This is It

People of a certain vintage, like me, will not have forgotten the Bugs Bunny Show which was a feature of our undersized televisions back in the day.

It always started with an opening theme song. Bugs and Daffy marched onstage with their canes and straw boater hats (Bugs’ hat had holes in it for his ears to stick through). Immediately they would launch into their well-known vaudeville-like song-and-dance routine.

The lyrics were pretty memorable:

Overture, curtains, lights
This is it, the night of nights
No more rehearsing and nursing a part
We know every part by heart

Overture, curtains, lights
This is it, you'll hit the heights
And oh what heights we’ll hit
On with the show this is it

In more recent years, the song tends to remind me of Ethel Merman belting out ‘You’ll be Swell, You’ll be Great’ as she performs ‘Everything’s Coming up Roses’ from ‘Gypsy’. On a less informed note, I have never-once been able to look at Michael Flatley dancing without thinking of Bugs Bunny.

I saw somebody on Twitter this week referring to Bugs’ and Daffy’s routine. He said that there is hardly a better description available of the feeling one gets when you are involved in a show and the rehearsals are largely all done, and it is finally time for the show to go on.

That’s where we’re at this week. On Thursday and Friday, at The Linenhall Arts Centre, our three plays will go on.

Our time in the lovely Scouts Den is all done. Our invaluable borrowed moments in the theatre are just about over too, though we still have Tech and Dress to complete.

All that will be left, by Thursday at teatime, will be to light it up, get into the glad rags, and get it done.

It’s a bit nerve-racking, for sure, but the upcoming evenings of Thursday and Friday of this week is why we do it. It’s why we turn up in twilight rooms, when we could be at home watching Eastenders or out having a nice stroll. It's why we scour the town for props and learn silly lines untl they are coming out of our ears.

We get to put on a show.

All through this weekend, people have been coming up to me and saying, “We’ll see you Thursday”, or “We’ll see you Friday night.” They may not see me. I’ll be in a darkened control room sweating over music and lighting cues. But that’s not what they mean. They may not entirely know it, but they mean they will see the show, and, in that way, they will see me. I appreciate that people will come out and pay good money to see what we might do. I appreciate very much the people who have come out over the past weeks and months to do it with me. You guys rock my world.

I keep saying it but, dammit, it’s true.

I’m a lucky duck…

…or perhaps a lucky bunny.

Take your pick.

 

There are still some tickets available at www.the linenhall.com or on 094 90 23733 but please don’t leave it too late to grab 'em.

1 comment:

Jim Murdoch said...

Ach! Dammit. You've ruined Michael Flatley for me. Is he still on the go? I suppose he is. Doing Riverdance Part 17 or something. I'm afraid that kind of thing gets old quick. Like Death in Paradise or Strictly, both of which we've finally given up on.

I do remember watching Bugs and Daffy as a kid but not the song although I get the comparison with Ethel Merman who I remember more from her cameo in Airplane! than the original I'm afraid.

So, anyway, I expect you'll be reading this after the event and all I can say is I hope your leg is in a cast.