Blithe (ha!) Spirit opens

This is the true opening night for Blithe Spirit at the Geauga Lyric Theater Guild.

I’m bored already.

Usually this doesn’t set in until the sixth or seventh performance of a show, but I’m ready to pack it in with this play and move on to the next one. We had a limited-audience dress rehearsal last night and I was ready to leave after the first act. There was no excitement and no butterflies…just sheer drudgery.

My son and our exchange student went to the show last night. Their reaction: “It was good, but it was soooooo long…I think my butt’s dead.” “Do you want to go see it again?” I asked. “NO!” was the simultaneous reaction. Reaction from fellow actors who came to the performance: “My, there are a lot of lines, aren’t there?” Glowing reviews, absolutely glowing.

I was bored backstage, too, so I started counting muffed lines. I started chuckling the fourth time the male lead repeated the same line (which is only actually supposed to be said once.) Of course, they made some cuts to other dialogue, so it worked out. In fairness, though, they got a pretty high percentage of the lines right.

The play runs weekends through the end of the month and you can bet I’ll be marking off the days with a glow-in-the-dark, neon glitter highlighter.

Tonight at least promises to be somewhat interesting. Apparently the local chamber of commerce buys all the tickets to the performance, liquors up the attendees and sends them to the thee-ate-er for a night of cultural fundraising. Note to self: play up the drinking humor…drunk audiences love that.

Another note to self: Read the play before auditioning and don’t let sympathy for family members persuade you to accept a part you don’t want.