Les Miserables Fourth Performance 6/15/14

Matinees are never my favorite but it was still a fantastic show. Before the show, my Dad bought me a case of Redbull to get through the matinee, proving once again that Father’s Day was made for dads like him. (And Jean Valjean, of course).

Feuilly’s girlfriend’s Grandma owns a bakery, and so they brought in freaking amazing cupcakes for us….including chocolate bacon cupcakes. I was skeptical, but with some convincing I tried one and fell in love.

Despite the Redbull, I had a few blonde moments backstage. Thankfully the wonderful lady who plays the beggar woman who buys Fantine’s hair helped me get through it. (Finding my lipstick when it disappeared, hanging up my vest when I dropped it my mistake, etc).

There were also some super moments too. For example, there was a woman mouthing along with us during all of “Lovely Ladies”. (I have a feeling we would get along well). And I heard somebody gasp one of the times the Pimp shoves me down. And my “Long live the Republic!” line went really well.

And even though it was a matinee, the audience was super into it and crying, cheering, clapping and a whistling during the big moments, etc. In fact, I had several people I knew in the audience and they all were in love with what we did with it. In fact, somebody came up to our director after the show and said they came to watch us fail, thinking our small, community theatre couldn’t pull of Les Mis, and that after seeing it they take back everything they said.

Another random but sweet detail-Marius handed me Eponine’s hat tonight backstage and asked me to return it to her…and I may have worn it for a bit first…

Although when I went onstage for “Master of the House”, I noticed a little fake bird on the stage with a pin through it, as if it had fallen off somebody’s hat or something. I had an acting teacher who taught me that if something falls to the floor onstage, pick it up immediately or that will be all the audience stares at, so I picked it up on my way to my table and wore it on my hair for the rest of the number. I found out later it came off of Madame Thenardier’s hat, and both she and the costume department thanked me for rescuing it. With some of Madame Thenardier’s costumes, it’s sort of surprising that’s the first real problem we’ve had. Especially with her giant hoop skirt with Act II that we’ve named “Tallulah”.

After the show we had a get-together at one of the ensemble men’s house and we had quite a fun time, especially when we busted out the karaoke machine. I did a quite wonderful job on “When You Got It, Flaunt It” (complete with the accent) from The Producers if I do say myself.

And now for a two-day break….sigh….what to do with myself?