Small Community Production of James and the Giant Peach

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 6/1/23 at 11:14pm

I recently auditioned for a small scale production of a small scale and relatively unknown show called James and the Giant Peach

It's probably the single least known Pasek and Paul musical despite being based on one of the best known Roald Dahl books

I'm sure 90% of the people here will most likely know the show anyway, of course

Anyways it was a very peculiar audition because they actually encouraged us to audition with songs from the show

Now this may well be because it eliminates having to do callbacks and the theater is also doing Matilda right now (which I'm in the ensemble of)

But I used an excerpt from the opening number of James to audition

And I don't know if it's because nobody else had a more classical tone like me or something

But they just made me read one scene for the role of Ladahlord, sent me away, and then gave me the role

If you aren't aware, Ladahlord is the secondary lead of the show who is essentially the narrator and one of the most bizarre leading roles ever written

Very much in the same vein as Evan Hansen, he's frequently played by baritones and tenors (and a bit by basses) and his range goes to around the bottom of an average baritone's and around the top of an average tenor's

I'm a tenor with a particularly full lower resonance and an ability to bring the tone from that register into my top and vice versa so I'm frequently cast as both a baritone or a tenor

It's a very fun role and, while it is pretty vocally demanding as it is a lead in a Pasek and Paul show, it isn't very difficult to learn the lines for and the character isn't complex or hard to play 

So point is I'm very excited

But also they cast James as a little girl, probably because none of the little boys who auditioned were good enough

Something that worries me, though, is that the little girl is probably white, given the area I live in

I'm Asian

And Ladahlord is meant to be an older version of James 

So that'd be a little weird for James's race to just

Change

I'm just hoping she's good

Pasek and Paul shows are pretty straightforward

If the ensemble is decent and the leads know the material well, sing on pitch, hold notes for a very long time, and have a lot of resonance in their higher register

Well then the show is just absurdly easy and really fun for everybody involved

Since we're doing this at the same time as we're rehearsing Matilda, we're literally putting this entire show together in two weeks 

I already know the material, seeing as I learned it when I was like fourteen

 

So long as the rest of the cast is good, this is going to be an extremely fun show

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 6/2/23 at 5:22am

Believe it or not, this show was banned in Houston, Texas for "cross-dressing" in front of children.  

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 6/2/23 at 10:24am

Impeach2017 said: "Believe it or not, this show was banned in Houston, Texas for "cross-dressing" in front of children."

What how

Is it because James and Ladahlord are sometimes played by girls?

Is it even usually considered cross dressing for a girl to wear boys clothes????

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 6/2/23 at 11:42am

BeingAlive44Ever said: "Impeach2017 said: "Believe it or not, this show was banned in Houston, Texas for "cross-dressing" in front of children."

What how

Is it because James and Ladahlord are sometimes played by girls?

Is it even usually considered cross dressing for a girl to wear boys clothes????"

It ought to be, if the folks doing the banning are serious about the reasons.


Which they aren't so it won't, but you get it

[BeingAlive44Ever]

Posted: 6/2/23 at 3:31pm

Wee Thomas2 said: "BeingAlive44Ever said: "Impeach2017 said: "Believe it or not, this show was banned in Houston, Texas for "cross-dressing" in front of children."

What how

Is it because James and Ladahlord are sometimes played by girls?

Is it even usually considered cross dressing for a girl to wear boys clothes????"

It ought to be, if the folks doing the banning are serious about the reasons.


Which they aren't so it won't, but you get it"

But like wouldn't that mean that it'd be illegal for girls to wear pants

Like in the early 1900s or something

Man it occurs to me that that really wasn't that long ago was it