I got back from Boston today after a fantastic weekend with Courtney. We explored Boston, bummed around her hometown, and spent a lot of time at the beach. I had never been to the city before- glad I made the trip!
Tonight, I dove right back into things. I shadowed Ian Weinberger on keyboard 2 for The Book of Mormon. It was the first show I’ve observed that I had seen before (I’ve seen it FOUR times in Chicago…help…), so it was an entirely different experience. It was revelatory to see all of the inner mechanisms that I had not picked up on entirely as an audience member. As expected, they had a fantastic sound and played the show to a tee. This keyboard 2 book was the craziest part I have ever seen. It was expertly programmed. In some sections of music, there were 5-8 instruments being played at different parts of the keyboard at different times without changing the patch. They made sure to pack every patch with every instrument that was necessary so that there were not constant patch changes for every new instrument.
I also re-learned that keyboard 2 is in no way easier or inferior to keyboard 1. Some of the most important cues in the show are triggered by a keyboard 2 note (such as the doorbells in the opening and finale, or the fantastic whip sound in “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream”). This show was in its 1,827th or so performance, the longest I have observed so far. The quote in today’s title comes from Ian describing the nature of maintaining The Book of Mormon several years after its opening. Everything is clockwork. There are rarely any hitches in performance, although each one is certain individuated in small ways. I took pages of notes on this observation, and I look forward to interviewing Ian later once I do some observations of Hamilton performances and rehearsals!
On another note, it is starting to feel less like I am on vacation and more like I live here. The most important thing (or at least, the most relieving thing) I have learned here so far is that it looks like it is absolutely doable to move to New York and make a living playing the piano. I am starting to feel less like an observing outsider and more like a participant in the vivacious speed of this city. Tomorrow, I am rushing Chicago with Mahek and running some errands. It’s shaping up to be another busy, productive week of observations and seeing shows!