If a bad dress rehearsal means a fabulous opening night, than our production of Oklahoma! is about to become Broadway’s biggest hit. It is H-E-double toothpicks week at Martin High School’s theater (that’s the week before opening night), and we have yet to make it through the entire show in one evening. No doubt this disaster has a lot to do with Frankie White, king of the production pranks, who was supposed to be playing Curly, the handsome leading man. Oh, sure, he has the wavy brown locks and eyes as blue as Elvis’s suede shoes and tenor notes that make the girls melt. He can also get the cast in such a fit of laughter that no one can remember their lines. Very professional, I’m sure!
I wait in the dim lights behind the heavy black fabric curtain just sweeping the plywood floor of the stage and breath in the smell of fresh paint. The tech crew had put the finishing touches on the backdrops just last night. A hand tugs my braid. “Check out the ‘Li’l Wonder!’ I made some alterations.” Frankie hands me the kaleidoscope that within the context of the show held a picture of a scantily clad Victorian woman but in reality was a cardboard tube presumably left over from someone’s bathroom with a piece of white paper taped to the end.
I turn the tube over in my hands and held the eyepiece up to my eye. “You didn’t!” I say.
“Sure did!” says Frankie. I don’t know how he did it, but a photo was pasted inside the “L’il Wonder” of a ballerina with Jamie Finster’s head fixed on top. Jamie Finster was the quiet kid who somehow snagged the role of the Will Parker, the comic relief and my character’s love interest. He’s this guy with close cropped blonde hair who might be kinda cute if he didn’t have that little kink in his nose and maybe if he didn’t have said nose buried in ancient Superman comics all day. I think he only got the part because his mother is the choir director over in “C” building.
“Frankie, really! We open in 2 days- that’s so immature!” I say.
“Killjoy!” says Frankie. I narrow my eyes to retort, but Frankie puts the cardboard tube back on the props table. Before I could warn Jamie, he grabs it and make his entrance on stage. I smack my palm to my forehead. I have worked way too hard to have this show ruined by Frankster the Prankster. I don’t have much choice for this rehearsal though. In minutes, I can hear all the extra cowboys and the girl playing Aunt Eller hooting away as “Will Parker” showed off his stuff.
“It’s Willie Twinkle Toes!” hollers Katie Mullins.
“Jamie Prima Dona!” cracks Max Crate.
“Hold it, hold it!” yells our director Mr. Stein. Hoo boy…now we have to listen to the lecture and watch smoke blow again. “Guys, you have got to stay in character! I don’t care if a UFO lands on the building. We open in two days! Get your act together!” And we aren’t even halfway through the first act…
We keep plowing through the show. I watch helplessly. Jamie keeps losing character, losing lines and mis-stepping his two-step. I think Mr. Stein is about to bust a vein. A dark figure in a full petticoat nudges my side. “He’s making us all look bad!” whispers Jennifer Miles, our leading lady.
“Well, it’s Frankie’s fault!” I hiss back. “He’s messing everyone up!”
“Frankie’s just having fun! If Jamie were a better actor he’d be able to ignore it!” says Jennifer. “Jamie shouldn’t even be in this show!”
“Give Jamie a break!” I say. “He’s trying!”
“Well, at least he’s not playing Curly. Frankie is just amazing in that role! He is going to be the biggest star on campus!”
“Or the biggest troublemaker!”
“What’s going on?” a voice booms from the tech booth. “Jennifer! Casey! What part of BE QUIET IN THE WINGS do you not understand?”
“Sorry, Mr. Stein!” yells Casey.
“Don’t apologize. Just keep your mouths shut. Don’t even whisper. Every sound bounces back out here.” He sighs. “Ok, Jamie, just keep going.”
The marathon rehearsal is reaching the end as we head into the final scenes of the second act. Frankie never stops being a crack up, and Jamie never really improves his acting ability. On stage for our final scene together, Jamie and I as Will Parker and Ado Annie say goodbye to Ali Hakim the peddler. I know what is coming…a big old kiss from Jamie. I wonder if he’ll actually get the guts to do it this time. Every time we work on this scene, he chickens out and just pecks my nose.
I wiggle my hips and toss my braids over my shoulder like a filly and give my best doe-eyed expression before saying my line. “Even if you never go away on a trip er nuthin’, cain’t you- onc’t in a while- give me one of them Persion good-byes?” I lean in to Jamie, willing him to get something right.
“Persian goodbye?” says Jamie as Will, “Why that ain’t nuthin’ compared to a Oklahoma hello!” The next thing I see is the ceiling. Jamie grabs me around the waist, whirls me around, and dips me so low the ends of my braids can be used to paint the floor. He smashes his lips against mine as if he needed to revive me from drowning.
“Hellooo Will….” I manage to eek my line out. Holy moly, I didn’t think he had it in him. The smattering of cast and crew seated in the auditorium applaud wildly- you’d think he’d just won a championship.
“Jamie that’s perfect! Keep it in! I want to see that every night!” calls Mr. Stein from the back.
Jamie and I head back into the dark world of curtains and glow tape. “Where on earth did you learn that move?” I ask.
Jamie grins. “Frankie thought you needed a little excitement.”
“Frankster the Prankster?”
“Of course. If there’s one thing he knows, it’s how to add excitement.”
Jamie has a point. This musical is a supposed to be fun and silly. I take a deep breath and shake myself out. I even smile at Frankie and wink as everyone prepared to enter the stage for the last time that night. We finally make it to the end. Maybe this show isn’t doomed after all.
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