RICKY BLUE

Don Juan was a wuss

For the last three weeks I have been falling in love every night in front of 250 people. And I'll continue doing it for the next three weeks — with a matinee on Saturday and Sunday.

Granted, I am on stage at the Centaur Theatre, wearing a wig and playing a twenty-one-year-old.

But it still seems weird. It's not what I'm used to. I make my living being half of a musical/comedy duo. We make people laugh with jokes, funny songs, and voices -- in the best Vaudeville tradition.

Now, I find myself singing love songs and being sincere. I must admit that I do like it.

Not just the falling in love bit, but the experience of being someone else for a couple of hours. Being oneself can be extremely wearying after a while. Especially when you have to be me. But this spring I get to go out under the lights and be young and fall in love for the first time at Expo 67.

There are worse ways to make a living. The hours are difficult. The theatre needs me at exactly the same time my family does.

I have to leave my house not long after six p.m. each night, which puts an uncomfortable rush on dinner. On the weekends, I hardly see my kids at all. I come home late, sleep in, and am not much help around the house.

Hey — just like a twenty-one year-old. Maybe I'm getting into this role a little too much.

But being part of this show is a great experience. Each night we roll through it. Each night it gets better: tighter and crisper.

Each night the audiences enjoy it more. The show is like a big machine. Backstage, actors are coming and going and costumes and props are flying around. We all know our lines now. On stage, we listen to each other.

We react.

Sometimes we hit the cues hard, and sometimes we don't. Sometimes the pace is leisurely. What was that?

An eighteen-wheeler just drove through that pause. Opening night was tough.

It was only the fifth time we had ever run through the whole show. The audience was suspicious and judgmental. I was rattled.

At one point, I was on stage without my book: a vital prop. I had to think quickly.

Doing just that, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. For the rest of the scene it was passed between the actors as my book.

The show is a romantic musical comedy — with a satirical spin. Many people tell me they like it. And in theory, it sounds good.

In fact, I would really like to see it. But I can't because I am always in the middle of it.

I envy all the other normal playwrights in the world who are not expected be in their own plays.

Imagine Tennessee Williams as Stanley Kowalski. I'll bet he would have had to wear a wig, too.

The love scenes are the most challenging. There are only a couple and they are quite innocent, but the story hinges on them.

The attraction between the "young" lovers has to be convincing. So I have to make 250 people believe that I am really falling in love. It's difficult.

Even Don Juan only had to make one person believe he was falling in love: the woman he was seducing at the time. What a wuss! He had it easy.