Member- HonoraryNerd
- 5 years ago
- Wedding: September 2015
Tonight I performed with the city choir in a christmas concert with our symphony orchestra and a local college’s hand bell choir. This was our second performance of this set, so we all pretty much knew everything to expect. At one point in the show, Santa comes on stage and exchanges banter with the conductor and narrates The Night Before Christmas. After this, what’s supposed to happen is that the conductor asks Santa what song they should do next and he says to do a song about his sleigh and ths show finishes with Sleigh Ride.
Well, they changed it up tonight. After he narrated, the conductor said that before we could continue, he needed to pick a couple volunteers from the audience to help out. So the theatre is quiet and these two little girls on the 2nd level shout out, “SANTA!!” to get him to pick them and everyone laughs. I was like, Pick them Santa!! I had no idea why we were getting volunteers, we hadn’t done that before and no one said anything about it. The girls were super excited though, whatever it was I thought they should get picked.
Santa didn’t pick them, though, he brought up a couple, looked about in their 30s. They’re passed a microphone, introduce themselves. Santa asks how they know eachother (boyfriend and girlfriend) and how long they’ve been dating (8 months). Then Santa says that he thinks he has a gift for them in his bag. Goes over, pulls out a ring box and passes it to the guy. The audience (HUNDREDS of people, it was a full house) goes crazy cheering as he gets down on one knee. I’m sure he was talking, but all I caught was “You’re gorgeous. Will you marry me?” The woman looked completely panicked, like she didn’t know what to do. I’m assuming she said yes as there was more cheering and he put the ring on her, then they kissed and walked offstage so we could finish the concert.
It was definitely memorable, but that poor woman looked so alarmed. It wouldn’t surprise me if after the shock has worn off, she tells him they need to slow down and think things through. To each his own, if that was her dream proposal, awesome. I just can’t imagine, after being with someone for 8 months, feeling confident enough to propose, let alone in front of a MASSIVE audience adding pressure to say yes.
On top of that, from the performer’s perspective, we had to adjust the timing of the rest of the concert for his proposal. The symhpony is union, once they hit their time, they don’t play. It’s a very serious issue. So not only did we have to cut short the concert slightly, but he also had to cut short his proposal. The best time to propose would have been during intermission (I’ve seen this done before, during RENT, a man proposed to his boyfriend right before the 2nd act began and the cast came out to sing Seasons of Love). There would have been more time without inconveniencing anyone or being put on a timer. People would have been milling about instead of watching, but maybe that would have been easier on her? Who knows. We wish all the best to the couple with their future marriage, but still. We were all just like, “Really?”
