Workshop (32) - Act One Run

Today we ran all of Act One and the beginning section of Act Two...

• Pg 1 - 3:   Prologue went well. We all remembered the movement. The edited track worked fine. No real worries with this number - just need to be cautious of timing at the end when we put the boat up.
• Pg 7 - 11:   Tom wasn't in today so they didn't get to do this song and scene, but I think the track was okay. 
• Pg 12 - 19:   I struggled to sing "Worst Pies in London" today as I have a really bad throat, but I now know exactly what I am going to do during this song. The track for this song works perfectly. The dialogue afterwards went quite well. We have changed our blocking to help with the following song "my friends". Instead of me dragging Rob up the stairs to give him the razors on the stage, I now run up and bring them down to him so that we are positioned on the floor in the centre up the table. This gives us a lot more space.
• Pg 19 - 21:   This track was perfect for Rob. Ages ago, we had come up with a little bit of movement for this number - however we weren't really sure on it as we didn't want to have a full ensemble number so soon. As to not take the attention away from Rob, I remained at the table watching him throughout, whilst the others all held a razor and did movement in a semi-circle behind our table. This worked quite well as it was not too distracting or over-the-top. We much preferred this to the movement we created a while back.
• Pg 22 - 27:   We skipped these pages as we didn't have Tom, Alice or Taylor in today. However, I am confident that the tracks for these pages are fine.
• Pg 28 - 36:   The dialogue and song here were fine. We have done this section a lot so were quite happy with it. 
• Pg 36 - 45:   Unfortunately, I couldn't find a track for "the contest" so we are going to record our music teacher playing it on piano so we can have a backing track. The rest of the dialogue and the actual song itself here are fine. However, we need to get two of our friends to be plants for us to sit in the chairs and be shaved during the song. 
• Pg 51 - 58:   The track for "wait" was fine, but it took us a little while to work out when the track should be played in relation to the dialogue. Lewis stood in as Anthony for us in this lesson, and the dialogue all went quite well. I think Rob and I got our intentions right during this section. The split-screen in this scene actually worked really well today. If we can't get a wig for James to wear, then we will cut the split screen - I will just lead him off to get a pie and then we shall run back on as he exclaims how he needs to see Pirelli.
• Pg 59 - 65:   This section went really well. Both Ollie and Lewis know this section s owell as they have done it many times. The track worked really well once we worked out what part of the dialogue the track started under. 
• Pg 70 - 77:   I think the dialogue all went pretty smoothly for this section. Our characterisation was all a lot better than what is has been. On page 73 we cut Mrs Lovett's lines as they aren't necessary, therefore I walk Toby off on the line "come on in to my lovely back parlour" to avoid over-using split screens - this also means that James isn't left on stage for the whole of "Pretty Women". This song went really well today, although it did take ages to work out where the music should come on. However, once we had worked this out, it all went really well. 
• Pg 78 - 90:   The song "Epiphany" went really well - everyone remembered their movement and our desired atmosphere was created. "A Little Priest" didn't go so well... The track was the best I could do, but it doesn't build enough where we would like it to, therefore Rob and I got a bit lost in places. However, this should be okay once Rob and I have sat down with the track and gone through it a few times together. We also need to practice waltzing as it was really messy and didn't really work. We shall definitely get our dancing shoes on this week!
• Pg 92 - 106:   "God That's Good" was the beginning of Act Two, but it didn't go too well today. James felt a bit uncomfortable with the track as it was in a different key to his "Pirelli's miracle elixir" but this is because the only version there is of this track is the show version, which is in a different key to "Pirelli's miracle elixir" anyway. Due to James feeling uncomfortable and a lack of time to put things straight, we have decided to cut this number. We didn't think this number was necessary to our version anyway, as the idea of Lovett's pieshop flourishing is portrayed in "A Little Priest" and through our movement in "Johanna".
• Pg 107 -112:   Although Tom, Taylor and Alice weren't in, we ran "Johanna" as to ensure the track was fine (which it was) and that everyone remembered their movement / timing of their noises (which we did). This number is not an issue at all, but we need to spend a little bit of time just slotting in Taylor, Alice and also one of our plants to get their throat slit during this song.

Everything didn't go too badly, baring in mind, this was the first time we had done the show in order and used the new backing tracks. As we have cut a lot of the show (as it is only a workshop performance) we will not need an interval. What we have left to do for this first half though is to make a script with all the song cues in, put Alice, Taylor and our plants into the numbers and scenes they have not been put in yet, and for everyone to learn their lines.