One the things I enjoy doing is to attend the theatre. This past weekend I visited my sister in Los Angeles. She took me to see Jersey Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday night (Aug 17). Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The show is packed with fantastic songs, great acting and, as in most shows from Broadway, seamless transition from one act to the next. About half way through the second act the show suddenly stopped. A trap door had opened unexpectedly and one of the lead actors had fallen partially into the hole. We noticed the actor fall but he got off stage and no one realized he was hurt until the next act started without him.
The show stopped for about 15 minutes then it was announced that one of the understudies and an actor in several secondary roles, Eric Gutman, would now be in the main role and another actor had taken his spot. It was a bit different watching Eric in the role of Bob Gaudio, the “magic” had been broken due to the delay and he looked different, but as the play progressed I noticed how well Eric fit into the role. He knew his stuff. This wasn’t the second string. He was good.
Eric’s comments about what happened are on his blog.
The whole incident got me thinking about being prepared for the unexpected. I know my son has been disappointed when he didn’t start in basketball. We have discussed what it means to be a bench player. The 6th, 7th, 8th man needs to be physically and mentally ready to come off the bench to help the team. Well here is a case where the lead got hurt with over 2000 people in the audience and the show had to go on. The understudy was trained and ready. He shifted gears, concentrated on the objective and gave a memorable performance.
The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared”. We try to teach the boys to be ready for anything. Friday night’s performance brought it all to life.
Until next time – All the best!
RolandB
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