Help! Opening night is this week!

The Stage

What a crazy two weeks this was for me.  I just performed six shows of the musical Chicago with our local theater group as the percussionist.  How did that happen?...let me tell you.

I was talking to a friend about looking for a band to play with.  He put a post on Facebook about me and my dilema.  The next morning (Sunday) he contacts me and says the director from the local theater playhouse needs a drummer for a show.  I get the phone number and I call the director.  She says the drummer they had quit the week before and they need a percussionist for the musical Chicago.  I tell her that I am not familiar with the musical and that I am not very good at reading music.  She assures me that it is OK and the music director will help me with the drum parts...oh and by the way practice starts at 2 pm and opening night is on four days (Thursday night).

The band Kezia, Alex, Brian, and Robert

I show up and meet the director, the band and the music director.  The band was only four people including me (piano, bass guitar, trumpet, and drums).  I get handed the music and discuss a little about cues in the dialog.  Since the show's opening night was only days away, all the rehearsals were from start to finish.  There was no stopping to say 'hey the music is not right'.  I was partly reading the music but mostly winging it.  The first practice went from 2 to 10 pm and we ran through the play twice.  I am not going to lie, this was going to be work.  There were around 30 numbers I had to get familiar with in three days.

So how did I do it you ask?  I knew the best way for me to learn the music was to listen to it over and over.  So on that first practice day, I did an audio recording the of the entire show.  With my drum music in hand, I would listen to the recording and follow along so I could connect the singing to the music.  This really helped accelerate the process of getting the music down.  I also watched some YouTube performances of certain songs to get a better feel of what was happening in the music.

The Stars Keisha and Leah

By opening night I had the music down pretty good...it wasn't perfect but it did the job.  There were still five more performances we had to do and I never stopped reviewing the drum music and listening to the recorded audio.  I will also add that Alex (the music director/piano player) was essential in my success.  He would always cue me and the other players and would take the time to point out dynamics in my playing that I was missing.

When it came time for the last couple of shows, I was pretty confident in what I was doing musically but to get there took a lot of work in a short period of time.  The cast was super happy that I was able to do what I did.  One comment I got was, "The other drummer said he didn't think he could learn the music in time for the first show...who thought someone could come in with even less time and learn all the music".

This was something that I had never done before...would I do it again? Sure, but I would like a little bit more time to learn the music.

Here's a link to an audio file of the play if you want to check it out...Chicago Musical