Last night was Opening Night of

, in which I play nightclub singer Miss Adelaide, who has been engaged to her man, Nathan Detroit for 14 years, and has developed a psychosomatic cold as a result of being kept on the hook so long. Nathan is played by my friend Jonathan, who I met in last year's Lawyer Show. On Tuesday night, J's very-pregnant wife was sitting in the audience during dress rehearsal. "That's nice," I thought. "She came to watch a rehearsal!" Well, it turned out she also came because her water had broken (three weeks early) and she was going into labour.

Fast forward to yesterday at 4 pm. An email came from our director. Baby was not yet here, and Jonathan was likely not going to make Opening Night.

We have no understudy.

So - who was going to go on as leading man?

Well, a woman.

That's right - it turned out that our best choice for Nathan's understudy was actually our assistant director, Skye - who went on in a suit, fedora, and with a book in her hand.

I was stressed beyond belief, but it actually went really well. The audience was very supportive of our last-minute casting change, and gave us a standing ovation at the end of the night. We were told later that it was the most well-attended opening night performance of any show in the history of the

Waterfront Theatre

!

There are only two more chances to see the Lawyer Show - tonight and Saturday (Friday night is completely sold out). You can buy tickets

here

. The show is a fundraiser for Carousel Theatre for Young People and Touchstone Theatre. You get a tax receipt with your ticket purchase.