(Additional content by Frank Kurtz)
On November 2nd at Paramount Studios, the cast of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER gathered together for the premiere event for the much heralded musical episode of the series, "Once More With Feeling."
Joss Whedon, Alyson Hannigan, Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters and Michelle Michelle Trachtenberg were all on hand for the even.
Before stepping in to view the show, Whedon spoke of the project, saying, "I've always, always, always wanted to do a musical and Buffy is so much like a musical anyway. It's with it's heart on it's sleeve... half the time you feel like they're going to burst into song any minute but they just don't. And this time they will!"
When asked if he knew they could all sing, Whedon answers, "I didn't know they could all sing, that was lucky! I knew that a lot of them could sing because they would come to my house and sing. And we would sit around and James would play guitar and Tony would sing and I knew I had a lot of heavy hitters. That's when I thought. 'okay I'm really going to do this. I'm going to put them all to the test.'...Some people like to sing more and some like to dance more. I sort of tailored the show to whoever did it."
Amber Benson confirms the details of those gatherings at Whedon's house, saying, "We do Shakespearean readings at Joss' house every few Sundays, and afterwards it always degenerates into a lot of singing and dancing and making fun of ourselves. Joss will do a Grateful Dead song and I'll sing along, so he knew I could sing and he knew Tony could sing. And he took the leap of faith that we would all go for it and we did."
Benson spoke of what she thought was the toughest part of the episode, saying, "For me it was dancing. I had this little number and singing to Willow and that was really difficult because I hadn't danced in a long time. When I was a little kid I'd done tap dancing and stuff, but never trying to dance and sing at the same time, it was difficult."
Alyson Hannigan feared the singing, saying, "I was pretty much petrified. I tried to convince him not to do it, I said I could have laryngitis, right? They can do wonders with the little music making machine. My singing was not as terrible as I thought. But still I'm not quitting my day job! I asked him, 'please, as little singing as possible for me.'"
James Marsters was pretty scared, too. He revealed, "I was terrified, as was everyone else. We were asked to do professional singing. Joss writes very confusing musical. He's like Stephen Sondheim in which [I mean] that the note you are searching for is not necessarily contained in the chord that's being played... the chord is coming up and the note will be given to you in the next phrase which is very Sondheim. It's very complicated and it's very demanding on the singer. We were terrified."
When asked how he felt about his performance in the program's closing moments, Marsters gets coy, saying, "I can't answer that question... but I have a very good job! And I enjoy it very much!"
Click on the thumbnails here and below to see the larger images from the premiere event.
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