Pastore and the director, Tony Parise, are teaching a group of guys in jeans and t-shirts--only one of them, surprisingly, is wearing heels--the routine of one of the hardest pieces in the show.

Pastore and Parise seem to face the difficult task of trying to mold a group of awkward men--who do not have the luxury of costumes at this point--into an exotic group of provocative females.

"You've got to be Bette Midler!" Parise emphatically tells Rosenberg, who has the lead in this number.

Other diva references abound. "You have to do it tougher," Pastore tells the group. "It's Tina Turner, not the Supremes."

The seven or so actors lumber around the stage, jutting their hips, thrusting their pelvises and pushing up non-existent breasts as they sing the chorus: "Stick out your chest, pucker your lips, throw out your tush and shake your hips!"

Crunch Time

Long hours, repeated rehearsals, and grueling dance numbers are part of a show that is put together in only three weeks.

While the business staff begins work in September in selecting a show, almost all other aspects of the production begin the day after first semester exams are over, co-producer Jason M. Sobol '97 says.

"It's pure crunch time," he says.

As producer, Sobel works somewhere between 80 to 100 hours a week during intersession and anywhere between 40 to 60 hours a week after that.

The rest of the cast rehearses up to ten hours a day during intersession and four or more hours a night during the weeks prior to the show.

"It's masochistic," Siemens says.

"It's pretty crazy to put up a song and dance show in three weeks," Bakal says.

As the cast gives 40 sold-out performances in Cambridge, New York, and Bermuda, it's no wonder that many consider their time at The Pudding to be a hectic two months.

"This is a full-time job in itself," says Bakal.