at the conclusion of the show...I've always wanted to do that. And after we said good-bye to our audience, we went and changed out of our costumes for the last time... but thankfully, I got to buy my suit, and plan on wearing it to the prom. I packed up my props and puppets, said my good-byes, and left as they were loading the set into the truck.
It was a fun time. And I know we all miss it. We had our time in Solla Sollew, and now we've moved on to other things. And as Dr. Seuss said: "Don't cry because it's over, be glad that it happened"
I am.
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