Adventures in Theatre: Near Epic Fail with a Memory Trick

A well-known memory trick for singers:  Think of the next line you're supposed to be singing while you are singing the previous line.  It's a great way to stay one step ahead and not run the risk of forgetting the words.

Well, I do this with "Something Wonderful" from The King and I, which is my 11 o'clock number in A Grand Night for Singing.  However, last night I almost had an epic fail right from the get go.

The first line is:  "This is a man who thinks with his heart, his heart is not always wise."  While was singing the first part of that, I was thinking of the next line, "This is a man who stumbles and falls, but this is a man who tries."  Well, something got switched in my brain and I fumbled a bit on "...his heart is not always wise", because my brain told me to sing something about stumbling.  I knew I was supposed to sing about stumbling yet, so I kind of fumbled for a second and then sang the correct thing.  It was literally a split second, which as many actors know, feels like 10 minutes of stage time.  But I got back on, concentrated a little harder and made it through the song.

That is the first time this has happened to me on this song!  Yikes!!!  I've messed up words before in other songs, other shows, but it wasn't as obvious a mistake as that one.  And I'm sure the audience didn't notice, but I NOTICED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yeesh.