It’s what I get for saying I was bored. I shouldn’t be whining, as I’m not the one that broke my arm.

Val is my very kind boss that is the music director/pianist for Cats at Theatre at the Center. You may remember her as one of the people I rode to work with on Friday. On Monday she flew over the handlebars of her bike while riding down Broadway, breaking her left arm as she went.

The thought of a broken limb on a pianist makes me cringe, but – admittedly: selfishly – what makes me cringe more is that I have to play her part all this week. We only have one week left! I meant to coast to the finish like the last week of grade school.

I did play her part a few months ago – opening weekend, as a matter of fact – when she had to leave for the weekend for a wedding. But it was awful, and I never wanted to do it again to such a degree that I threw my copy of the score in the trash (couldn’t find matches to burn it), and I haven’t given it another thought. Regardless of whether I’ve played it or not, I would not call what I was today “prepared”. Someone asked me after the show today if I was sight-reading the whole score. I explained that, no, not technically, but that whatever the level just under sight-reading was, that’s what I was doing.

Adding to the confusion, my boss took over the 2nd keyboard part, leaving the conducting and cueing to me – we switched, effectively. But there was some confusion about who was really in charge for the majority of the first act…so if a tempo was under, or over, she’d wave her good arm in a completely different tempo, which some of the band would follow, and others would not, or could not, depending on the situation. So I’d start nodding my head, trying to get into her tempo, but I was so buried in my score that I’d either mess up the piano part, mess of my own conducting, or not be able to follow her gestures. She would wave more frantically, and start talking – saying things I couldn’t make out, but were probably along the lines of “Faster! Oh god go faster!! You need to go faster!” I was so stressed out I could feel the veins in my head about to burst. It stressed me out so much that by the 2nd act, I had shooting pains through my arm, and an ache all over my whole body from holding it so tight the entire time. I was nodding my head so hard I could have generated electricity.

Add to all of this that we had a new drummer, a sub reed player, a sub bassist, and a one-armed 2nd keyboard player. There were only 3 people in the 8-person pit that were original members of the band. Talk about a worst-cast scenario.

From what I heard from people that were not in the pit, a few things sounded different, but it sounded mostly fine. I’m glad they were entertained. I just about ruined my shorts a few times to give them that entertainment.

I realize that she’s the one with the broken arm and all, but I can’t say my day went very well today either.

So I went out afterwards and practiced one of my very worst habits – the impulse shopping of electronics. I’m trying, poorly, to stay on a budget until I get to my next job, but I couldn’t help but feel that I’d earned something today. I already admitted this was a bad habit, no need to remind me. But I am pretty stoked that my new toy, an Apple Airport Extreme, allows me to listen to my huge iTunes collection anywhere in the apartment without needing to be connected to the external hard drive that holds these files. It’s almost like having an iPod. Which I also own… Well, the airport can do a lot of other things too, so bite me. I earned it.

Tomorrow we have two shows.

musical theatre