What show would you like to do?

If you had the skill, the time, the inclination, the resources, and the venue... in short, if all the stars aligned, what show would you like to act in, in what role (male or female; remember, all the stars are aligned)? Is it a different show from what you would direct if everything lined up?

When terping, the choices you can make are different. For example, even though we've asked and been turned down by CVHS, Elton John's Aida would be amazing! With three terps, my male co-terp could be Adam Pascal (Radames), I could be Heather Headley (Aida), and my female co-terp could be Sherie Rene Scott (Amneris). Easy. So much fun! And Elton! Unfortunately for us, CVHS intentionally chooses shows with a massive cast and lots of leads and named characters.

My female co-terp and I also had a long FB chat on Sweeney Todd. Which, in a post-Tim-Burton-version world, when she called Mrs Lovitt right off the bat, she was really calling dibs on Helena Bonham Carter. Because, after all, who wouldn't love to sing Bellatrix? Shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd, am I right? But if she's Helena Bonham Carter, and the default assumption is that of course our male co-terp would get Johnny Depp, I *still* win, big time! Because if I get all the bit parts, that means I get Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Sasha Baron Cohen! Alan Rickman, y'all! Win upon win upon win. Always.

And with my particular penchant for tech theater, here's a special feature from the movie about making blood for film<sup>1 2  

1</sup> And just how crazy-much you need for effects, compared to the mere pints an actual human has flowing at a given moment.
² If you're squeamish about blood, please realize that movie blood is primarily high-fructose corn syrup.

At Toby's, the stage is in the round, which is amazing for closeness to the stage, as the worst seat in the house is a whopping 30' from the stage, and those in the front need to be cautioned to keep their toes tucked in lest they become part of the action. But it makes eliminating corpses interesting. What they did was create a platform filling half the floor at the center of the stage. When Pierelli died, his actor, the amazing Larry Munsey, tumbled thru a trapdoor and spent the balance of Act 1 inside the platform, on a camping mattress, with his ipod. As for the victims during "God, That's Good", there are four aisles for the stage. With Sweeney's barber chair installed in the middle of the platform, a body sling was ziplined from the balcony above one aisle down to Sweeney's chair, where he strapped in a victim and, with a tip of the chair, sent him whizzing down and out the opposite aisle. It was a wonder of tech theater. And kind of creepy. But that's Grand Guignol for you.

But my male co-terp doesn't want to do Sweeney Todd. He's not a Sondheim fan. And I can see how being Johnny Depp would have less appeal than being Alan Rickman³. Instead, his preference is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat⁴, in which he actually played⁵ Joseph in a local-to-him production. Or he would like Jekyll and Hyde, which I actually have not yet seen.

³ Alan Rickman!
⁴Joseph is Big Frog's preference, too. Big Frog would be Reuben, who sings the Country song "One More Angel in Heaven".
⁵ Acted, not terped.

Once Upon a Mattress might be fun too. Or Guys and Dolls. Or Lion King⁶. Or Billy Elliot... and now we're back on an Elton kick⁷, there's always Aida...

⁶ Costuming would be a bigger challenge there than terping, although CVHS has a custom couturier who makes up their costumes.
⁷ Or were we never off one?