Finian's Rainbow
I think this was the the first South Oz amateur theatre production that I did. Only asked as a last resort because every other clarinet/saxophone/accordion player in SA had been asked to play before me.
- Playing clarinet next to a guy I had never met by whom I was totally intimidated as he was really good and confident and I was just a teensy bit scared of him. LATER EDIT: Strangly enough, 10 years later, we met up again in another show and we are good friends and play in a lot of stuff together which is awesome. :)
- I had the wonderful experience of running for the train at 10.55pm every evening after that show in ELIZABETH! Talk about taking my life into my own hands!
- I actually sang along to one of the songs because I couldn't play it well enough!
- I was listed as Tom Bastians in the programme. The worst spelling of my name ever! :)
- My bass clarinet playing was a disaster of unharmonious proportions! Consisted of 'note, squeak, note, squeak, note, squeak....'
- The review of this show said "Who Will Buy should have been entitled 'Who Will Sing in Tune?" Funniest comment ever, John Wells!
- The cast and crew had gone to pains to try and create the atmosphere of an orphanage by having the kids scrubbing the walls of the theatre before the show started and people running around screaming at kids to work harder etc. Pity we, the orchestra, decided we were going to have a jam session right then to a 12 bar blues to accompany their hard work!
- Oh and please, I think I want to do that 'Consider Yourself reprise' just one more time!!!!!
CHANGED TITLES: I Think I'd Better Drink It All Again, Go Diddle Yourself, Pick a Nostril or Two, Poo Glorious Poo, I'd Do Anyone, As Long as he Kneads Me....
The Witches of Eastwick
- One word 'Sooooooome-thing....' - oh I have never laughed so hard! That was so bad. Losing all four reed players at once! Steve, you'll be the death of me!
- The thunder, MD, the thunder! MD accidently leaned on the sound effects button while reaching for something else during a poignant scene!
- MD sitting down thinking he had heaps of time, only to hear the cue line for the next song while he's off daydreaming!
- The recording was done on the evening that a saxophone broke halfway through the show, we had 4 ring-ins (including a flute player who was actually an actor who had to leave halfway through to do his scene on stage!), we all got the giggles and I squeaked five times on clarinet!
CHANGED TITLES: Loose Bowels, I Wish I'm Gay, Eastwick Blows,Waiting For The Mucus To Begin, Worms Worms Worms....
Scrooge
I think by far the most hilarious show I have ever done (and completely unintentionally funny)
- One night when we had a replacement Keyboard 2 player, the keyboard just randomly transposed itself a fourth out but poor subsitute had no idea how to fix it. So bad.
- 2nd keyboard player didn't show up to a show so the MD had to play keyboard and miss the wedding he was supposed to go to! Funnily enough, this matinee was the best show of the season! Ironic.
- The Minister's Cat - the key changed every four bars - pity the orchestra didn't notice that it did.
- Show went so badly sometimes that I got drunk in between the matinee and evening show - 3 pints in 40 minutes! The evening show was fucking hilarious!
- Di and the harpsichord! Unfortunately the first keyboard player forgot to change the sound on her keyboard from the previous song and during a poignant ballad about a dying child, had the chirpy rasp of a harpsichord sound!
- Every evening the set people snuck an item into the lead actor's bedside drawer on stage so that he would see something different every night. This included two barbie dolls having sex and a picture of the director's head superimposed on one of those 'fat lady' calender pictures - he became so worried about what was going to be next that he was too scared to open the drawer.
- The lead actor forgot the words to one song and then when he came back in later, he was singing the wrong verse which was in a different key. Panic moment!
- The best part of the reviews was the bit that went something like 'The singers struggled to sing in tune but it didn't matter because the competent orchestra drowned them out anyway'. He he.
- I dropped a bass clarinet down the stairs at the Shedley just before the final show! It consisted of me screaming for someone to catch it at the bottom of the stairs and a fellow orchestra member thumping the keys back in to shape with a hammer! I cried! It wasn't even mine - and snuck back secretly! Only the start of the disaster that is my bass clarinet playing career! At least I could blame the squeaks on the 'damaged instrument'.
- Child actors. Need I say more.
