THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES, like plays and concerts, hold a dress rehearsal in the venue itself. This practice performance features technical tests, performers’ mastery of their roles, and the pacing of the show. The run-through takes out kinks and gets everyone ready for opening night. Even afterwards, tweaks continue to be made to keep the performance fresh and relevant.
A dress rehearsal is performed without a paying audience. The director can intervene and shout corrections or tweaks during the flow of the show. This mock performance tests the actors’ familiarity with their roles, the script memorized and delivered from the heart. Technical glitches are ironed out. (Can you hear us there at the back?)
The musical Chorus Line (1975) uses the audition as its narrative thread. The audition even precedes and leads to the regular rehearsal and the final product. The rousing finale in the play features the song “One” with its glitzy choreography and rousing curtain call.
Businesses have adopted the audition (hiring) and dress rehearsal approach for what they call their “soft opening.” Here, the different moving parts can be determined and properly assigned.
Malls, restaurants, service outlets, and clubs changing concessionaires also adopt this dress rehearsal mode. This not-quite-there-yet level of service accepts paying customers already while lowering their expectations of service levels and delivery times. (We don’t have oysters today.) Why wait until the menu is completely ready? Can the restaurant open its doors and serve real customers with lower expectations? Promotional discounts may be offered as a come-on — But the only dressing we offer today is for Caesar Salad.
Without much fanfare the soft opening sign (now open) is quietly removed after a month. Instead of an actual inauguration featuring balloons and distinguished guests cutting ribbons, the facility then celebrates its first anniversary, a year after… the soft opening date. Maybe a new menu is even added.
Property companies have long practiced this soft-opening phase. They call it “pre-selling.” Printing colorful brochures featuring an architect’s sketch of the development and sample floor plans, aggressive sales teams are formed offering site visits with a bus standing by. They may have just a hole in the ground, maybe not even that, when sales revenues (or deposits) are expected to trickle in. A completion date is vaguely promised — when Jupiter aligns with Mars.
The dress rehearsal for a new employee is called a probationary period. This HR practice allows the company to evaluate how well a new employee fits in and what level of skills he brings along. At the end of this rehearsal, involving a lower salary and only partial benefits (no healthcare coverage), there is the option to regularize the employment status or let the new hire go. Contractual employees do not belong to this category, as they are never regularized.
A soft opening is not always followed by a “hard” opening. Homeowners understand the impatience to move into a house still being completed. Here, the soft-opening phase may include the absence of doors. The impatient homeowner suffers through the smell of paint and dust from the grinding of the mahogany floor with the home still not fully functional. This form of dress rehearsal is expected to speed up the work pace of the already delayed contractors.
Just as openings can be soft, closings can be equally hazy. A small breakfast place you loved and ate at only two months ago during its soft opening may now be boarded up. The doors and windows are papered over as if to prevent you from checking if the familiar print of a fishing village scene is still hanging there.
Vacated places of business always feature a sign on the door announcing a new establishment “soon to open.” A massage place with new décor featuring medical drawings of legs and the blood circulation may be taking over announcing its… soft opening. (Body massage at 50% discount for 15 minutes for seniors.)
Dress rehearsals and soft openings may not be able to guarantee better service once the kinks are eliminated. Being open for business needs to be excellent from opening day. Even a soft opening is expected to deliver good service. Rehearsals are internal to the company… and not meant for a paying audience.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
