Tonight's The Night

My blog title reminds me of the Rod Stewart song...

Tonight's the night.
It's gonna be alright.
Cause I love you girl,
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now.

Tonight Susan and I will be taking part in our first play together. It's a rather small one. I only have five lines and Susan doesn't have any, but we do each have a vital part. Susan will be a "serving wench," actually helping to serve the dinner to the forty or so guests in attendance and I will be the town drunk.

I talked to Debi Neville, the organizer of this event, if we can film it and I have her approval. We're not going to be filming this evening, though, as she thinks we'll be more comfortable and give a better performance on our second night. We're going to be filming with my panasonic camcorder. It's a bit old, but it should be sufficient for this show. As soon as we get it streamed to YouTube, I'll post the link here.

The final dress rehearsal went well this afternoon. This is the first play for a couple of us and so there were some butterflies about, but all in all, we have a wonderful crew and I'm looking forward to a good show tonight.

The food that they're serving this evening is corned beef and cabbage, fresh loaves of bread, cheese blocks, and some kind of potato dish that I know they told me but for the life of me, I can't seem to remember now. Since it's a dinner theater and the premise of the show is a secret potato party during the Irish famine of the 1840's, we bar patrons are going to have our own table and get to share in the food. The serving wenches too. I don't know how much of it I'll be eating, though, as I can't stand cabbage and I'm thinking I might be too wired to eat while the show's going on.

At the very end of the play, after we thank the guests for coming, all of the cast is going to sing the first verse of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Susan and I have been trying to get down the exact words all day and for some reason, we keep getting stuck on the final line. Hopefully we won't tonight.

When Irish eyes are smiling,
sure, tis like a morn in spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
you can hear the angels sing.

When Irish hearts are happy,
all the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
sure they steal your heart away.

As I write this, we go live in an hour and a half. We've gone over the script, the Irish birthday blessing we'll be giving to one of the guests, and the song we'll be singing at the end. We're as ready as we're ever going to be. So, I hope that your thoughts will be with us as we break a leg or knock 'em dead or whatever we're supposed to do. And that brings me back to Rod Stewart's song, Tonight's the night...

Kick off your shoes and sit right down.
Loosen off that pretty French gown.
Let me pour you a good long drink.
Ooh baby don't you hesitate cause,

Tonight's the night.
It's gonna be alright.
Cause I love you girl,
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now

Yep, tonight's the night. Ain't nobody gonna stop us now!