Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 25 - 08/12/16

changing will i - santa/cover notes

Today we attempted a full runthrough of every number in the show so that we can change anything that seems weak or resolve any other issues. However, due to major tweaks being made, we only got up to I'll Cover You. Below is how each section I was in went:

• Opening (Tune Up #1, Voicemail #1, Tune Up #2, Rent): This scene went extremely well as everyone knew their lines and timing, everyone acted out all of their parts with enthusiasm and it showed that everyone had worked on their individual sections at home. The only thing I'd say we can improve on in this respect is Alice making her voicemail as Mark's Mother more over the top however she still performed it very well!
• Today 4 U/You'll See: During Today 4 U, there was a lot more energy at the beginning between Collins, Mark and Roger and we did well to show the relationship between the group within the short amount of time available. However, despite Angel's entrance being the best it's ever been, during her whole storytelling section of the death of Akita, the rest of us still seem very static and just seem to watching her. I feel that Angel really needs to interact with the group during this song as she's not only telling the audience but she's also supposed to be telling the group too!
  
  You'll See was brilliant again and does well to show how much of an outcast Benny's become after leaving the group. Our interactions with Benny are great, Will's change between singing and speak singing is seamless and Collins and Angel on the side doesn't look unnatural as it did before.

For Life Support, some of us had major issues with timing ruined the flow of the song and thus didn't lead well into the next song. Luckily, I was very familiar with this song as I've listened to this musical countless times in preparation for this show so I was able to step in and assist the others who had timing issues. However, the biggest issue wasn't Life Support, it was Will I? Despite us all going home and learning the songs, we were very poor in this song due to the confusing overlapping and difficult timing on the last line of the repeated verse ("From...this...nightmare"). After a couple of singthroughs, we realised that this wasn't going to work so we tried something different:

• On the final lines of Life Support ("No other road, no other way, no day but today"), we all exit excluding Henri, who stays seated on the table centre stage, Lorna, who freezes and stays in her place from Life Support, Taylor, who walks into Roger's apartment and into Another Day, and Lewis (me), frozen mid walk exiting the stage.
• We all perform Another Day where we end with Henri and Taylor interacting with one another, Lorna and I frozen onstage and singing in the ensemble sections and everyone else in the wings singing the ensemble sections also.
• For Will I?, Mimi ends sitting on the edge of the stage, Henri sitting on the table centre stage and Lorna and I remain frozen. Lorna sings the first verse alone, Henri sings with her from the second verse in unison, Taylor does the same on the third and I do the same on the fourth. On the fifth verse, only Lorna sings and Henri and I exit. Finally, on the sixth, Lorna exits while Taylor stands and sings the final verse on her own.

I then felt it would be more fitting if Owen (Angel) took my place as it foreshadows later events to come. Not only the inevitable end of Mimi and Roger's relationship (which ends up being permanent in our version) but the death of the chirpy embodiment of Bohemia, Angel. We tried this again and not only did it make more sense for Angel to sing but Owen's light tone of voice worked better in this number than my heavier alternative.

For the rest of the lesson, we ran Santa Fe followed by I'll Cover You; two of my most important songs. I feel that Santa Fe went very well; the four of us, Cameron, Henri, Owen and I, interacted very well throughout, we all knew our lines and sang them with meaning and all of our movement was purposeful. I'll Cover You was also very good as we both had plenty of energy and interacted well with each other but the issue is our singing. Although we sound fine apart, our harmonies are very clashy; to prevent this, we'll both go see the school's singing teacher, Mr Quinn.