Rehearsal #8: Opening Numbers

When doing improvised musicals at Un-Scripted, we often decide in advance that we're going to start the show with an opening number. We don't plan out the opening number, we just know we're going to do it and we develop some conventions around how we're going to do it. Someone will come out along and establish the chorus. Everyone will come out behind them in formation and repeat the chorus. The chorus setter will step back into the formation and someone else will step forward to do a verse. Then the chorus setter will return to center to repeat the chorus. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. With maybe a few surprises thrown in.

But we don't know the tune, the words, the subject matter. We just have a framework to hang that first song off of. It gets things started with a lot of energy and it gets everyone in the cast on stage.

Once the song is over, someone, possibly the chorus setter, goes backstage and writes the chorus down on a white board. Then, hopefully, at the end of the show, the closing song reprises the opening chorus. It's really quite amazing.

We don't do this for every musical, for instance Theater The Musical did not feature an opening number. But we do think we will start this show off this way.

So that's what we practiced on Wednesday night.

Again we had David to accompany us, and Mandy ran us through some interesting warm up exercises to try and break us out of traditional melodic patterns (1-3-5). We also practiced sliding around the scale, which is something voice teachers will tell you never to do but is something they do a lot in Bollywood. We also practiced bending notes and ornamenting them in "Bollywoodesque" ways.

The opening numbers themselves went quite well. We relearned some lessons from The Great Puppet Musical:

It's hard for a puppet to lead a dance move.
You can hold the puppets up in the air if they're in the back and can't be seen.
Performers can stand in front of Puppeteers.
Remember to keep looking at your puppet while you're singing (don't sing out Louise).

And many more.

We also did two completely different opening numbers where both choruses started with the words "You can do it". They were so different in fact, we didn't immediately notice the choruses had almost the same words.