February 7, 2017
This morning’s downpour cannot dampen the anticipation of today’s wandelprobe; the day Paramount’s largest orchestra of the season rehearses for the first time with the cast of Sweeney Todd! I may be caffeinated, but there is nothing artificially stimulated about the excitement for this event bringing together our company’s voices (among the finest singers Paramount has ever presented), and the full complement of A-list musicians performing what is perhaps the greatest score of the world’s most influential contemporary musical theatre composer, the incomparable, Stephen Sondheim. And that’s saying something as Mr. Sondheim has received an Oscar, 8 Tony Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), 8 Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
To finally hear Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd live from Paramount’s stage filling our theatre is an experience all of us here will never forget. It is so incredible to me that we have our first public performance, our first preview, at tomorrow’s matinee. It all seems to be going too fast! But this afternoon, the sound team led by Adam Rosenthal is dedicated to excellence in balancing and mixing the 25 singers’ microphones with the orchestra’s 19 musicians under the baton of conductor Tom Vendafreddo. We have 8 more hours of rehearsal during this week before Opening Night this Saturday. The audience in attendance during previews will play their part in the show’s development and teach us ever so much, as if they are a character in the play themselves, before we open for the press.
Be here if you can, dear reader, for this production is a rare occasion you don’t want to miss! It is all right here for you!
Love & thanks,
Jim
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