It was an hour and a half before curtain on opening night for "Bussit!," the Lab! Theatre production that billed itself as "a hip-hop musical."
Suspender-clad dancers bopped around in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre as Cyrous Ardalan, play co-creator, warmed up with his band, sending electric guitar chords spitting out from its setup behind a screen of black scrim.
Meanwhile, the cast members wandered about, waiting for their own warmup. Zoe Bell, curlers dripping from her gray wig, belied her elderly look by jumping.
"I have so much energy, I don't know what to do with it," she said.
Taking a different approach was Joe Pugliese, who lounged in the bleachers, wearing the brown polyester slacks and gold turtleneck of his character, washed-up record mogul Solid Gold Card Zillionaire.
"It's a very demanding role," he joked. It's Friday, April 11, and he's been juggling late rehearsals on top of regular classes.
"It's been a long week," he said.
When it was warmup time, the cast members circled and began a game of improv acting volleyball.
Stage manager Kim Kallianos carefully negotiated around them. Someone shouted a question about when the house should open for the 8:15 p.m. curtain. "It'll open at 7:55. If you open at 7:45, no one sits down," she responded.
The theater had just acquired a third microphone, so Kallianos tested its limits. She handed the mic to Ardalan, who belted out a few bars of Boyz II Men's "End of the Road." "I sound so good!" he said.
But Kallianos wasn't so sure.
"There are a million people out there, so she's opening it now!" someone shouted, the door opening 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
The cast members scurried to their dressing rooms as Ardalan unleashed a war cry. And within three minutes, people were backed up out of the door into the lobby.
The boisterous Friday night crowd cheered when the house lights went down and whistled when they spotted their friends in the opening dance number, which went off without a hitch.
After delivering one of the night's funniest lines -- "These goddamn pantaloons are chafing the bejesus out of me" -- Pugliese nearly cracked up. And when a mistimed scene change left a prop handler on stage after the lights came up, Pugliese managed to stay in character. "Thanks, short bearded man," he said.
During a duet, voices crackled over the sound system. A glance up confirmed that the singers were on the mezzanine level, and their mic bore the neon green strip.
Backstage, Pugliese ran out of his dressing room in street clothes to shouts of "Y'all fucking rock!" Ardalan's band played exit music for a few minutes, then shed their instruments, flushed and happy.
"I'm on top of the world," Ardalan said. "If all the shows go like this one, I'll be thrilled."
He grinned, making his way into the throng of well-wishers. Kallianos also wove her way through the crowd but graciously extracted herself to collect stray programs left on the seats.
After all, even if opening night was a smashing success, there were still five shows left to go.
Contact the A&E Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
