Broadway Baby (3 page)

Snakes, spiders, sand in your bathers, being dobbed on for something that wasn't your fault, maths tests, jelly snakes not coming in pink. All these things are horrible, but none give me the throat-swelling, stomach-clenching, shaky fingers and brain-muddling that auditions do.

The only person I know who hates auditions more than me is Paige. I just don't think it's
fair that everything you've worked and studied for can come down to a five-minute audition. I bet if I had to hand in a video montage of all my best performances instead of doing an audition, I would get the part each time.

For the
Mary Poppins
auditions, we started off learning the jazz-based musical theatre dance, which Billie was in charge of. Having Billie there made me feel a little more at home and took some of the tightness out of my shoulders.

She began by getting us to do some floor work: turns, kicks, travelling steps. I had to smother a giggle when the adults tried some of them. I've seen better performances from an emu.

Next, Billie taught us a routine so that she could get an idea of everyone's dance ability.

The choreography was fairly simple with a four-count beat. I could have done it in
my sleep, but I still made sure I was at the front, and on my best Ellie-is-a-good-student behaviour. Because I found the routine so easy I tried to up my energy and flair. The simplicity of the dance sequence also gave me a good chance to watch everyone else and suss out the competition, especially Cadence. Sure, she got all the steps, but she wasn't
that
great.

Billie let the adults sit down after that, because next she had choreographed a piece to teach the kids who wanted to be in the main dance troupe. The adults who didn't get a main part would be in the chorus, singing and doing all the background stuff, while the main dance troupe would be front and centre, doing the bulk of the choreography.

This musical theatre routine was more complicated, with some turns and jumps and showy steps. I nailed it, of course, and I felt a beam of pride when I saw Cadence watching me.

Billie also got us to do a short contemporary sequence.

‘
Mary Poppins
has room for many styles of dance,' she called out after we were all done and standing around with our hands on our knees, catching our breaths. ‘So we'll be doing some jazzy, musical-theatre based pieces, as well as more lyrical pieces to the slower songs. And then, of course, good ol' tap.'

At this a lot of people cheered, and I felt my stomach sink. I casually moved back to the second row so I would have someone to copy from if worse came to worst, even if that someone was Cadence, who I noticed pushed her way to the front almost immediately.

Billie made a fake sad face and clutched her chest. ‘And this is where I will now leave you, my lovelies – and pass the baton to tap extraordinaire Damon Periwinkle.'

Damon
who
? I covered my laugh with my hand and looked around to see if anyone else found it funny. No one. They were all staring at Mr Periwinkle with pleasant faces. I rolled my eyes. Ash, Riley and Paige would have shared my secret smile.

Periwinkle jumped to his feet when Billie called out his name. He was at least sixty, with long lanky legs, but he moved with so much grace, effortlessly jumping over some chairs that were in his way, swinging himself around a pot plant, and tapping his way to the front.

He had thick black hair brushed back neatly and the darkest, twinkliest eyes turned up at the edges with crinkles. His mouth looked as if he was always in the middle of sharing a joke with you.

Despite his silly name, I liked him straight away. He reminded me of an old movie star,
and I imagined that when he was on stage you couldn't take your eyes off him.

‘Welcome, my hoofers,' he said with a very British accent, bowing to us theatrically. ‘I've been watching all of you dance your little hearts out. Now it's time for you to watch me. Who wants to do some tapping?'

‘Me!' trilled Cadence.

‘Not me!' I muttered under my breath.

‘Who said “not me”?' Periwinkle asked, whirling around and searching us all with mock anger.

I tried to stare pointedly at Cadence to make it seem like she'd said it, but I could feel my face going red. I had to call on all my acting training to not give myself away.

‘Well, whoever said that, I'll make you regret it,' Periwinkle teased. ‘What's the first rule of Broadway?'

‘Always be ready,' Cadence said.

‘You got it, honey,' he said with a wink. ‘Let's tap.'

Never in my life had I heard that ‘Always Be Ready' was the first rule of Broadway. Cadence probably paid him five dollars so he could say that and she would answer to look good.

I set my jaw. Too bad, Cadence Kohdean. It took more than that to put me off.

The first thing I noticed was that although Cadence had been just okay in the other dances, tap was obviously her style. Every sound she made was crisp and clean, and all her movements expressive. She seemed to know what tap step we were going to do, even before Periwinkle had shown it to us.

I kept my competition antennae out. There were some good tappers, but I knew by far
I'd been the best in the other dances. So the role of Jane could very well come down to me and Cadence. That's if she hadn't bribed the director, too.

No! I would fight for the part of Jane. I focused on Periwinkle's feet, mimicking his every ball dig, back brush and ball change.

He started teaching us a short routine. His style of tap was very fluid – it wasn't the straight-spine-arms-do-very-little kind of tap. Instead, all the tap steps flowed into beautiful body shapes and energetic kicks or jumps, taking up every inch of available floor space.

I took a lot of joy in trying to copy Periwinkle's athletic moves and the feeling of lightness his body created. My feet let me down a little when it came to catching and hitting all the tap sounds. A few times I just made something up and hoped it sounded okay because the feet totally lost me.

Cadence, of course, didn't put one shiny black tap wrong. But I didn't mind. I felt a sense of achievement that a week ago I hadn't tapped properly since I was a tiny, and now I'd just successfully completed a tap audition. The idea that I could make music with my feet was a bit of a thrill!

But I still had the singing audition tomorrow. One more test to pass before I was crowned an official triple threat.

I was feeling quite good when I walked into the foyer the next day, ready to sing my heart out.

Ugh.

You'll never guess who was waiting before me.

Cadence Kohdean.

Today her long burgundy hair was pulled into two braids and she was wearing a pretty
white smock dress with little black booties. She looked like Jane without even trying. I was just wearing my favourite pink floaty top and my good luck silver leggings.

‘Oh hey!' she said. ‘Ellie, right?'

‘Right,' I said.

‘I must be auditioning before you,' said Cadence, like it wasn't already obvious. ‘How exciting! What are you singing?'

‘“The Perfect Nanny”,' I said, naming a song from
Mary Poppins
.

‘Oh, that's nice,' said Cadence. ‘I'm doing “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” from
Sweeney Todd
. I feel it really shows my range. Plus it's not always a good idea to do a song from the show you're actually auditioning for.' She smiled at me. ‘But I'm sure they won't mind.'

‘I know that,' I lied, sweeping imaginary dust off the sleeve of my top. ‘I'm just being
proactive. That way I can really express the character of Jane while I'm singing her song.'

‘Oh, absolutely,' said Cadence, who got up as soon as I sat next to her on the couch. ‘Excuse me, it's almost my turn. I'm just going to do some warming up.'

‘I did it at home,' I lied again.

‘Oh, whoops,' she said, turning back to pick up a bottle from the couch. ‘Pineapple juice. It helps smooth out your throat.' She took a delicate sip, and then started to walk back and forth across the room, sirening.

As I've recently found out from my singing classes, sirening is where you try to make a sound in your throat that goes up and down, kind of like an actual siren. Then she sang phrases like ‘red leather, yellow leather', and ‘one, one two one, one two three two one', switching her register.

For such an annoying know-it-all, she sure had a pretty voice. It was sweet and clear. My voice was powerful, but it was much deeper than Cadence's. I bet when Cadence was a baby she didn't even have a first word, she just had a first note.

I knew I should get up and warm-up too, but I felt self-conscious. Instead I brought out the script I had to read Jane's part from and studied it without much going into my head at all.

The door to the next room opened and a boy came out, very red in the face.

‘Hey there,' said Cadence, as he went down the stairs. ‘How did you go?'

‘They make you do a British accent,' the boy groaned. ‘Mine was so bad!'

‘Oh well,' said Cadence cheerily. ‘It's not over till it's over.'

‘Yeah,' said the boy, putting his cap back on his head. ‘Thanks. See ya.'

Cadence waved daintily at him while I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I took a nervous sip of my water. Straight away I needed to pee.

The door to the auditorium opened again and the stage manager poked her head out. ‘Cadence Kohdean?' she asked.

‘Right here,' trilled Cadence. ‘Hello!'

‘You're next, sweetheart.' The stage manager beamed at her.

‘Perfect.' Cadence beamed back.

‘Perfect,' I grumbled to myself, and then switched to a smile as Cadence turned to me.

‘Well, this is it!' she said. ‘Good luck, Ellie! Hopefully I'll see you at rehearsals.'

‘Hopefully,' I said back, wanting to tip the pineapple juice all over her dress.

But there was only one way I would ever want to see her at rehearsals. And that's if I was playing Jane.