After the last rant about Nanki-Poo's general bad attitude in the last blog, let me come out and say that he has got his act together and is acting more like a gentleman and more like the person I thought he was in Oliver! I'm very much relieved about that, because if things had carried on the way they were, there would have been an explosion before the week was up, I am convinced of it.

Sunday was the technical dress rehearsal, but it wasn't, at first, much of a rehearsal in the way we were expecting. We started off going over the finale, which had been a little rusty, and then various isolated scenes requiring particular lighting. When it got later and later, and we hadn't had a full run-through, some people got a little agitated, especially Pitti-Sing-1, whose penultimate rehearsal this was. In the end, we went through the musical numbers, mainly the chorus's scenes as we were least confident, and the scenes featuring Pitti, though Pooh-Bah was absent, investigating whether his van had been broken into, so I heard.

On Monday we had the orchestra in. It was my final rehearsal as Pitti-Sing, and where I had gone wrong before, I made the effort to do right, and only made a couple of minor boo-boos: starting "for he's going to marry Yum-Yum," too slowly, and getting my foot caught in my kimono when I went to stand up for "Braid the Raven Hair." The latter song is my least favourite part of the show. The verse is too high and warbly and hard to sing in one breath. "Braid the raven hai-air, weave the su-u-u-u-upple tre-ess." And Pitti's verse, too. I've only sung it a few times - five or six maximum on stage, and I'm never quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing while I'm singing. Also, it changes speed halfway through the verse. On Thursday I took my eyes off the conductor at that point and got lost. Monday, however, I watched the conductor until I was in the swing of it, then turned to Yum-Yum.

After the rehearsal I was exhilarated, chattering non-stop. It hadn't been absolutely perfect, but it went well. None of the little maids were unhappy, and I had really felt I was Pitti-Sing, especially in the first act, and especially when confronting Katisha. Katisha is a fantastic person to act with. She takes so much pleasure out of being over-the-top that it gives everyone else the confidence to give it that bit more welly as well. (The opposite effect from Nanki-Poo on Thursday.) In the dressing rooms I was twittering about how much I was in love with the part, how she was so much fun to play. Pitti-1 was wonderfully supportive, saying how my expression in the Act 1 Finale was fantastic, convincingly angry. (She's so sweet. She seems to think the world of me, and be pleased for me when she could quite easily be jealous of me taking one of the performances.) But before too long, Peep-Bo and Yum-Yum were shouting at me, "Katherine, get undressed!" At going on 11PM, I was still in my costume, hyper as ever.

That evening's rehearsal was blighted, however by some tragic news of one of the chorus. This lady had been absent from rehearsals, leaving our group of four in "Comes a train of little ladies," diminished by two, where I was Pitti and V was absent. At the end of the rehearsal, the director told us that V's teenage son had died suddenly that day. We all went home stunned and shocked. He was just the age of Pitti-1; Peep-Bo had taught him at school. A sad end to an otherwise fantastic rehearsal.

There was one more rehearsal on Tuesday, and even that wasn't a non-stop run-through, for they had to go over a couple of bits with the orchestra. Then Wednesday was opening night.

This is where I must leave you, as I leave for another show in five minutes. I won't have a chance to blog again before the end of the run - my turn comes tomorrow at 2.30, then the final show is tomorrow evening. So I'll tell you about the real thing probably on Sunday afternoon. If I'm not asleep.