In Love With Alex Brightman

chapter twenty

December 4th, 2018 [Tuesday]
•20 weeks left•

"Mama, won't you send a sign? I'm running out of hope and time. A plague of mice, a lightning strike, or drop a nuclear bomb. No more playing daddy's game, I'll go insane if things don't change. Whatever it takes to make him say your name. Dead Mom!" I sang, raising my right hand up and sticking my left fist into my side.

Right after my last note, I heard a chorus of claps and cheers from the cast in the audience. I paused a few moments before cracking a smile and bowing proudly. I was quite nervous earlier when I was called to be on stage because I didn't have time to do a proper voice warmup. But I think I still did great.

And I think everyone else thought the same too.

I waved my hand around, before placing it over my heart, repeating, "Thank you, thank you." I couldn't see any faces from the stage because of the bright lights beaming over me, but I knew the particularly loud claps were from Rob and Alex. When it came to applause, they were always very dramatic.

"Yes, Sarah!" A group of people yelled at the same time. I pretended to catch a bouquet of flowers and act astonished.

"Thank you all so much," I fake sniffled, wiping my face - that was actually trickling with sweat - before laughing. Even though I've rehearsed with those lights many times, it still took a good minute to get used to them.

It was finally December - a month later - and I was feeling way more confident with being on stage, especially alone. I had to perform in front of so many people that I didn't get shy or anxious anymore. Alex told me it would happen and I took his word for it.

"Oh stop," I dragged out, before walking towards the steps. I spotted Eddie first with a huge smirk plastered on his lips. He always had that look on his face after I finished performing anything. It was intimidating at first, but I soon realized it was his way of saying, 'I'm speechless' or 'That was great'.

"You're a star, girl. Awesome work," He complimented, giving me a high-five as I walked past him.

"Thank you," I blushed, continuing up the aisle to my seat.

Everything was going swimmingly as the time flew by. We had all been working extremely hard for the past few weeks, and what an experience it had been. All of the numbers had been practiced at least once, and we were making good progress, as Connor would say.

Timbers and the book writers had planned a meeting with the entire cast and crew, the week before, to announce that the full script was finished. We'd been doing a lot of improv with multiple scenes, and the book writers had joined us at rehearsals to watch. They've been commenting and asking us to re-enact scenes with different dialogue until they were satisfied with the end results.

Eddie and Kris had also been collaborating to complete the score, which they finally finished. They had been holding private sessions for each song to be learned and performed with the entire orchestra. Because the musicians didn't come in every day, we had to sing it with a piano and guitar in the background on some days.

Eddie wanted us to perform all of the songs with a full orchestra, and 'Dead Mom' was the first song to be chosen for private sessions. Because of that, I hadn't been to full cast rehearsals in a while.

That day was my first day back with everyone because we were all called in to see the first song be performed with a full orchestra. Kris was in the pit conducting the songs for the whole cast and crew for the first time as well. It was a big day for me and all the musicians.

"Sarah Holland, how are you feeling right now?"

As I walked by Rob, he put an imaginary microphone in my face. It caught me off guard at first, but I played along by clearing my throat and placing my hands across my chest.