Rainbow and Hair were both closed and a friend told me to audition for a production going up at the Playhouse on the Mall in Paramas, NJ. The theater was getting a good rep for quality work. I got to the audition and it was very casual, very friendly. I  met Wesley-the director and then asked the pianist to play me a verse or two of “O Great God of Power” from Act 2. But just to throw some personality at him I said I only knew the song in German and he said that’s fine: he only knew it in French. It all clicked and I got the job.

It would be a smaller cast as the theater and stage were very small. We did most all of the show as written and thankfully excluded “The Bed”. It was a fun enough song and dance but it came after most of the show was over and only the emotional scene and final songs were left. I had been told this number was cut on Broadway matinee days as it was just too much after doing the whole show. We had the same blocking as the Broadway production so all of us were on stage as part of the action or just watching it happen.

Most of the company had been in the show as it recently closed on Broadway or toured America in it or were in Rainbow with me, two had come from Dude after it closed. I was the least experienced in “professional” theater, having spent my time downtown where we may have been crazy but were not rude and hiding behind a rule book for protection.

Even with a short rehearsal time everyone was cool and enjoyed doing the show. But, there was an undercurrent of meanness from a couple of the black kids. One of their group had played the ‘young recruit’ when the show closed and even though I was cast in the part, for some reason I was asked to let him do it in rehearsals. Then we kept having visitors and he was still doing the part for them at their request, until I stopped it happening so I’d have one shot at it before opening night. I thought everything was ok till the scene came up in performance. A chair and desk were rolled in and I sat talking to the army recruiter behind the desk. He was on a microphone commenting and making sound effects: ”he entered the room” (door creaks, he stomps loudly to the desk). He says he wants to go to Viet Nam get a rifle  and kill, kill, kill then a lot of business with an actor in a gorilla suit, then it ends.

Since I hardly ever went through it I wasn’t aware that some of the black tribe members were right by me at the edge of the stage, within inches. They taunted me and made snotty noises all through my bit. I was rattled but was told it’d been good even though they had tried to trip me on my exit.

All things considered it was a great experience and I made a few friends I still see and enjoy being with.