Cue the Sparks

Off to one side of the big rehearsal room, Camille Bennett sat in tense anticipation, fighting to rein in her excitement. At any second now, Rhett Calloway was supposed to walk in, the Rhett Calloway. She felt nearly dizzy with it, yet she forced herself to stay composed because she meant to hold on to her job. People had high expectations for the musical, 'Save the Last Dance,' a romantic comedy set in the 1960s, built around songs from that decade, and written by Adrian Cole. Adrian served as Artistic Director for the Lennox Playhouse and was widely seen as one of Broadway's most successful directors of his era. Though he had collected several Tonys for directing over the years, he was trying his hand at playwriting for the first time, and by stepping into the Artistic Director role at The Lennox, he could guarantee his play a place in the current season. The Lennox, for its part, gained a major name whose presence lent authority to every production, whether Adrian had written it or not. Adrian had also convinced a handful of famous friends to back the project. Adrian believed the arts had a unique grace: however famous someone became, helping another artist was never treated as a comedown. Not that Adrian counted as any sort of step back for the stars he had persuaded to join the production. They had only ten weeks for rehearsal and, given that 'Save the Last Dance,' was a first outing with a script no audience had ever seen, the schedule was wildly ambitious. But Adrian believed he could make it work with the professionals he had assembled. Along with Rhett Calloway, the female lead was Sloane Keating, a very famous star from film and television. Her voice was not especially strong for a stage house, but Adrian thought her box-office pull would more than compensate. Adrian believed he had cast America's sweetheart opposite the boy next door. Camille wanted badly to find out whether Rhett Calloway could actually sing. She knew his movies by heart and had lusted after him like every other American woman, but this would be his first part that demanded singing. For the past six months she had worked support staff for The Lennox, a small Off-Broadway theater, and she had pushed hard to land the Production Assistant job on 'Save the Last Dance,' now that rehearsals were beginning. No one at The Lennox knew Adrian was both her godfather and a close friend of Camille Bennett's grandmother, Moira Bennett. That connection had gotten her offered a theater job because Camille, who had never imagined the theater as a career, had needed extra money. During one of their weekly dinners, Adrian had mentioned that The Lennox was hiring support staff, and Camille had applied. As Production Assistant, or PA, her task was to fade into the background until someone needed her while recording everything that took place in rehearsal. So she sat in the back on an unforgiving metal chair and waited. She only hoped she looked calmer than she felt. Adrian had not revealed the leads until that morning, and because she had not expected to meet a movie star, she certainly had not dressed to impress a famous actor. She had shoved her curly red hair beneath a baseball cap, and because the theater stayed cold, she had wrapped herself in a big sweatshirt and worn-out faded jeans. The result was that she was easily the most poorly dressed person there. "All right, everyone, let's begin." The cast milled around the big room, where a long table and chairs had been set out. It was the script's first read-through, and with only ten weeks to get the show stage-ready, the cast carried a taut, nervous energy. The supporting company was strong too, a blend of recognizable Broadway names and veteran film faces. They filled the kinds of roles played by people you always recognized on screen even if you never quite remembered what they were called. Camille watched them settle into their seats with scripts open before them. One chair remained empty and, glancing around the table, it was clear the absentee was Rhett Calloway. She kept an eye on Adrian, who, somewhat surprisingly, did not seem bothered by it. Adrian was usually strict about punctuality. Then the door burst wide, and Rhett Calloway hurried in, making directly for the empty seat beside Sloane, and every gaze swung to him as he pulled the room's energy squarely onto himself.