-As it currently stands, Orlando is the only city in which I have had people come see the show. Obviously it is still early in the tour, and hopefully I can get more people out to see Wizard in Chicago. So aside from Jim and Jeremy, Wednesday night was also family night at Wizard. Mom and Dad timed their drive down to arrive in Orlando on Wednesday, and Jamie and the kids flew in on Wednesday afternoon. In order to optimize their Disney time, they decided to come see the show on Wednesday instead of wasting a partial day on their Disney passes.
-As I hinted before we had a bit of an incident at the show that night. During rehearsals in Gainsville the decision was made to record the music to the Cyclone. The staging of that number involves projections to which the music has to be very precisely timed. Unfortunately the woodwind parts to the Cyclone are very difficult, and the necessary tempos to time the music properly are pretty brisk. This would normally be fine, but we found all of this out in the afternoon on the day we were recording. I did not even have a chance to go back to the hotel and spend some time practicing the part. So after a very stressful evening of recording and re-recording, we ended up with a pretty decent soundtrack for the Cyclone.
-Since that day of rehearsal we in the orchestra have jokingly commented about how terrible it would be if we had to actually play the Cyclone live. Not only because we haven't been practicing our parts individually, but also because we never actually practiced timing the music to the projections live. Have you already guessed what happened that night when I had 7 people watching the show? You are right. The Cyclone projections began, but there was no audio. This includes the music and all of the sound effects. We knew something was wrong when the red cue lights came on signaling Nate to get on the phone to the stage manager. Even before he could put the phone down, our stand lights came on, and we all knew the horror that was facing us. So the Sudoku books went flying as everyone grabbed for their instruments and flipped the music back to the beginning of the Cyclone. Unfortunately the projections were well underway at this point, and there was no possible way for us to know where to start in the music to match what was happening on stage. So we started at the beginning. And well the best that I can say for myself is that I wagged my fingers in as valiant a manner as possible. We only made it about 2/3 of the way through before we had to stop. After that stressful scene, it is safe to say that the rest of the show was not my best effort.
-If one needs to look for the silver lining from this sad story, I guess it could be that my friends and family got to hear us play a number that we will hopefully never have to play again! (I cross the fingers every night!) Thankfully everyone there that night (with the exception of Jeremy) will have the chance to see the show again and see the Cyclone as it was intended.
-Also making an appearance at the show on Friday night were my cousin Cathy and her husband Keith. They have lived in Orlando for years and this is the first time that they have actually gotten to hear me play outside of a wedding or funeral setting. I always enjoy seeing them and thankfully Friday night's show was much better than Wednesday's debacle! Sadly Cathy had a cold so we did not get to go out for drinks or anything, but I may be back in Orlando in April so we decided to meet up then.
-The one person who I did not get to meet up with in Orlando though is Uncle Glenn. He had a produce convention in town that weekend, but he did not really have time to come see the show. There were a couple of other chances to meet up with Glenn and the family, but I had already turned in my rental car. The logistics of trying to have someone come get me from my hotel, go where ever everyone was meeting, then making it back to the theatre on time were just to crazy. As it turns out, he is bring a couple to come see the show here in Miami tomorrow night. And we are going to Joe's Stone Crab before the show. It promises to be fun!
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