Opening Night

Tonight we open Footloose.

The cast is doing a fine job. They look great, they act at about 70-90% of my expectations, they sing beautifully for about 850-90% of the show, and they also perform some dances.

I know, that's not really a glowing review and I'm the director so I should be Mr. #1 cheerleader. But I'm not and I can't. I'm not happy with the final product (rarely happens that I am), but it's more because of the backstage crap and drama that happened. Theatrical experience doesn't need to be a horrific, stressful, over-the-top "oh-my-god-everything-is-going-wrong-what-are-we-going-to-do" kind of thing. In the scope of things, a bad production may lose money, but it's not worth the aggravation that some ascribe to it. The whole mountain out of molehills cliche is so completely apt for theatre and theatre people that I can understand why the whole thing turns off more reasonable folks.

But it opens tonight, and I'm proud of a lot of the moments that happen. There is a sort of electricity in some of the scenes, and I can only hope that it extends throughout the entire production.

I had a long gripe about the production troubles, but I'll save that for another time.

So do I recommend it? I do. I've directed it differently than the rest of the chaff that passes for musical theatre these days. Will different be better or worse? I'm sure people will have mixed reactions, which is what I always aim for, because mixed reactions generally means I crossed out of the audience's comfort zone of expectations.