It’s about starting over . com

The title of this post refers to Breakthrough!

During the 1975 Broadway production of Chicago, the star, Gwen Verdon (Bob Fosse’s wife) accidentally inhaled a feather from one of the costumes. She became so ill that she had to stop working for a month or so. Liza Minnelli offered to fill in for her until she was ready to come back.

The directors, and especially Bob Fosse, were concerned that the public might get used to Liza Minnelli’s performance, and that Gwen’s return might end up being somewhat of a letdown. To prevent that from happening, Liza suggested that there be no publicity about her appearance. Instead, they would just announce that she would be replacing Gwen at each performance.

The story, as recounted by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the producers of Chicago, the movie) on the “Razzle Dazzle Edition” DVD, has it that Sammy Davis Jr. called Liza to tell her not to do it. He said that that’s what they have understudies for. “A star does not fill in for a star”, he said. Liza refused to listen to him saying that the writers of the show were her family and she wanted to help out.

Usually, the cast of any given production have months to learn and rehearse their parts. In a musical, it’s even more complicated because the cast will act, sing and dance (thus the term triple threat) throughout those months. Liza had five days (5!) to learn not only a part, but the lead part of Roxie Hart! She did it, and she did it well, lifting the musical upward and cementing its success. Sammy Davis Jr. called her once again, this time to tell her that she was right, he had been wrong, and that it was probably one of the best things she had ever done.

So Liza, I know you’re a pro, but I’m thinking that if you can do that in five days, then I should be able to learn and develop two new songs well enough to get and A on my vocal finals in three weeks!

And here’s a tidbit of inspirational information for all of us: Gwen Verdon, one of the greatest Hollywood dancers of all time was afflicted with rickets as a child. It “…left her legs so badly misshapen she was called “Gimpy” by other children and spent her early years in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces.” (source: Wikipedia, Gwen Verdon, early life and career)

My second year at Rimon is nearing a close. This coming week is the last week of classes, and the rest of the month of June will be spent either studying for or taking final exams. Among those exams is my year-end vocal test. My teacher this year is excellent in every way–in addition to her technical excellence and superior understanding of the body is her superlative support of her students’ efforts and desires. She always seems to try just a little bit more than I do, which is both rare and wonderful.

The test requirements are pretty straight forward: prepare four songs, two from any of a list of musicals, and two jazz standards. This is a tough order for me because neither of these areas are within my natural leanings. As a matter of fact, I’ve always made an effort to keep away from both.

Okay, so, throughout the year, we exercise and train our bodies and voices, and work on the four songs (we choose which ones, along with the help of our voice teachers). I chose, then switched, then switched again, then settled. But a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I felt uncomfortable about this test, which will be on the 26th of June. This bad feeling went beyond nervousness or insecurity, and it took me a while, but after a lot of thought, I realized that I wasn’t happy with two of my choices (one standard and one musical) and the way I sang them. So I sat down and listened to the standards again and again, and found one that is much simpler and that I thought I could work with. As for the musical, I had heard someone else sing something that grabbed me a couple of weeks ago–it seemed perfect for me, and for some reason, I knew I had to sing it (it’s When You’re Good to Mama from Chicago).

On Saturday night, I spoke with my voice teacher. She agreed about the standard, but not about the musical. She felt the song was way too big for me, and completely over my head. She said it requires a “big” voice, and that even if we had a full year to work on it, I wouldn’t be able to perform it well enough to get a decent grade on the exam. I felt so strongly about it that I kept at her until I convinced her to let me sing it at my next lesson (on Wednesday, yesterday), but I had to promise her that if she still felt that it was over my head, I would give the idea up and stick with the one we had worked on all year (Who’s That Woman from Follies). I had five days to get it right and I thought, well, the kids of American Idol have two weeks to get one or two songs perfect and memorized before performing live–if they can do it, so can I. I took the attitude that I was preparing for the audition of my life, and began work.

Now here is where you might think I would say that it was hard, but because I liked the song so much, and the character is so “me,” that it simply was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done! I couldn’t work on it every minute because I have classes all day on both Sunday and Monday, but you can bet it filled every spare moment, including those spent driving from anywhere to anywhere!

Well, to make this story a bit shorter, I sang it for her yesterday. Just so that you all can understand how supportive this woman is, knowing exactly what the demands of the song are, she gave me a very special warm-up that worked specifically on those areas (a lesser teacher might have done the opposite so that she could end up being right!). By the time I sang the song, I was fully warmed up and completely at ease. She loved it, said I should do it for the test, and will spend the next three weeks coaching me. She was thoroughly surprised at my new vocal ability, and told me to erase everything she had said about me not having the ability–”…you came to me with such a small, delicate voice!” she said. It’s very much to her credit that things have changed.

I can’t wait to do the test! Hopefully, the panel of examiners will be as impressed as she was!

Oh, and please wish me luck–I’ll only be performing two of the four songs, and they’ll be chosen by the panel: one musical and one standard. Send up prayers that the musical they choose will be Mama!

After note: A Parallel and Inspirational Story