The one in which I randomly audition for a musical…

Monday nights, as they usually go, are pretty standard fare round these parts. The aim is to get the boys to bed and then vegetate in a prone position for the rest of the evening.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself randomly auditioning for a musical production. On a Monday.

There was backstory, of course. There always is. I’d received an email from my former high school music teacher. Who is currently conducting my mum’s choir. (This is how small-ish towns work…) Anyhoo, she invited me along to an information night, said nice things about remembering me from back in the day and, well, how could I refuse?

As it turned out, I couldn’t make the information night as Mr6 was ill. So I wandered along the following week, and found myself in a room full of professional-looking people wearing tights. “Are you here for the dance audition?” they asked me, politely. “Dear God, no!” I shrieked, explaining I was just there ‘for a look’ and to see my former music teacher. I sat on the floor and watched as tappers tapped, and people wandered in and out with their backing tapes and sheets of music.

And yet, somehow, I found myself in front of the panel, singing an old jazz standard (having had to Google the words to make sure I wouldn’t forget them). It was an out-of-body experience. I even had to fill out an application – under ‘experience’, I put ‘none in the last 20 years’. Afterwards, I thanked them for being so kind as to listen to me and took my leave.

“How was it?” asked The Builder when I got home and flopped into a chair.

“I think I just randomly auditioned for a musical,” I told him, completely bemused. He literally dissolved into laughter before my eyes.

But the best was yet to come. Last night I got ‘the call’. I’m in. I have a gig. I have no idea what yet, but, really, what can I do but let this play out?

I can only hope there will be sequins and jazz hands involved.