NY opening tomorrow!

CAFÉ Carlyle: Woody Allen plays here on Monday nights. photo credit: newyorksocialdiary.com

NEW YORK—I’m sitting in my hotel room late at night, using FaceTime with my husband. I hear him listening to the latest Apple keynote address announcing OSX Lion and iOS 5, among others. I see my daughter is completely knocked out, possibly dreaming of pink ponies and cotton candy clouds. I envy her.

Tomorrow night is my opening at Café Carlyle, one of the most prestigious cabaret rooms in New York City. Past performers who have trod the boards are Bobby Short and Eartha Kitt. Many a Broadway performer have called this place home from time to time. Woody Allen plays with his band every Monday night.

To prepare for the three-week run, I was in rehearsal all of last week, each session lasting four to five hours. There is a new script written by Diana Basmajian and lots of new songs, many of them arranged by my musical director, Larry Yurman. Direction is by Dan Kutner. Because of all the new material, I started studying in earnest a week before rehearsals began, however and whenever I could.

There are plenty of standards (now I know what it’s like to be in Richard Poon’s world) written by the Gershwins, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin; musical theater by Kander and Ebb, Lerner and Loewe; a bit of Rupert Holmes (famous for “The Piña Colada Song”) thrown in as well; and for good measure, a snippet of Mike Hanopol, Louie Ocampo and George Canseco. Of course there will be Pinoy songs in my set! I’m proud of our songwriters and the music they make.

All our rehearsals were at the Ripley-Grier Rehearsal Studios on 8th Avenue, near the Fashion District, a few blocks from Macy’s, itself a New York City institution. Ripley-Grier is a pretty cool place—if you hang out in the hallways, you’ll see singers, actors and dancers everywhere … someone’s rushing to an audition, someone else is about to rehearse … and yet another is about to attend a class in martial arts, dance, voice or tai chi. The labyrinthine layout is such that a large map is displayed near the reception desk to help you find your way. And yes, I have absolutely needed it.

Each studio has a piano, a bunch of music stands, a foldable table, chairs and a CD player. For our purposes, we’ve not needed the CD player.

Our first rehearsal date was on a Monday, Memorial Day. Much of the city was actually active, thanks to tourists from just about everywhere. However, the rehearsal studio was really quiet. Not every studio was occupied. On other days, a soprano’s high notes, taps from a tap dancer’s shoes, or strains from a tenor’s voice session would bleed through the walls.

We started work on just the music for the first part of that Monday, and then the script after that. Thanks to our having worked together last year on my first Carlyle outing, Diana, Larry, Dan and I had a nice shorthand going that made communication really easy.

I had also done a bulk of memorization homework prior to my arrival in the city (again, I am paranoid). Majority of the songs on the list, I have never performed before.

Amidst the rehearsals, we found time to fit a couple of custom-made dresses by Robin Tomas. At home, he’s known as the son of actress Tessie Tomas; here in New York, he’s popular for his “flew off the shelves” T-shirt for Bloomingdale’s. The designs he created for me are sexy, comfortable, and allow room for singing. I can’t wait to put it on tomorrow night!

For much of the week, it’s been just me, Dan and Larry cloistered in the rehearsal room. But for the last two days, we invited some friends to attend our final run-through. That got me very excited. It was the first time we unleashed our little creation to a larger audience, an opportunity to get a feel for what a performance would be like. It was incredibly informative, and the feedback we got was positive. With each go at the whole program, we’d tweak, add finesse and tweak some more.

I have a feeling the tweaking won’t stop for another couple of days.

My mom watched the final rehearsal, with a few of my best friends. Since the script does playfully rib her a bit, I wondered how she would respond. Thankfully, she enjoyed herself, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

So, it’s almost 1 a.m. here. I have a final sound-check at noon, so I’d better get some sleep. I’ll have to bid goodnight to Rob now, and give my little one a final kiss.

My script will probably run itself in my head—no teleprompter, no idiot board. It’ll just be me and three musicians making music. Three weeks’ worth of music. Oh, this’ll be good.

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Holy crap, it’s opening night tomorrow!