Jesus Christ Superstar - 1978

My first foray into musical theatre. The band was surprised at suddenly being called 
"Aces And Eights Rock Band."  My next show was decades later. I have a cassette recording of one of the nights and it’s surprisingly good - the band really shines. I was the music director because I was very familiar with the double album.

Few people know that it was a stage musical before it was a movie. The movie changed the title to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was extended several times and ran all summer, four shows a week. The  band was visible to the audience, which is unusual, and we were part of  the show, hamming it up as much as possible. (It came so natural.) I  was now hooked.  

This was at the San Jose Children's Theatre, which was a challenge, with dozen of kids running around. And that was just the cast. It was also a bit confusing, as there were two shows a day, one right after the other. "Is it intermission or is the show over? I need to ask someone."

My introduction to Stephanie Prentice Haines. I was at her audition and my life was never the same. (In a good way!) I made my theatre singing debut (again the band - both of us - were visible) on the tune All That Jazz, with Kereli Jones practically draped all over the piano. A fabulous cast! 

The orchestra pit was under the stage, which was rather crowded as the chorus was down there too. I still think it was the best music Andrew Lloyd Weber ever wrote. Gus, Bill, Gerald and I were really starting to feel like a band. My most vivid memory is a female member of the chorus bringing beer to the band during a show and being fired shortly afterwards. 

Five of the most talented ladies I've ever had the pleasure to work with, all in one show. No guitarist in this one so I was able to use my keyboards to the max. Lots of familiar faces in the band. Gabby Horlick was the sub drummer some nights (she was in high school at the time) and she’ll later show up in Rocky 2 and Badoom Saloon.

I wrote much of the music, arranged and scored it, and hired and rehearsed the band. 20 - count em' - 20 songs! Stephanie shows up again.

I was the sub keyboard player, which means I played when the regular guy had a card game. This ran for months - eight shows a week.

New cast and production but the same insane show. I pulled triple duty -  rehearsal pianist, keyboards some nights, bass guitar some nights. This time Gabby played drums and Gerald subbed for her.
One  night no one in the audience yelled out the call back to “Say goodbye  to all this” (“Goodbye all this!”)  so I did it myself. I was severely  reprimanded for that misdemeanor.