And so, it begins
THE AUTHOR (center) with fellow “Allegiance” lead actors Telly Leung (left) and George Takei ALLEGIANCE
NEW YORK—It’s Monday night, and I’m sitting at my dining table still wired from the night that has just passed: our final dress rehearsal one night before our very first preview. We invited many friends, former colleagues, and family members to fill the mezzanine and side sections of the orchestra so that we know how the show feels with an audience in the house. Granted a very biased-in-our-favor crowd, but a crowd nonetheless.
My eldest sister LuAnne Salonga, one of my best girlfriends Cynthia Casasola, a close family friend Marites Carabuena and my mother came as my guests for the night. Many members of the cast of the Broadway production of “The King and I” were also in attendance, as some of their personnel were also in “Allegiance” (Old Globe) and “Flower Drum Song” (Broadway). Other friends from other Broadway shows also came and cheered us on. The electricity in the air was palpable, and when we heard the crowd beyond our closed curtain, the butterflies in our tummies began to flutter.
It’s funny… when we’re rehearsing the show in an empty theater, we’re relaxed and settled into things. However, once an audience is added into the mix, we can feel the sudden rush of adrenaline and all the blood draining from our brains. Will this joke land? How about that high E flat?
And then, once the curtain rises and the lights hit us, everything clicks into place. All the hours in the rehearsal room, and the long days and nights in tech pay off at this one moment. Thank goodness that moment happened tonight with people we respect and love, people who understand the struggle, the rigor and the work we all put ourselves through, just for the show. It’s all about the show, and only the show.
The tech period requires every performer, creative person, and crew member’s humility and patience. Everyone’s work is looked at, from the color of a light to the color of a shirt, from a lyric to a line of dialogue. Yes, during tech the process is turned over to members of our design team for them to critique their own work and see how to make it better.
Our book writers also use tech as an opportunity to see how new lines (heck, even one changed word can make a difference) fall on us. We’ll get new bits of dialogue or lyrics to songs to road test. And this process will continue until our official opening night, Nov. 8.
All elements are gone over with a fine-toothed comb. Is the show a little long? Let’s see where trims and cuts can be made. Could that costume be made more flattering? Schedule a fitting and fix it. Is a song’s lyric not making sense? Pass along the rewrites, stay on top of them and try to incorporate them whenever possible. All this (and more) is done every single day, without ego.
There can be lively discussions to clarify a moment (sometimes accompanied by an impassioned speech or two). Script changes could swing too far to the right on one day, and then swing back to a more comfortable place the next.
Work in progress
We are a work in progress, we remind ourselves. This is a process. Every aspect of the production has to go through a process. And we have a full month of it before we finally consider the show “frozen,” or set.
Now that previews are about to begin, you can bet our creative team will suffer even worse sleep deprivation because of all the improvements that have yet to be distributed over the next few weeks.
A show on Broadway runs like a well-oiled machine, one that takes many hands to activate and maintain. There are so many people on stage as well as behind the scenes, all of them heroic, brave and amazing. Each person has his or her own focus point to take care of, and does it in concert with a hair person changing a wig, while an actor is changing his or her clothes and a dresser is shoving their feet into shoes.
Stage management is making sure no one gets mowed down in the dark, as there is a lot of running around while avoiding scenery. And our conductor is keeping sane, as she is the bridge between the action on stage and in the orchestra pit and the orchestra rooms in the basement. It’s quite a miracle to see everything come together.
It’s now time for me to get some rest. We have rehearsals tomorrow afternoon and our first preview to prepare for. My mom will, once again, like she has many times before, be in the theater giving her support from her seat in the house.
Here’s hoping everything goes well… there is no resting on any laurels until… maybe never during this run.
And that is a good thing.
(“Allegiance” is now in previews until its official opening night on Nov. 8. For more information on the show, visit allegiancemusical.com. Tickets are available on Telecharge.com.)
