My West Side Story - Part 1

The day was Wednesday November 7, 2007, the day before Opening Night of "West Side Story Suite" with the National Ballet of Canada. The dancers have been preparing this ballet for months, and were very ready to bring it to an audience. And despite this being only my eighth day of rehearsal, I was ready too, mostly because I sing for a total of about four minutes in the show. Remember when I said this was the easiest gig I've ever had?

I arrived at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (that’ll be the last time I use its full name... jeeesh) at about 11am for the beginning of rehearsal. Since the show is a mixed program made up of three short 1-act ballets, with "West Side" being Act 3, I had the chance to watch the first two ballets. Both were quite enjoyable, and considering they were all choreographed by the late Jerome Robbins, surprisingly different from one another and from West Side Story. “Glass Pieces” is a modern piece set to the minimalist music of Phillip Glass. The dancers wear bright, colourful one piece spandex suits, and move about the stage swiftly in pleasing geometric patterns and formations. It was really cool. The second act is called “In The Night” and is a romantic period piece, set to four Chopin Nocturnes, played on solo piano. In each of the first three scenes, a couple dances a pas-de-deux, and in the fourth scene, the three couples' stories surprisingly all come together. It was very beautiful. And, in an interesting coincidence, the last Nocturne in this ballet is the same nocturne featured in the musical Tristan I just finished doing at Shaw. It was a real treat to hear this beautiful piece of music in its entirety, and it brought back some warm memories of this past summer.

Then, it was our turn to put "West Side" together for the first time in the Opera House. I want to share my thoughts with you all, because it was such a new and fantastic experience. Try to picture me, sitting there in the pit of the brand new state-of-the-art Opera House in Toronto, amongst the 63-piece orchestra (YES, 63 pieces!), with a ballet happening three feet above my head. The pit is enormous, much larger than the pits I’ve ever seen, and it’s surprisingly almost completely open to the auditorium. Only the vey back of the pit is covered, and that's where we five singers were situated, dead centre. From our vantage point, not only could we see the conductor perfectly, who was on a raised platform, but we could also see about 1000 seats in the house. Yikes. I got a bit giddy, knowing that soon those seats would have bums in them, and the people that own those bums will be able to see us, too!

The sound department had set up for us a pseudo-studio (say that five times fast), complete with headphones, music stands, and plexi-glass walls from the floor to the roof (the underside of the stage). Hey, wasn’t that a Phil Collins song from the 80’s? Pss-pss-pss-pseudo-studio-ooooo... but I digress.

Next we did a sound check of the mics and monitors, taking care to make sure we can hear ourselves singing over the orchestra. Then, we started. I could barely contain myself as the orchestra tore into the Prologue. Bernstein's music is so fantastic, and here I was, right in the middle of this driving enormous orchestra, thinking 'They're actually paying me to sit here and listen to this!'. A couple minutes later however, I freak out, remembering, 'oh shit, now I have to sing!'. My solo is called “Something’s Coming” and as I'm singing it, I can hear the footsteps of our 'Tony' dancing above my head. Thankfully it goes well, and there are no sound difficulties. I have a good mix coming through my headphones, and am comfortable.

Then I sit back and relax for nearly 20 minutes and enjoy the music. “The Dance at the Gym” is unbelievable. To my immediate right is the percussion section, where four guys are banging away, laying down that infectious Mambo rhythm. I think about how my Dad would be salivating and jumping up and down right now if he were sitting with me. It is mind-blowing watching them switch between vibraphone to xylophone, from wood blocks to cowbells, from bongos to timbales, from tambourine to timpani with incredible efficiency and precision. David Briskin, the conductor and musical director is great fun to watch, too. He is a real artist, and you can see the passion he has for the music on his face as he leads the musicians through the numerous changes of keys, time signatures and feel. Later, in “Cool”, another smile comes across my face as the lead trumpet player goes crazy, blowing some impressively strong high notes. In “America”, the four female pit singers - Melissa, Loiuse, Robyn, and Gabi - sing the choruses in 3-part harmony, to fill out the singing from the dancers on-stage. Soon after, Melissa sings “Somewhere”, and then the five of us join the full company singing the Finale, a reprise of “Somewhere”. The whole thing goes well, and we all are excited and confident for tomorrow’s Opening Night Performance. I thank my lucky stars as I head home for a good night's sleep. Life is good.

Part 2 of My West Side Story is coming soon, where I'll share with you just how surprising things can get on Opening Night!