Yesterday morning the entertainment department went through a massive change-over, among those who left us for the season were the (as yet not replaced) Party Band guitarist, the Dance Band leader, and…the entire production cast…
Which means this week? Welcome to Cast Changeover.
Otherwise known as the entertainment two-weeks-from-hell. The new cast comes on knowing the shows cold (they rehearse in LA for several months before joining a ship), but they all have to be reblocked for the ship’s stage, and there’s always costuming repairs and adjustments that need to be done, plus every single show has to be rehearsed, prepped and polished by the Corporate Entertainment team that comes on board with the new cast and stays for a week…at least. The stage team is run off their feet with all the extra rehearsals and the show room is always booked up. It gets a wee bit crazy. Back in the day when I used to be friends with a ship-board stage manager, I would ferry coffee back and forth from café next to where I work to the theatre. At one point I could man-handle a fire screen door way heavier than me whilst still carrying five coffees…it was an art.
The offshoot of this for us on this ship particularly, is that the cast wasn’t able to participate in the opening night show. Something to do with the costumes not being ready. Now, the opening night bumper show is short to begin with, it only runs 35 minutes (“fast, fun and flirty!”), you take out the three or four major cast numbers from a show that short? You’re left with about…a 15 or 20 minute show! Rehearsal was hilarious, as it was ultimately a stumble of a stumble through
Whaddya mean I’m doing this whole number myself? GAH! Can’t remember the words!
Where do I go now?
Did anyone tell you guys when to exit so you don’t get stepped on?
It was a bit crazy. We did, thankfully, manage to stretch it out to 30 minutes, so we weren’t so ashamed for dragging everyone into the show lounge for such a truncated performance! And as always the performers on board are amazing and can pretty much carry off anything we throw at them.
The other issue is that that guitar player still hasn’t arrived – and we’re not 100% sure when he/she is arriving. With any other instrument you can somewhat play around it, I mean, if you get stuck without keys you’re going to have a lot of trouble but it can be done, if you get stuck without drums the bassist can take up some slack with regards to the rhythm, but without guitar? Try doing a 50s/60s rock n’roll set, or a Motown night, without guitar! So not going to go over too well. So the ‘Cats have a very light schedule this week simply since they’re not really able to do their normal gig (schedule tomorrow reads “have a nice day” lucky dogs!!)…upside for me? More time in port with my big brother! woot!