Thank you Cleveland!

[fancycwabs]

Sunday's performance had the usual matinee flukes: The bird I was supposed to kill fell out of the cage onto the stage early on in the scene, and nobody thought to pick it up, so it just lay there dead for the duration, while the stage manager gave me a replacement. I palmed it (as much as someone can palm a six-inch long bird), and when the time came, I reached into the empty cage, turned my hand over, and voila! Magic bird appearance! My castmates were impressed, anyway. The audience was probably still staring at the original dead bird lying on the ground in the spotlight, which eventually got kicked offstage during the transition to "Pirelli's Elixir."

Later, at the end of the "Sweet Polly Plunket" section of "Parlor Songs," I threw up the horns, which got a laugh, even if it was mostly out-of-character. I later apologized to Mrs. Lovett for deviating from the script, but she hadn't even noticed that I'd made the gesture.

I don't know if it was stress-related, depression-related (I hope not), or just garden-variety exhaustion, but about 8 last night I fell out and slept for nearly ten hours, waking up at 11 for a minute or so and again at 3. I'm hoping that was a one-shot deal to get some sleep cycle things back in order.