![]() ![]() We were being oh-so-contemporary and "happening", baby! And what a production it was - the theater department pulled out all the stops: there were two casts, including - get this - a double-cast chorus. The Richard Harris-Vanessa Redgrave film version had only been released in 1967. This was the 1960's remember Camelot was still a fairly new show, having premiered on Broadway in 1960. And when I saw that I had been chosen for the chorus, clutching my mimeographed copy of the rehearsal schedule in trembling fingers, I experienced a thrill that ignited a lifelong passion for music theater and its cousin, grand opera. You'd have thought that I was starring in a Hollywood film or making my debut on Broadway itself so glamorous and exciting did this venture appear to me. ![]() So as a geeky, socially-underdeveloped sophomore at ETHS in Evanston, Illinois, I was unable to resist the siren song of music theater. My childhood, apart from schoolwork and the normal quotient of TV shows, was largely made up of hours of practicing, weekly lessons, and a succession of keyboard competitions and recitals. You must understand, I had spent the first 15 years of my life with my fanny plastered to a piano bench, drilling Hanon, Czerny, Beethoven, Chopin and others into my fingers. Wild child, yup, that's your Humble Blogger. For some, it's joining a street gang or indulging in petty crime.įor me, it was auditioning for a show. ![]() For many, it's experimenting with drugs, alcohol or sex. As it happens, Camelot was my introduction to the theater world, as a member of the chorus for Evanston Township High School's spring production in 1968,Īll teen-agers go through a period of rebellion. But here my subject is the musical about Arthur, Guenevere and her bari-hunk boyfriend Lancelot. In the late 1980's I music-directed a college production of Carousel, an experience I'll be blogging about on these pages a few months from now. I've had personal experience with both shows. "The Lusty Month of May" Evanston High School, 1968 ![]() Virginia Opera hasn't been in the musical theater business for several years, but the 2012-2013 season sees us diving back in head-first with two classic productions: Rogers & Hammerstein's Carousel in May, and Lerner & Loewe's Camelot coming soon in January. ![]()
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