The Cecilian Society

Opening Ballad of Sweeney Todd

Good work - keep it up. Remember that on the first chorus entry, there should be a comma between the "wide" and "Sweeney" of "Swi-nguh your razor wi-duh, Swee-ney". We spent an hour and half on these four bars at the very first rehearsal and no one wants a repeat of that...

Pirelli's Miracle Elixir

I know we are severely unbalanced gender-wise, but the men should be holding their own better here. Specifically:

bar.83 - "Penny buys a bottle, does it?" - straight in after the ladies "Isn't it a crime..."
bar 106 - "He says it smells like piss". This should be dead easy. The cue, funnily enough, is Sweeney Todd singing "Smells like piss". The ladies need this line to be here so that they can sing their piss line.
bar 109 - key change on Sweeney's "This is piss. Piss with ink". You are in straight after the key change with "Let me smell that bottle. I don't want no ink piss. What is this? Give us back our money." Classic bar 3 syndrome every time.
bar 159 - "Yeah where is this Pirelli/ Go and get Pirelli etc." - cannot hear the men at all. You are in one bar after the ladies.

This is all in the music, which you all have. I shouldn't have to tell you this at this stage in the game

Nicky - can I please add you to Rachel and Hannah on "Go ahead and try it? Wot the hell?" at bar 83?

Ballad 10B
Generally good. After "Barbing the hook. Baiting the trap". All men sing "Setting out for the Beadle to trap. Slyly courted him Sweeney did". Again, the ladies are showing you up on your entry. Matt & Colin B can you try and sing this from the wings to redress the gender imbalance?

Three Tenors
Good job!

God That's Good
Special mention to Aunty Nicky and to Colin Bryce who are bar one people. However, that should not be special mention this close to the show. Again the "yums" were good, but several of the "more hot pies" entries filtered in slowly. I should not be able to identify which members of the cast are actually starting on time.

Remember - a chain is only as good as its weakest link; the cast is only as good as its weakest member. This is your production - take charge; be confident about your entry; SING!

bar 237 (long "more hot pies") Finish your pies quickly, because Matt and Amy need to start singing.

Wigmaker Sequence & Letter

The Quintet rock my geeky, close harmony-filled world. Careful that at bar 43 and similar ("Fortune arrived, Sweeney it sang") the tune is exactly the same as it has been before, but the accompaniment feels different, so it is higher than you are expecting.

The Letter - I can follow you, so you should be able to move off together as a Quintet rather than as five people following a conductor. Co-ordinate with each other, not just me. It's amazing what you can do with an eyebrow.

Fogg's Asylum

Quartet: Great. You need to be on standby when Andy is giving some comedy harmonium action.

Chorus: Don't forget. "The Demon barber of SWEE-NEY...street...SWEE-NEY". This was mince last night. And not in the good pastry-filling way.

Try and move from your "Swee" to your "ney" all together please. You might not be able to see me from behind the gauze. If the rest of the cast have changed chord half a bar before you, join them. Also, please don't breath between "Sweeneys" - if the singing is continuous, the dialogue on top is audible. If you breath between "Sweeneys" the singing intrudes into the scene every time you breathe.

City on Fire

You can do this fine, when you concentrate. However, when you are all being lunatics you get far too excited and it feels like it wants to run away. Make sure it doesn't and then hopefully the text won't get lost. Make sure you know when your hunchbacks are dancing and when they are kissing.

Epilogue

Again, the focus on this was great last night so make sure you carry that right through the show. The drop to quiet on "He never forgets and he never forgives" should be a) bigger and b) more sudden.

There is no need to panic. The show is coming together nicely BUT it does require a lot of concentration. We're in the theatre one week today, so no slacking. At this point in the proceedings, the production team are no longer obliged to be nice to you:we will b****** you if you mess it up because you have shown us that you can absolutely nail it. Nothing less will do.

Also - I still need one trumpeter. Anyone with any ideas let me know ASAP.

G.

We are not Bar Three people. We are Bar One people.