Broadway Baby (6 page)

Well, as if my busy schedule wasn't enough! At the next rehearsal the director had announced that the Bayside council was holding a fund-raising variety night and the cast of
Mary Poppins
were going to perform a number from the upcoming show.

‘A small taste of what's to come,' Periwinkle had added. ‘But not enough to give everything away. Leave 'em wanting more.'

It was very exciting, of course. Any chance to perform on stage gets my blood pumping. But it also meant that we only had a couple of weeks to put together a number for the variety night.

Extra rehearsals were called.

‘The number Billie and I have decided to do, in consultation with the director –' Periwinkle flashed an oily smile her way that made me think he didn't really like her (only 'cause I've flashed the same smile myself sometimes) ‘– is the number we've been working on, “Step In Time”. It's the big musical piece of the show. We need the main cast, the chorus of tap dancers, and everyone else for the jazz movement in the background. It's a very long song, so we'll only do about five minutes of it.'

‘And I'm warning you now,' Billie cut in, ‘that what I make up may change by the time
it comes to the actual show run. I'm notorious for doing that.'

‘What's notorious?' asked one of the girls (a great dancer but her singing wouldn't win her first place on
The Voice
, and I guess neither would her IQ). Cadence and I swapped an amused glance and it was almost like I was back with Ash, Riley and Paige at Silver Shoes.

Notorious, of course, means that you are well-known, not always in a positive way (ahem, not that I had to google it or anything).

As soon as I knew a performance was involved and I was going to be on stage and in my natural element, I felt the stage blood in my veins go fizzy. I had the beans; I couldn't wait to start.

First we had to get the singing out of the way – and I'm talking a whole morning of it. Lucky the song was catchy and had a lot of harmonies and dynamics, or I would have
fallen asleep and dribbled all over Cadence's designer dance tights.

The song featured Bert the chimney sweep and Mary Poppins as the main singers, with Jane and her brother supporting them, and then the chorus joining in, either as chimney sweeps (the tap troupe) or villagers (the adults).

The song began with these piano chords that you knew were going to build up to something big. Bert sang first, and then the chorus joined in after him, before everyone launched into the next verse together.

I know it might sound simple, but when the chorus came in, with the younger voices of the chimney sweeps, and then the more adult voices rounding them out and softly coming in over them, it sounded like a gospel choir. Shivers ran up my spine. The mix of voices kept building, building, building, until I thought my heart would burst as it soared
with the beautiful sound everyone made when they sang as one.

It really was like magic.

At lunch break Cadence and I were sitting on the steps out the front of the hall laughing about it. We talked over each other in our excitement, and tried to chuck pieces of snake into each other's mouths, all at the same time.

I was having so much fun with Cadence, I almost couldn't believe I once thought she'd been a prissy goody-goody.

That was when Riley and Paige came out from the side door of Silver Shoes and headed towards us.

‘Hi Ellie,' said Paige, beaming my way. She paused a couple of steps in front of me, and Riley stopped a step or so behind her, in what I call her ‘Riley' pose: standing back on one leg, arms crossed, sussing out the situation.

We usually have lyrical on Saturday mornings, you see, although Billie had pulled a few strings so I could miss it just while we were having these extra rehearsals.

‘Hi guys,' I said. ‘How was lyrical?'

Paige darted a quick look at Cadence, while Riley made it obvious she was checking Cadence out. Cadence, for her part, was smiling prettily and warmly, giving Paige a run for her money in the innocent department.

‘We started the dance for “Say Something” today,' Paige said. ‘But don't worry, I'll catch you up if you like.' She zipped another quick look at Cadence before she held out a packet of snakes. ‘We brought you some snakes in case you were hungry.'

I looked down at the parade of snake parts on the steps, and the packet of sherbet bombs open between me and Cadence.

‘Oh!' I said. ‘Thanks, Paige, but I think we may have had enough sugar already!'

Cadence giggled.

‘Right,' said Paige, folding up the packet
and taking a step back closer to Riley. ‘That's okay. Maybe next time.'

‘I'll
have some,' said Riley, snatching the packet from Paige and making a point of choosing one. ‘Thank you, Paige.' She chewed on a red snake and turned her eyes to Cadence. ‘Hi,' she said. ‘Who are you?'

Cadence jumped up. ‘Hello!' She dashed forward to give a dainty hug to Riley (who almost choked on her snake) and then did the same to Paige (who flinched like Cadence had thrown the whole packet at her). ‘I'm Cadence Kohdean, Ellie's friend from
Mary Poppins
. You must be … hmm … Paige and Riley! Ellie talks about you all the time! She just loves Silver Shoes.'

‘We know,' Paige mumbled to the ground.

‘Oh yes,' said Riley, ‘Ellie talks about you all the time, too.' She smirked when she said that because mostly what I'd told her and Paige
and Ash was how annoying Cadence was and how much I disliked her. Now, things had obviously changed, because here I was sitting on the steps talking and laughing and eating lollies with her almost as if she was a Silver Shoes girl herself.

I flashed Riley a warning look to let her know that it wasn't the right time to go causing trouble for me and Cadence. Riley just shrugged and selected another snake.

There was a horrible silence between us four, which my mouth did not like, so it immediately opened and started babbling.

‘It's so fun, what we're doing,' I said.

‘You should hear the song we're working on,' said Cadence.

‘It's so catchy,' I hurried on. ‘I wish we could do it in jazz, except a lot of it is tap – well, the part we're learning – well, me anyway, 'cause
I'm a chimney sweep. Cadence is playing Jane, that's the lead character.'

‘I know who Jane is,' said Riley, although I wasn't sure she did.

‘Oh! You're a fan of
Mary Poppins
?' said Cadence. ‘Awesome! Ellie and I think it might be our favourite musical.'

Paige looked up at that, because she knew very well my favourite musical was
Hairspray
since I'd made her watch it with me a million times until it became hers, too. She caught my eye but then quickly looked down. She was holding her head in that way she does when she's trying not to get upset. It made my chest feel yucky. Of course
Hairspray
was my number one, but it's easy to get carried away when you're in the middle of doing another musical and having so much fun.

Another horrible silence.

‘Are you guys going to come watch us at the preview performance for the variety night?' Cadence chirped. ‘It will be super fun! You'll get to see what Ellie and I have been working on!'

‘Can't wait,' said Riley.

‘My mum's waiting to pick me up,' Paige said, miserably. She was clutching the bag of snakes so tight I thought they might combust. ‘Bye, Ellie.' She walked away, looking like a fairy who'd just lost her wings.

‘Yeah, bye, Ellie,' said Riley, flashing me a look that I knew too well. ‘Bye, Cadence.'

‘Bye!' Cadence trilled.

I watched Riley hurry after Paige and I felt my heart might break. I knew, from being the new girl in musical theatre, what it was like to think you had no friends or no one on your side. I didn't want my best friend Paige to feel like I didn't care about her or had forgotten
about her just because I had finally started to fit in and make new friends.

Cadence was really nice, but there was no one like my Paige.

‘Just a sec,' I said to Cadence.

I jumped down the steps and pelted after Paige and didn't stop until I'd wrapped her up in a big bear hug, and then I got Riley into it as well, for good measure.

‘I missed you guys today,' I said. ‘I hope you were extra mean to Jasmine for me.'

‘Ellie, you're crushing my ribcage,' Riley complained, although she was smiling.

‘Let's do something this afternoon, after I finish rehearsal,' I said. ‘Ash, too. I have to tell you all about these pink and silver leg warmers I saw online. I would kill for them.'

‘You're about to kill me right now by crushing me to death,' Riley wheezed.

‘That sounds nice.' Paige smiled, finally looking at me.

‘Bring the snakes,' I said, ‘I'll need them.'

I gave them one last squeeze before I went back to Cadence and
Mary Poppins
.

New experiences and new friends are very cool and very exciting.

But there's nothing like the old ones.

‘And, grab off, grab off, shuffle slap, hop hop, tap spring, tap spring, ball change, toe stamp!'

The last stamp sounded like a victory cry, as everyone collapsed and remembered to breathe again.

We were finally coming to the end of rehearsing our ‘Step in Time' piece for the variety night.

Let's just say that even in my fastest jazz choreography, I had barely been as puffed as this. I'm surprised that any sound came out at all when I sang. Tapping was hard work! But, oh my gosh, the piece looked and sounded amazing.

We had our costumes! As I said, the tapping troupe for this number was dressed as chimney sweeps. This part of
Mary Poppins
is when Mary takes Jane and her brother up on the roof and Bert (the leader of the chimney sweeps) shows them that there is always a team of chimney sweeps up there watching out for them and being their guardian angels.

The rest of the cast (the adults) would come on too, giving depth to the singing when our ferocious tapping made it hard for us to really belt out the words. They acted as poor townspeople and just did some basic jazz. But the chimney sweeps were the real
stars! I'd even given my chimney sweep character a name, Charli, after my middle name, Charlotte.

For our costumes we had three-quarter black pantaloons held up by braces, with grey socks and our shiny new black taps. We also had little pageboy caps, neck kerchiefs and props – chimney sweeps that looked real but were actually made out of tulle so they would be extra light when we were dancing with them.

My favourite part of the costume, though, was the short-sleeved stripy top we wore underneath the braces. The boys had a maroon colour while the girls were decked out in a deep pink shade that would sparkle when we went under the lights.

Pink is my favourite colour, of course, so I took it as another good omen.

Cadence had great fun in dress rehearsal painting pretend soot and dirt on my face
and arms, and teasing my hair into a big fluffy bird's nest.

‘Don't forget your tooth!' She giggled, swiping some paint on one of my teeth.

‘Cadence!' I protested, pretending to bite at one of her fingers.

‘Oooh!' said Cadence. ‘I knew chimney sweeps often went hungry, but I didn't know they were
that
hungry!'

‘Ain't no meat on those dainty little digits anyway.' I mugged, talking in a cockney British accent like how I imagined my character would.

‘Aah!' squealed Cadence. ‘You're too believable!'

I chased her with the tub of black paint, threatening to dye her pretty red hair.

The dancing was so athletic, Periwinkle had outdone himself. We were doing constant side kicks, side leaps, tuck jumps and a lot of
partner work where we would swing off and launch each other into the air.

It wasn't just jazzy musical theatre technical steps. After we finished each technique or trick, we then had to connect it to some kind of tap combination so that everything was fluid and linked together.

We even had a chorus line with Mary and Bert in the middle where we would tap up, kick forward then back, jump, lay out and add forward springs. I don't know about you, but trying to do that alone, much less connected to sixteen other people, is hard work!

The way we moved in rehearsal reminded me a bit of puppets being jigged up and down by giants up in the rafters, making us do the silliest things. At the start of the song when it was just Bert, Mary and the two kids on stage, and the song was building to its crescendo, all the chimney sweeps had to
peep and clamber out of these chimney props and be very cheeky.

It was the best mix of acting, dancing and singing I could hope for! I was now a certified triple threat!

The final step, of course, was to pull off the perfect, most energetic performance.

Then I could rightly say that Broadway had better watch out, 'cause there was a new kid on the scene, and her name was Eleanor Irvin.