Sunday: been rehearsing "One Day" or "There Are Worst Things I Could Do" intermittently off and on throughout the day.

I dropped off some loaner crochet hooks and theater DVD's to Loretta, then went to Woodland to meet Debbie, Rae and her sister Bea for lunch at Savory Cafe, a "slow food" restaurant. Pretty slow to get in and take the order, but the food at least came fast enough for my pre-show eating. Happily, we got outdoor seating and the heat wasn't too bad. I had a breakfast sandwich (ok) and the best potatoes I've ever had, super crunchy. I will be driving Rae to karaoke on Tuesday. Apparently there was some weirdness with the owner of the pizza place (Jim says he's okay, Debbie has various reasons for doubting his intelligence), but hopefully that was all squared away.

After that, I went to see Bye Bye Birdie, which was very well done. My thoughts:

(a) Erik did a great job as Conrad, though I note the Elvis-ness of his audition was perhaps toned down by the director? He didn't get any Elvis outfit (did have one bling coat for "One Last Kiss") and was mostly outfitted in Beatles 50's black suit. I did enjoy his old lady outfit in disguise at the end.

I admit it's weird knowing he's around 42 IRL (though like me, he looks ageless, round faces will do that for ya) and presumably playing someone 18 and he's "supposed" to kiss a 15-year-old, though spoiler alert, that doesn't happen in the show.

My coworker Barbara, who is Erik's teammate, was sitting behind me! So we yakked on about work before the show and intermission, which probably bored the crap out of everyone else. About Erik, she was all "He's not normally like this, he's so quiet!"

(b) The guy who got Albert was the lone guy who came in first at the audition and then walked out right after and we were all "why did that guy walk out?" I don't know the story on that one, but he was about the only suitable one for the part auditioning, as I recall. They presumably also had to recruit someone to play Rose, who was marvelous.

(c) Rose is my favorite in this show, I love how the entire second act is basically her singing/dancing various version of "Fuck you!" It's a delight. I love "What Did I Ever See In Him" but her Shriners dance number was fantastic. And "Spanish Rose," in which she is all "I will be so stereotypically Spanish, I'll make you puke, Mrs. Peterson!" essentially.

(d) Jean was playing a comedic mom again, but didn't get to do much. I note the "parents" (not the McAfees) weren't in it all that much, more or less in a few numbers. They had three "moms" around most of the time, I think I figured out at the end that Sabrina was probably playing another mom after her stint as Gloria Rasputin, who's not in it much.

(e) The teenagers have the best dance numbers and fun in this one, I think I wish I could play a teenager in this show, or Rose, not that either is doable. If I'd gotten in I probably would have been some random mom. The parents didn't even dance in "Honestly Sincere," which was the audition dance number, bummer.

I enjoyed it, perhaps I am not feeling so much regret about not doing it? Lord knows I had more to do in Evita, even if it wasn't particularly fun stuff?

I said hi to everyone afterwards, had the most conversation with Sabrina because I told her I did murder mystery last night and she said she was interested. I told her if she wants in, she can get in and some other details, she may message me later.

It was pretty entertaining talking to Barbara because these days people don't really interact with those not in their department very much (like she and I email back and forth a bit but that's about it) and she was all, "I don't even know anyone in your department any more," and I'm all "yeah, it's a revolving door." She's only been there a year longer than I have and said "yeah, they forgot to do anniversaries for other people too at that meeting," and she said she didn't like the last BigBoss because the lady was kind of a jerk to her during their "open door policy" meeting. She said she likes her job well enough except for the whining, but will gauge her retirement based on who they hire as BigBoss next, if it's someone sucky she may just leave.

Beauty and the Beast auditions: really fun people at this one, it felt like home again. Notable things going on:

Two people were dismissed early-ish, which felt really awkward until you found out why: one had a conflict DURING the performance time (eesh) and was told to come back for something else. Another guy I guess had no idea what was going on, so (a) he had no sheet music, (b) sang "To All The Girls I've Loved Before," (c) said he just does regular acting. Oookay then.
16 people at this one. Minus the two that left, I assume this will probably have a large cast. People I knew: Scott, Sierra, Dannette, Jean,. Felicia (her husband also auditioned), Jan.

People I sorta have met: Rachele (Marian) from Music Man, Rachelle (yes, there's gonna be two of them...both answer to "Rachel" and "Rachelle" and have some resemblance, though the 1-l I guess says it "Rachel,"), who I sat next to and was great fun. Rachelle is "more of a dancer and singer" and said "I hate acting!" Apparently Brian deems her good enough to act though.

People I have heard of: the infamous AJ who dropped out of Camelot AND Mary Poppins for mask wearing refusal, most recently in Hunchback. (I asked Brian later if this would be An Issue with DMTC and he said no.) He did a VERY BIG walking around the stage audition and directed some of it at Kimmie, to everyone's total amusement.

In other news and fun facts from Steve:

The rent was raised AGAIN for the fourth time in pandemic, the last rent raise was February. Da fuck?
When they did Les Mis, 128 auditioned, 48 got cast, 4 dropped out., 21 of them were men. People were all "How did you get enough men?!"
Sounds like they are moving performance times to 7:30, I think?
Out of 30 people in The Music Man, TWENTY FUCKING FIVE CAME DOWN WITH IT. Ye gods, indeed. They made people wear masks except for when on the stage auditioning and said rather than checking for covid cards (unclear on mask wearing), people are going to have to home test twice a week. Wheeeeeee, I can clear out those free tests in a few weeks that way :(
They have 3000 masks in the building.
Giant platforms will have to be built. I was all "don't you have all the stuff from the kids' B&tB?" I kind of assumed this would not be construction EVERY weekend.
Steve does not want to cut any part of Be Our Guest, and also, "can anyone cartwheel" as the carpet?

Quotes from Steve:
"Jan, I really hate you."
"I'm going to Disneyfy this show so much."
"Tech week is not Hell Week."
"I always see Lefou as a Labrador puppy."
On Sherilyn: "She can get anyone to move the way that they have to."

People's auditions:

Sierra thought she sucked at hers. Apparently she was a little flat, but they did have her read for Belle twice, so.... (see below)
Scott did his, I certainly liked it, got asked to read for Maurice and he couldn't figure out why. I gather he put down Beast (and did a Beast-ish song, which Brian was so-so on, see below) and Lumiere, was kind of annoyed he didn't get to read for either part because Lumiere wasn't even in the scripts tonight. Presumably he'll read for that tomorrow.
One guy from Music Man looks like he might be a Maurice, or at least the right age for that.
One lady I never met before, Cat (or Kat?) was immediately dubbed "Obviously Gonna Be Cast As The Wardrobe And Everyone Knows It." Hopefully she fits into the box-thingie they have for the prebuilt wardrobe. That may be a bit tight since last I saw it held a 13-year-old (Sage).
One guy named David I didn't know did "Be Prepared," and was all, "I like playing the big burly characters. I don't have much choice." This led to a lot of jokes and suggestions of gender-swapping. He read for Gaston with Sierra and I think would be pretty good for it.
I assumed AJ might be leaning toward Gaston, but he was the only one allowed to read for Beast. Hmmm.

I think my song went well, or at least I did get polite applause and some quiet compliments for song selection afterwards (I did do "One Day," Boris flubbed it a bit but I carried on.). Steve handed out lines to everyone else and then left me, Jean, and another lady (Eve) for last and then was all "read this scene with Belle, Mrs. Potts and the Wardrobe" dead last. I'm always dead last. Belle had like 4 lines so eh...whatever. Brian thought this was the best scene, for some reason?!? The other two did great, of course, but I doubt either of them are up for name parts.

I note that Brian (who is doing...something backstage-y during this show? Unclear what exactly?) was "casting things in his head" and he came out to talk to Scott and Sierra afterwards. I was standing around with them but he pretty much ignored me while talking to them about parts...okay, not like SUPER ignored me, but obviously we did not discus how I am terrible. Like he said to the two of them, "See you at callbacks," 'nuff said there ,right? Anyway, he was in Director Mode in his head and was blabbing on about who he thinks might get what. Told Sierra she did okay but was a little flat, told Scott he might be up for Lumiere but not Beast, Cat is clearly The Wardrobe, the Rachel(l)es did great, blah de blah. Scott and I said that Morgan was going for Belle (only, I said) and while Brian didn't comment on that, he said Hugo's already done Cogsworth so they know he could do it, but he doesn't have the right voice or physique for Gaston. Makes me feel bad for them.

GOD I WISH I WASN'T SO FUCKING BAD AT WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE. (Again, how am I supposed to love myself when I an obvious suck?)

Look, do I want any major parts in this show? Heck no. I wouldn't cast me in any of those roles, nor would I want to play them (not a straight woman, not motherly, not an opera singer, not "sexy," 'nuff said). They have a lot of quality people who audition here and I ain't one of 'em. The only part I'd want is a Silly Girl (the blonde Gaston fangirls) and I didn't even bother to write that down on the form. I literally wrote "dancing napkin." Like, I'm here to be background and that's fine, but hearing conversations with people who HAVE talent and HAVE a shot hurts, y'know?

Re: Scott: apparently he calls all the girls pet names now? Did to Rachele and Sierra, sigh. I told him I had gotten voiceover info from Emeri and that didn't get too far, I might just not even bother telling him all of that really. Fine, WHATEVER, dude.

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