Second Draw Down

Bye Bye Birdie, the musical about the hottest musician, Conrad Birdie (Elvis knock-off) , of the time (which is imaginary 1950’s America) going into the army. It’s not really about him going to the army as much about the P.R stunt before he goes. The stunt? Allow Conrad to kiss a girl chosen at random from millions of fans on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Let’s break it down: So, there’s Conrad’s manager Albert Peterson who works for music corp. Almaelou… (as in ALbert, MAE (his mum) and LOU (dead dog) took me some time to get this) and when he first finds out about Conrad going into the army he is also hit by the news that his Spanish secretary Rose Alvarez is also leaving him both professionally and personally. She however has a plan to send Conrad off with a bang only if Albert agrees to leave the music business, go back to college and become an English Teacher. The stunt of course is to get Conrad to kiss a fan and at the same time release the record One Last Kiss. Albert must tell his mother that he is closing the corp. Mae Peterson ladles guilt on him like bolognaise on spaghetti as he tries to explain to her that he is closing Almaelou and Albert doesn’t have the balls to tell her so like a momma’s boy would he puts it off until later in the show.

A girl is chosen at random… name from a box. The girl chosen: Kim MacAfee, she belongs to the fan club and is only fourteen and since Conrad was drafted for the army he must of been at least eighteen which by my calculations makes this kiss slightly illegal. Anyway, the same day she is chosen is the same day she gets pinned to Hugo Peabody *gasp* who is her “steady”. Them getting together sends all the boys and girls of her hometown Sweet Apple into a frenzy resulting in blocked telephone lines from the number of phone calls. Kim decides she must leave being a child and must become an adult which means leaving the fan club. When the news reaches that Conrad is coming to kiss her though she seems to change her mind with girly squeals (etc..) 

As Conrad prepares to leave New York for Sweet Apple the reporters catch him at the train station where they find out that he is a Healthy Normal American Boy (hahahaha). When they reach their destination they (Conrad, Albert and Rose) are greeted by the people of Sweet Apple as well as the local teen-girls who seem to follow him everywhere. Ursula Merkle, Kim’s bestie and most hyper teen-girl, introduces Kim to Conrad and the rest of the people of Sweet Apple at the train station. This is followed by the mayor’s speech at the town hall in which Ursula just can’t control herself which leads to an improptu song by Conrad about being Honestly Sincere.

While in Sweet Apple Albert, Rose and Conrad stay with Kim’s family the MacAfees which comprises her father Harry, her mother Doris and her little brother Randolph. There’s a bit where all the girls and a couple of adults watch Conrad eat breakfast (’cos he’s just that exciting). Harry is angry that Conrad is such a pain- funny monologue. Then he finds out he is going to be on the Ed Sullivan show along with the rest of the family- it’s only like his dream come true.

Meanwhile Mae makes an entrance at Sweet Apple after recieving the letter from her son that states that the company is going to be dissovled. Rose is angry that Albert is such a momma’s boy that she leaves him after… letting Hugo on the Ed Sullivan show to hit Conrad just as he is about to kiss Kim. *gasp* Angus’s are thrown left, right and centre.

End of Act 1

Rosie packs up and leaves and Kim decides to go too ’cos she is angry that Hugo hit Conrad. But of course she is too young being only fourteen and all. Rose goes off to Maude’s (Dragula hahahaha) Roadside Retreat and has her Spanish Rose coming out party. Albert tries to call and get her back but his Baby Talk to Me act just isn’t good enough.

MEANWHILE: All the teens (mainly the girls because by this point all the boys have had a costume change to become men) have gone missing. To the ice house with Kim and Conrad because they have A Lot Of Livin’ To Do. Harry and Doris get angry at Kids, later on so do the other pyjama-clad adults with young Randolph performing a solo. Mr Peterson accidentlly releases the information that they are at the ice house (which I think is code for something else) and all the parents go spazzy. Luckily Mr MacAfee goes to the ice house with policemen to arrest Conrad… I don’t know what for.

The next day: He is bailed out by Mr Peterson who sends him and Mae on a train back to New York. Mae finally realises that Rose will become her daughter-in-law, sadly. Parents get angry that Conrad isn’t in jail but this seems to be forgotten once they find out that Hugo proposed to Kim and she accepted… small town folk. The train then leaves and Rose arrives late just like Albert had planned and now everything is Rosie ‘cos they are going to Pumkin Falls where he has a teaching job and they will get married.

The End. Thanks for reading everything. I know it was really long. Sorry.

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That’s right, six months of rehearsals, music, acting, set design and construction have all come to the this: OPENING NIGHT!!! Dun dara dun!!! This was last week Wednesday. We had five shows:

Wednesday night: Opening night, even with all of our practices there were a few things that weren’t all there but didn’t take away from the great performances.

Thursday night: I screwed up one of my lines, the very first one during Healthy Normal American Boy. And dropped my shoe backstage which made a very loud bang sound.

Friday night: Rebecca Taylor who plays Mae was really sick, cramps, throwing up all over the place, she could barely walk. Mr Bently asked me to the part so I did with a script in my hand. Luckily I had watched her do her scenes heaps of times so I knew what was going on. I got heaps of praise for it. Whoop whoop. The highest concentration of praise I think ever in my life even though it wasn’t just me who helped the show go on it was a group effort.

Saturday afternoon: Average performance, everyone felt like they could act out because there are hardly anyone at a matinee and they were right but people who went still thought it was good. Not many of the actors liked the matinee.

Saturday night: Best performance with the best crowd.

Cast after party was also very very fun. Wish it lasted longer. Very sad that this is over. It was heaps of fun. I encourage you to join productions, wooop wooop.