What a week!

Ray Mangion tells Ramona Depares about the myriad problems involved in putting up a musical

This year we have moved from the Mediterranean Conference Centre to Sir Temi Zammit at the University. The MCC is really far too expensive and we did not want to charge the audience more than they can afford. At the end of the day people have a budget for entertainment and if the tickets exceed this budget… they just will not buy. Thankfully we have moved away from the mentality that a show must be staged at the ‘in’ place if it is to be any good. People have come to realise that we have many places that are ideal for theatrical productions.

Life is very hectic because besides Jesus Christ Superstar we are also preparing for another concert in May at the Manoel. I’m very excited about this project, we will be having extracts from Evita and other well-known musicals. You can imagine how difficult juggling two productions at the same time is… To cap it all, we are also finalising the preparations for Oliver’s medical procedure. We are due to leave for England very soon and we haven’t even made any plans for accommodation. Having to stay in England for some six months is no joke, money-wise. Poor Oliver will probably be bed-ridden for quite a while after the operation and he will be needing some heavy physiotherapy, which means six month is really the minimum. As it happens, the area where the hospital is situated is one of the most expensive. We really want to sort everything out before we leave so that once there we can use all our energies on Oliver instead of worrying about the cost of living there! Thank goodness the operation is financed by the Government, otherwise we would never have afforded it.

Oliver’s special condition and my theatrical commitments make life a big of a jig-saw puzzle at the moment. At some point I will have to leave Oliver and my wife Alison alone in England to come back and oversee the second production. I want to make sure that the company is still going strong even in my absence. And we also have a couple of projects with the Malta Tourism Authority which are very close to my heart, so I don’t want to lose track of them. Then hopefully, we will all come back together.

All in all I’m happy that life is so hectic, otherwise if I just sat down to think about what is going to happen I’d probably go mad. But I must say that being in Malta is lovely because everyone is so ready to help. When it comes to traumatic times you need the sympathy of others. And you have to learn to give a little bit of that sympathy back: both Alison and I have learnt so much and we are happy whenever we can help someone else in turn.

But back to some happier subjects. Preparations for Jesus Christ Superstar started some seven weeks ago and I really enjoyed the rehearsals. This is one of my favourites and I know the lyrics and the music by heart. What I do find difficult is delegating and organising everything. And finding men to take part in musicals is next to impossible!

Then, of course, there is that not so small matter of getting everyone to attend rehearsals at the same time: the availability of the people I employ is always a sore issue. Luckily we always manage to work a minor miracle and manage… Now we’ve devised a system where we accommodate the schedule to that of the ‘stars’. When ActReact first started, we said that whoever did not turn up at rehearsals was out. Now we know better. Malta is small and everyone has two or three jobs, we have to accept that. If we had continued with our initial philosophy we’d have ended up with no actors and actresses.

We do try to get the best people for our musicals but we also like to give new faces a chance. I am proud to use people whose names are relatively new on the show bizz scene.

What makes this production different from others? The music will be the same as always, by Andrew Lloyd Weber but the story will be given a modern twist. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Jesus were to come back today? I bet that we’d do exactly the same as 2002 years ago. We’d still be ignoring him! I hope that the message of this musical will be that we should be prepared for Him to be back amongst us…

On a more mundane note, as I was explaining earlier, when it comes to rehearsals how do we cope with the issue of availability? By involving only those people who are really needed. We try not to stay too long at night either, half past ten at the maximum. I really do not know which is the most difficult part: whether it’s organising rehearsals, finishing set and costumes on time, selling enough tickets… everything has its own importance.

What is sure is that it will be more difficult to stage a musical at university because there isn’t a real stage, only a platform. And with a live orchestra on stage with the actors, everything gets a hundred times more difficult.

I still get butterflies in my stomach everytime before a performance, terrible ones actually. A bit of adrenalin keeps me on my toes! But then when I actually get on stage all my tension melts away and I forget everything except for the part. The satisfaction of seeing a full house, of observing the people’s reactions and of getting a standing ovation at the end… These are all priceless. We’ve always got a standing ovation every night of every performance, there is no better gift to lift the spirits of everyone!

At present we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for the bookings. The first two performances are always the hardest as you never quite know whether you will have a full house or not. The following ones get easier, word of mouth gets around and suddenly people start making dozens of bookings – hopefully, but that’s the way things have always worked out. The important thing is to build a name and a reputation (a good one!) for yourself. And to treat the audience right, of course.