iBroadway

iBroadway deserves a post of its own. ‘iBroadway’ – a medley of EVERY SINGLE SHOW TUNE EVER WRITTEN – is show #2 on board the Infinity. The house was PACKED for this show – most likely near 1,ooo people (no pressure). It’s a full-scale, elaborate production with lights, sets, and costumes galore. The performers are working it out there for a solid hour, twice each night – and the audience loves it! They sing and clap along to almost everything. There is also a video projection that accompanies maybe a quarter of the tunes.

I’m playing keyboard for this show which is vastly different from the piano I played last night. The keyboard is pre-programmed (thank goodness) with all the different sound patches (about 15 in total) – all I have to do is increase the patch. The click track is still foreign to me – it’s hard to anticipate time changes, meter changes, etc. And in this show there is a TON of music (19 medleys) and a TON of heavy piano stuff…pretty nerve-wracking! We ran through it once this afternoon, which was barely enough time to figure out the key signatures. I had no choice but to roll with it, though, and playing the show was a ton of fun. It runs about an hour, which seemed never-ending at the soundcheck, but it flew by in performance.

The show covers pretty much everything from Oklahoma to Tommy, The King & I to the Producers, and my personal favorite – an entire ABBA medley. (I think this was the audience’s favorite too). There is also an acrobatic couple on board who perform this amazing act during the show. I’m anxious to play show #2 (in about 30 minutes) and get a better handle on all of the music, but overall it was an awesome show. We’re onstage for the whole show which is a little hard to get used to at first (you’ll know why if you’ve ever seen me play a show) but I’m sure the audience is distracted by the performers...

Before iBroadway, we had a Captain’s Toast (free champagne) for the ship. The band played while each of the senior officers were introduced, and then I ‘noodled’ while the champagne was being passed out. This segment had zero rehearsal….yay, sightreading.

Yay, Broadway! I love my job. Ketchikan in T-12 hours…we’re one hour back tomorrow.