Back from a fun rehearsal - finished the show and the final two numbers. I had one image in my head for the do-wop number and it proved to be just right and very clever. It's Sandy's number with the others singing to her occasionally. So, I keep her in her chair for the entire number and she gets moved around with a lot of chairography and fun do-wop moves. It took about ninety minutes to do. I staged the final number, which doesn't have a lot. It's written so ambiguously that one could go any way with it. I chose to completely disregard the stage direction in the script. One of the group is nervous, making a singing comeback, and there's a small scene backstage with all that gals. Then the singer starts her little thing, which is to herself, wearing a robe. In the script she's supposedly at a dressing table or something and the other gals take her robe and put stuff like berets in her hair, revealing her concert wardrobe, a beautiful spangly dress.
To me that's just giving away the ballgame with no magic. So, I have the gals exit during the singer's inner monologue part of the song, then the singer, by herself, girds her loins and when the music changes to the up-tempo beat, I have her go behind one of our colored panels and when she emerges one second later she's in the dress. Much more theatrical and fun, I think.
