We had our first preview tonight. The whirlwind that has been this production is coming together and several hundred people happened to be watching it tonight. The performance was our second complete run of the show in real time, which is better than some shows get, and considering we only started rehearsal 22 days ago, it could
have been much worse.

Bill (our director) gave a funny little curtain speech before the show basically saying “welcome to our first preview, please bear with us if there are any train wrecks.” He actually used the word train wrecks. Maybe more than once. Thankfully we had none.

I don’t think we were really at a point where there was a big chance of a trainwreck, unless the huge sliding doors that are involved in a large percentage of the show had stopped working completely. They go through moods hourly where they are happy or unhappy, and we knew they were unhappy when we opened the house. I wasn’t counting but I’d say they got stuck maybe five times in Act I, two of which required me to apply an inelegant amount of direct force to get them to close all the way. We’ve been dealing with the bothersome stage right slider since the beginning, so it’s become routine for us, and aside from not closing or opening as smoothly as they’re supposed to, it was nothing that really affected the show. In many cases it probably couldn’t be noticed because we almost always had someone posted on the stage right side physically holding the slider as it moved, ready to apply extra force at the first sign of trouble. Unbeknownst to me, some adjustments were made at intermission, which explains why they were behaving during Act II, and more work with be done tomorrow morning.

Overall it was a very good show considering how little time we’ve had to get comfortable with it, and things will continue to be added and improved as we rehearse during previews. Afterwards, just about everybody involved with the production headed over to an informal gathering at the bar adjoining the Zipper Theatre to relax and celebrate.

Meanwhile, some press is showing up as the result of our open rehearsal from last week. We had a ton of press there, for an Off-Broadway show at least, and here are some of the links we’ve found:

Interviews:
NEW:
Broadway.com – First Person with Hunter

NEW: TheatreMania video.
Christiane just tipped me off to this one, which we just watched during rehearsal. My computer at my desk stage left has become the nerve center for the cast and crew to check up on what the buzz is on the internet (and for the inexplicable number of Red Sox fans to check the playoff scores as they pass by during the show).

Photos:
Playbill
Broadway.com
Broadway World
…more Broadway World! (more set photos and stuff)

Video:

Stage Notes blog
Broadway.com

I have to share my personal favorite, though:

Being in charge of props, I was kind of mortified to see this picture featuring Struan Erlenborn, Mandy Bruno, Steve Blanchard, and Hunter Foster playing background while the photographer decides to take a nice juicy close-up of the bar code painted onto the ball. And yes, it’s painted on — there’s no way to get it off. Of course that’s not the actual ball used in the show. You should have seen the infamous Scooby Doo ball we used before we found a red one. Anyway, would ten seconds of Photoshop work have killed them?

Well I have to get to bed. We’re all thrilled that we don’t have rehearsal until 3:00. It’s almost like a day off. Next Tuesday will be our first day off in 13 days, and it will be very welcome!