Well hello there, everyone, and welcome to this week’s blog. My name is Ellie and I’ll be guiding you through what we’ve been up to this week during rehearsals for our production of ‘Urinetown’. This is my third show with SMP and I’m lucky enough to be playing the part of Hope Cladwell. Urinetown is such a great musical – it’s clever, it’s funny and the music is incredible – and Hope is such a fun part to play. She goes on such a journey during the show and I can honestly say I’ve never played a part quite like it!
I’m enjoying rehearsals for this show so much – there is always a great atmosphere and it is such a treat to work with so many lovely, talented people. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that we’ve got such a dedicated and creative production team to guide us through the process. Having said that, a few poor, unsuspecting members of the cast have found themselves victim to our director Warren’s evil, but ingenious, method of getting us to learn some of the trickier lyrics in the show by holding dear personal possessions ransom.
Monday’s rehearsal saw the lovely Kathryn’s turn to take the test in order to save her cuddly piggy and, thank goodness, she passed with flying colours. Speaking of flying, our wonderful Little Sally – played by beautiful newbie Jenny – saw herself being thrown repeatedly into the air as our choreographer extraordinaire Jo B set the opening number of Act 2, ‘What Is Urinetown?, a brilliantly upbeat number involving the whole cast. Thankfully Jenny was safely caught every time and the number is looking really fantastic. We also got treats – yay! – from Warren as, in a highly unusual turn of events, he himself has fallen victim to a mystery black mailer who has kidnapped a rather important toy bunny from the props department and has demanded treats for the whole cast in order for it to be returned. According to Warren’s cherub wife Jo, he has been tearing his hair out trying to identify the culprit, especially as two more ransom notes arrived through the post this week….
After all that leaping, throwing, catching, blackmailing and eating on Monday, Wednesday saw us recapping all the songs we have learnt so far from the show with our excellent MD Mikey B. I personally was blown away by how good everything sounds, and I cannot wait to hear it by the time show week rolls around in June! So make sure you get your tickets, because this is a show you absolutely do not want to miss.