Oh…whoa…Dale’s here
Who?
I pointed to the show board in the main office, where the supervisors scrawl out the order of all the evening performances.
Dale Kristien, she’s…she’s the one guest ent I get nervous around. Mega nervous.
Why?
Because she is Christine.
At this point I looked at Amras and realized I should probably explain.
Dale originated the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera in LA, every other Christine cast in that production is somehow based off of her. She’s the one all the others are modeled after. The first time I worked with her I realized I was too in awe to even speak to her…I kind of still am. I mean she’s super nice and all but…
I watched the show of course, it never occurred to me not to. Dale puts on an incredible performance, and it’s clear that she’s still performing because she wants to, not because she ‘has’ to. She was the original phantom’s longest running Christine, and the only one ever to do the show 8 nights a week; I’m sure she has all the bells and whistles she could ever want. But she still loves what she does, so she’s still doing it. Watching her show I feel like a little kid in the front row, looking up at someone that she one day might have a shadow of a chance at becoming…and at the same time feeling like a tiny insignificant little bug.
She closes the show with Think of Me, which I vaguely remembered from the first time I saw it, but I forgot how she sang it. The beginning of Think of Me is – in my completely amateur opinion – the hardest, because at that point Christine is nervous, she’s been pulled out of the chorus and singled out in front of the owners of the opera company after the diva has stormed off stage and refused to perform. In a heartbeat Christine has to give a performance that she knows is going to change the course of her life, all of that has to go into those first few bars…
Think of me, think of me fondly
When we’ve said goodbye…
Remember me, every so often promise me you’ll try…
So she has to sound uncertain, slightly insecure, and at the same time completely vocally brilliant, because after all by the second verse she’s singing in front of the opera audience, being watched – unknowingly – by her childhood sweetheart. She has to resteal his heart with her voice, without even knowing he’s there…
Perhaps needless to say, hearing Dale perform the song makes me cry. What feels like a very long time ago I auditioned for Theatre College, my vocal teacher coached me for almost a year so that I could sail up to the top note, a feat I know I could not accomplish today.
I was relating all of this to Amras after the show, after he told me he was honoured just to share the stage with her. I just shook my head.
I just feel…she makes me feel so insignificant, like a little bitty bug…but you know it does make me feel better to hear even someone like her say ‘I was the right height, the right weight, the right everything at the right time.’…
No one really believes me when I tell them how big a percentage of the business that is, being the right everything at the right time.
When I take you to London – one of these days – I’m taking you to Phantom.
Okay….
When I first had the chance to go, I really wasn’t all that interested, it was one of those shows you kind of go to because you think ‘well I’m in London’ and there are some shows you just kind of have to see while you’re there. So I went, and then I was completely and totally blown away…
And I still am…every time.