After the Two T’s finished their duet, to very enthusiastic applause when Merry started singing:
Merry’s solo was greeted by laughter and applause from the audience, but at the same time, the entire band geared up for the grand finale, which was strong on brass mostly because I anticipated the audience’s reaction.
When the song ended, the audience stood up for a standing ovation.
I was floored. I expected laughter and applause, but not another standing ovation.
I turned to the band, and they all stood in recognition.
The applause didn’t die down, and as I led the orchestra offstage, I started hearing chants of “Oogie!” and “Encore!”
I sighed. I hadn’t planned on another encore. Roy, who was standing off to the side of the stage watching the performance from the wings, said, “We have everybody here that did Lollipops and Roses from Kristen’s party.”
That was an excellent idea. The audience was getting more raucous, and it sounded as if they might stampede.
I told everybody to find the music to Lollipops, and for those that didn’t have it to either improvise or pretend to play. I got the featured singers from Kristen’s birthday party as well. Luckily, there wasn’t a mike on me, so Roy did the male solo alone.
All in all, it was a very well received concert. My mother and step-father were extremely proud of Merry and me, as were Kristen’s parents.
Back at Kristen’s apartment, Kristen told me, “That song makes me cry.”
“Which one? Merry’s solo?”
“No, you dork! Lollipops. I used to listen to that song a lot when I was very young. I think it was my parents’ favorite song at the time, since I heard it so much.”
“I didn’t know that. I just thought it was a pretty song that allowed plenty of opportunities for improvisation, which is really what you want to do when picking out a jazz repertoire.”
“Don’t make it sound so clinical, Jim,” Kristen said. “Just say, ‘I thought it was a romantic song,’ and let it drop.”
“I thought it was a romantic song,” I said, meaning every word.
Kristen threw me into a hug that evolved into one of her erection special kisses. “I love you, Oogie!”
“I love you, my lovely blonde Goddess!”
It wasn’t long after the Spring Concert that things started getting hectic. There was the Senior Musical (Music Man). Earlier that year, we had open auditions in the Junior High for the part of Amaryllis, Marian the Librarian’s music student, and for Winthrop, Marian’s brother. Both parts were for younger people, and it was an opportunity for junior high students to participate in the musical.
I helped Merry learn the “over-hand exercise” song that Amaryllis plays on the piano in the play, and I secretly hoped that Merry would win the part, but I think that the faculty director thought that if Merry got the part, claims of nepotism might be charged, since I was a regular fixture of the school musical since I was in seventh grade.
I had to admit that the girl they chose had a better singing voice—almost an adult’s voice—whereas Merry’s voice was more of a childlike quality, which I thought was more apropos for the character. However, I didn’t play favorites once the part was cast, and helped the girl, whose name was Mary, learn the “over-hand exercise” and other musical parts that she needed to learn. I realized while I was working with Mary that her voice was much more suited than Merry’s was for the Goodnight, My Someone duet that she sang with the leading lady in the musical.
Merry, for her part, got a part in the play in the band that Harold Hill “directs.” I taught her how to properly hold a clarinet, and then showed her how to hold it slightly wrong in order to look appropriate for the part, but still be able to play a note that was in the correct key. (I convinced Mr. Proilet that I could get the rag-tag actors on the stage band to actually play their real part. It was a suggestion I grew to regret!)
Kristen, Patty, and Camille, meanwhile, were spending most of their time with the Senior Prom, and didn’t have time to help out with the musical.
Mr. Proilet had his hands full getting an orchestral band to get the brass parts working properly for the show stopping tunes, and I brought Tiny on board—I just needed to work with him for a couple of hours before he got the songs correct, since he still was a novice at sight reading music. Tiny made my life easier, as he could help me by acting as an assistant director when I was working with the “specialty music” including the barber shop quartet numbers.
Don’t let anybody tell you that a high school musical is a simple affair. It most certainly isn’t. The type of people who aspire to be actors, musicians, and singers tend to be prima-donnas, and everybody offered their own ideas on how everything should be done properly.
Kristen attempted to get the movie version of the musical with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones on Betamax, but it wasn’t available. There was a soundtrack album, although it wasn’t still in print, but Kristen’s dad managed to have a copy of it from the 1960s that wasn’t too scratched up.
The more I heard the soundtrack album, the more I thought the person that was playing Harold Hill might not be perfect for the part. He did have a forceful voice, which would be useful for the Trouble number (one of the showstoppers that I was assigned), but he didn’t have the range for the Till There Was You and Marian the Librarian numbers (actually, he did have the range, but he couldn’t hold the notes long enough without bending them, which sounded quite phony).
Fortunately for me, my friend Roy was able to work with that actor for a week, and actually improved the actor’s voice, explaining how to breathe and other tricks of the trade. The person playing the part was more an actor than a singer, and Roy’s dedication to his singing craft really helped the actor.
I didn’t think the musical would be ready for the date we were planning, but in the last few weeks, everything started to really come together, including the phony musicians, much to my surprise.
This was the first time I was involved in the direction of the school musical. Before, I was just a performer and not a person actually charged with putting things together. It was a lot of work, and it made me think back to the past three years when I was a prima-donna myself.
The musical pulled together, and word of mouth after the first performance sold out the other three performances. We were even requested to do a special performance at the Junior High, since a lot of their members had parts on stage—two of them pretty important as well. Despite a couple of technical problems due to the differences in the auditoriums between the High School and the Junior High, the kids seemed to really enjoy the musical, or maybe it was the time off from classes that the musical afforded them.
Chapter 19—Advice and Senior Weekend I