Originally, I wasn't going to put up an actual audition chapter. But, because I got the opening idea stuck in my head, this was born. HOWEVER, I didn't want to put in the lyrics because that just seems to chop up the prose too much, so any reference to the songs from here on in will require cogitation on your part. You should have been cogitating long before this, but this is just a general warning.
COGITATE.
The next few chapters aren't my favorite. But, they need to be there, so...proceed with caution. Oh yes: I know next to nothing about the theater process. I'm taking my cues from my experience in my shcool musicales. So, the few times I do mention technical aspects of the musical, remember that I'm only using the amount of knowledge I've amassed from high school and the internets. I'm making excuses for my ignorance, I know.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
It's well known in the professional world of anything that the best people at their professions can detect something going wrong long before even the most sensitive machines can pick it up. While there are no seismographs in the world of theater, people like Ryan and Sharpay...excuse me, Sharpay and Ryan Evans can act the part with extreme precision.
"It was the milk, I swear, something isn't going to go well," Sharpay whispered to her brother, who stood calmly beside her, having nailed his audition for Raoul. With the delicacy of a fine watchmaker, Ryan flicked some imaginary lint off her dress.
"You're going to do fine," he said.
Amanda looked up from her notes, where she was most likely writing something important. Certainly not total costs for Phantom make-up.
"Shirley? Right, Shirley. You're up. You're singing Christine, right?" A short brunette, who put people in the mind of a dandelion with all the spores attached, stood and nodded. There were a few seconds of silence. Then: "Well? Get up there."
As Shirley made her way noisily onstage, Amanda cast a nervous look over at Gabriella, who seemed to be perfectly calm. This kid was looking for a death wish.
"If you could just sing the last few lines of 'Think of Me,' please?"
"Uh, well, actually—"
"The end of 'Think of Me,' is rather difficult, which is why we're using it. Please." Amanda gestured at the pianist, and steeled herself for the greatest maiming of a song since...well, since something horrific.
She uncringed her muscles a few minutes later, and looked at the apprehensive girl onstage. "Um. Perhaps you should try for something less...opera-like. May I suggest Mame? Next! Gabriella Montez?"
Sharpay started tapping her feet. "You know," Ryan said, "She could just screw up completely. Sing off key. Pull a Janet Jackson."
"Janet Jackson had Justin Timberlake to help her."
"Oh. Right. Well, she could just...do something."
It was a passable performance. She managed to nail the right notes, but it was obvious that Gabriella was about to collapse mentally from nerves.
"Good. Next! Miss...Sharpay Evans." Sharpay smirked as Gabriella wobbled off stage.
"Nice, Montez," she hissed. She flipped her hair triumphantly as she progressed backstage.
"Miss Evans," Amanda protested. "Miss Evans, the audition is held onstage...oh, well, I suppose...I'll just watch..." Sharpay disappeared behind the curtain with Ryan.
"You can do this. She only said 'good.' That's it. You can do awesome. You know it." He ran her through the trilling and the breathing and the first note. "Come on."
It started out fine. It really did. But, as the best professional in the room, she could detect the small shift in the gears long before anyone else could hear it. But she didn't know that no one else could hear it.
The ending. The ending loomed, and she could feel it, it was welling up, threatening to come out if she didn't contain it, her breath was running out, but you can't breathe at the end, you have to legato them, and her head was pounding, because here it was, here was the last few notes, she could hold it, it wouldn't come up, it wouldn't...
To say that she let out the famous "co-oack" of Carlotta would be dramatically ironic and humorous. It would also be wrong, and if Sharpay caught anyone saying that it happened, she will personally knot his arms behind his head and then shred his ears to ribbons. And then break his toes.
To say that she hit the note, wavering a little, and with a slightly pained expression on her face would be accurate. She ended, took a deep breath away from the mike, and looked expectantly at wherever Amanda happened to be. Damn lights on the stage.
A thin clap radiated from the rows, and she was duly satisfied.
"Um. That was wonderful, Sharpay. We'll be looking for you when callbacks come around," came the disembodied voice.
It was fine. It was fine. Ryan received her with a smile, and he even told her she was fine. A small tremor ran through her body, leaving small track marks, the after effects of her near-meltdown.
She accidentally broke a man's toes on her way home, Ryan and others in tow. Well, her heel dug into the toe of his shoe, but that was because he got in the way. It didn't matter, though, because she was fine. But, from deep within the theater, the Evans twins could hear the clicking. Something was going wrong.
You all know what the results of the auditions, so...
Just review!