As of tonight, we are a month away from the opening of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Tonight we had our first stumble-through of Act 2. Overall, I was really impressed with where things were. About 75% of the act has been set in stone, with a few scenes never staged, and a few dance numbers that haven't been choreographed yet.
The singing was really solid. A couple of songs were rough (there's one choral section that is really tough and wasn't quite right tonight), but for the most part I think the singing is pretty much done other than finesse.
One of the challenges for the actors is to match the pace of their dialogue to some of the underscoring. Certain sections have to be sped up or slowed down in order to line up with expected moments in the music. Since we're performing with tracks, there's really nothing I can do in the moment, so it's up to the actors to become familiar with those moments.
The run took about an hour and a half, which is longer than the act, but only by about 50%. When all is said and done, the act should run a little less than an hour.
At the end of this week, we will finally get access to the stage. At that point, things will really move along. It's tough to visualize how set pieces will move and where actors will enter when our rehearsal space is smaller than the stage!
Since we won't have set for a little while longer, I'm a little concerned with the scene changes. The choreographer plans to have them pretty carefully plotted (her husband has designed the set), but they'll take practice to get them in the music. Many of the scene changes flow directly out of the end of the scene, or into the next scene with no breaks, so they have to be precise.
All that to say, the actors are doing a great job, and the show is really coming along. We're not totally done yet, though. In the next few weeks, this show is going to completely transform as the final pieces fall into place and I'm excited to see it!