I may have spent eight exhausting (exhilarating) hours running around State Solo & Ensemble, but that wasn’t nearly as draining or difficult as the three hours I spent that evening with Marshall watching the closing night performance of Carthage’s “Sunday in the Park with George” as nothing more than an audience member! It’s not that it wasn’t a marvelous performance (even better than the opening night performance which Kathy and I so thoroughly enjoyed) but it was a white-knuckled worry for me from start to finish. That’s because Dan Ermel, a voice student of mine and “George” in the show, was feeling poorly – and all but lost his voice midway through Friday night’s performance. So there I was, sitting in the audience Saturday night, absolutely beside myself with worry, wanting so much for this run of performances to end well for him but utterly helpless to do anything about it (except pray.) What quadrupled my worry is that this role is incredibly long and complicated, and the kind of role that taxes a tenor to their limit even when they’re feeling fine. The thought of Dan facing this role while feeling so far below his best put a knot in my stomach the size of a basketball.
I am so delighted to say that Dan more than survived the night. He had to make his way carefully and cautiously- had to sing certain phrases very differently than he had before- and had to husband his resources in order to make it to the finish line. He managed to do that, and somehow managed to remain so profoundly in character even as he walked his vocal tightrope. Ultimately I was even prouder of Dan last night than I was on opening night when everything went just about as perfectly for him as they could have. Because as sweet as it is to succeed when in that state of flow when all is well, it’s even sweeter to sing well when it’s not. That‘s when you demonstrate just what kind of a singer you are and how much you really know about your voice and how it works. Last night, Dan showed me – and all of us in the audience – what he’s made of.
(It also brought back tough memories of another courageous performance on that same stage many years ago. It was another closing performance- this time of “Fiddler on the Roof”- and our Tevye, Brian Jones, walked into that last performance with almost no voice at all. For that performance I was playing keyboard in the orchestra, but I felt almost as helpless to help Brian as I did sitting in the audience last night. But Brian found a way to survive what I’m sure felt like the longest two and a half hours of his life.)
Anyway, I walked out of last night’s performance feeling tremendously happy not only for Dan – but also for everyone on that stage who gave so much of themselves in order to make this tremendously challenging show such an amazing success. Truth be told, the show itself is far from perfect ( a significantly flawed masterpiece – if that’s not a contradiction in terms – as so many Sondheim shows are) but that makes what this cast accomplished in it all the more impressive. And what Dan accomplished last night is something I will never forget for as long as I live.
pictured above: Dan and I after his closing night performance- both of us immensely relieved.