BWW Blog: Adam Lendermon of Maltz Jupiter's A CHORUS LINE - Staging the Finale

Tomorrow we will finish staging the finale and the show will be completely choreographed. We have covered a gargantuan amount of choreography and staging over the past two weeks. There are several newbies on our line and they have been working tirelessly to get the material in their bodies. I know they are a bundle of fried nerve endings and shorting synapses at this point. Which seam am I on in this section? What number do I travel to on this step? What comes after the "Smile and Sing" chorus? On what count do we leave the line to go into the Connie clump? (ears smoke and heads explodes, leaving a pile of burnt spandex and the distinct odor of tiger balm). We've also reached the point of outgrowing the studio we are rehearsing in. Because the dimensions of the stage have been fudged a bit to fit into a smaller space, it's not uncommon to see actors dancing into walls, tripping over dance bags, or careening into each other trying to squeeze themselves onto the line. We're all very much looking forward to a little breathing room when we move to the stage next week. Think of it as the moment when you unbutton your pants after Thanksgiving dinner.

A great deal of the cast has been clocking extra time before rehearsal and during breaks, reviewing steps and committing them to muscle memory. I see those who have done the show before graciously helping our first timers. At the end of the day, we all leave the theatre mentally and physically spent. Tonight Logan Kesslar (Bobby) poignantly stated as we walked into Publix, "I'm so tired I don't even know if I'm hungry." I think that's a pretty fair assessment of our brain function considering I had just been choosing between the lesser of two evils. Do I A) stumble around the grocery store like a zombie, because I'm so hungry I'm having what must be the equivalent of labor pains or B) go home and eat first, risking a complete bodily shutdown that would render me immobile and incapable of getting to the car? I chose the former. The experts say you shouldn't shop while you're hungry. I am living proof of this horrific mistake. I bought and inhaled a pint of caraMel Cookie chunk ice cream (after a well-balanced meal, of course) and now I have to reap the consequences of that life choice. Now I lie here in bed, sore and tired, with my blood sugar plummeting to an all-time low. I have to get up early tomorrow to roll out my entire body before rehearsal. Incidentally, I remember when I thought I would have 20-year-old hips forever. Stay tuned for adventures from tech week, but in the meantime, I'm going to get some sle.....zzz...zzz.....zzz...