Only 22 shows left. Last time I checked, I was the musical director. Something happened in tonight's show that's never happened before, but it was such a major issue that it absolutely cannot happen again (and I'll try to explain clearly for the non-theatre crowd out there). We use a click track (essentially a metronome) during 3 numbers, and I hit the button that triggers the click. During "Steppin' to the Bad Side," I give a cue to the 4 actors onstage to cut off the notes they're singing (at the point in question), then I cue both the actors and the drummer onstage to start up again, while I press the button. Well tonight, I gave the cue - the drummer (Trevor) went with me, and the click track started. However, the actors decided to come in a beat late. This is a huge problem, because there are recorded vocals later on in the song. Therefore, once the vocals started, I had to yell measure numbers at the band to adjust for the missed beat. Thankfully, everyone got lined up before a huge catastrophe occurred when the ensemble comes onstage to do their most difficult dance routine of the show.
So, as musical director, I went to each of the 4 guys who were involved after the show and told them individually that I'm calling a 10-minute rehearsal tomorrow night before the show. Do you know that three of the four admitted that they don't even look at me for that cue? Do you know that all four of them blamed either me or Trevor for tonight's gaffe? But at least three of them reluctantly agreed to the rehearsal, without giving me sass. One had the nerve to give me lip in front of Trevor, Darryl (keyboard 1) and Ray. Are you telling me that he would be talking back to any other musical director? How can an ensemble member give the MD sass for giving him a note - i.e., doing my job? What, because this is my first time as MD of a touring company? So I gave it back to him. I don't care if this hasn't happened before, it will not happen again, and we're gonna run this a few times to make sure we're all on the same page. Jeez. Well, if nothing else, I've definitely grown one hell of a backbone on this show, and when I get my next show, I'll be a hard-ass from day one, so that there is no confusion about where I stand and that I won't be taking any crap from anybody. Sometimes, these actors drive me insane. This is not a democracy - I'm the MD, and if I call a rehearsal, then your ass will be at the rehearsal. Period. OK, I'm done. I need a drink - going to take care of that right now...
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Nearing the Final Stretch
Holy shitballs, it’s December. This year has totally been an example of time flying, yet standing still. Sure, that’s an oxymoron, but when you do the same 2 hour, 45 minute show 382 times over the course of a year, time can really slow down because of the repetition. But looking back, it doesn’t feel like I’ve done the show 382 times. Weird feeling, I know. But it’s December in Memphis, where it got down to 29 degrees last night, accompanied by an earlier mix of rain, sleet and snow (nothing measurable but still a reminder that winter’s coming). 29 degrees on Tuesday after 81 in West Palm Beach last Sunday.
It’s been a fun few weeks since I last wrote. Indy was cool, even though we ended nearly every night at the one bar within walking distance from the hotel – Friday’s. Felt like Costa Mesa all over again. But at least the staff was nice, especially Byron. We all made friends with him (he’s a Facebook friend now, too) and even chipped in to buy him and a friend tickets to the Sunday matinee. Real cool guy, poured a little extra in our glasses for no extra cost, you get my drift. Indy is Moya’s hometown, so she really gave it her all that week…although she did it for an interesting collection of houses. We had a good crowd opening night, but Wed and Thurs were far from packed. So for the weekend, we did $15 seats for the entire house – crazy. I couldn’t imagine sitting in the 7th row for $15, but that’s what happened that weekend in Indy. The show is really hemorrhaging money and are cutting costs at whatever expense. I won’t get into the nitty gritty, but our union takes good care of its musicians. Right now, in Memphis, we’re on the 8th of 8 consecutive one-weekers (all that remains is a week off, a week in Buffalo and a week in Detroit). That means, we’ve had shows Tues-Sun and traveled every Monday – in essence, not having a true day off in two months. Our union deems that we should get 2 “golden days” – i.e., days completely void of work and/or travel – every 28 days. So we’re entitled to overtime on 5 Mondays at $100 a pop. But instead of paying each band member the full five hundo, they bargained us down to $250. We figured it was the right thing to do, since we intend to work for some of our bosses again.
OK, highlight time. Troubling experience in Charlotte. Racism still exists in the South. Had a great week in Charlotte – darts with the boys on gentlemen’s night, boneless chicken wings at Hooters, bowling night with the cast, solid band, good audiences (including a pair of ladies that bought me dinner after the Sunday matinee and thanked me for turning around to talk to them before the show), amazing soul food at Mert’s for our opening night party…I think you see that I had fun in Charlotte. However, on Saturday night, a dozen drunk, white college kids assaulted one of our cast members and her soon-to-be-husband in the hotel. Epithets were tossed, hotel security was useless, even the police didn’t do as much as they could have…especially the black cop. Because the ringleader was some star linebacker at Wingate, he and his cronies only got a slap on the week…please leave the hotel premises immediately. We all know that if it had been the other way around, we would have been in cuffs, getting hauled away as the local news videotaped. Won’t go into any more details, but I’m still outraged that something like that could happen in 2010. Moving on. Indy – gave a calm, yet firm and professional speech to the cast during our sound check. Told them they were getting sloppy with cutoffs and energy and that we’re all here to do a full and complete show. It was the beginning of week 4 of being MD, so I felt that it was time I assert some power. The cast was positively surprised and responded quite well to my notes. However, within a few shows, some of their old habits began creeping back in, causing me to become frustrated. Since I’ve been conducting a lot, I know how good the show can be when everyone gives it his/her all, and I become ticked off when the show isn’t at its best. Well, my frustration escalated through Charlotte and boiled over opening night in Tampa. That show was truly mediocre, which is unacceptable, especially for an opening night. And I felt that since the cast wasn’t listening to me, I should write to someone a little more powerful than I. I wrote an e-mail to Ray (our production stage manager), Sam (our former MD) and Aaron (our GM back in NYC). Very harshly worded letter, with a snippiness that I later apologized for, that really stirred up emotions amongst the ensemble once they read it on the call board.
I tried to find an example to explain to the cast how things work, and this is what I told them. Back when I was playing the show, Sam was my boss. If he came to me after a rehearsal or a show and said that he didn't hear a certain chord in a particular measure in a given song then, regardless of whether or not I actually played it, I didn't play it. I could know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I played that chord. I could bet my life savings on the fact that I played that chord. But guess what? It doesn't matter. Sam is my boss, and he's right. If he didn't hear the chord, then I didn't play it. The next time I play that song, my job is simple: hit that chord with more conviction, so that he hears it. Case closed, problem solved, and I'll never get that note again. But these actors don't see it that way. Long story short, I felt that if they wouldn’t listen to me, then I had to go to a higher source. I may have lost the respect or friendship of a couple, but I hope I gained that of others. When we’re in the theatre, I’m not their friend first but instead, their musical director, and when the music is sung in a half-ass fashion, that looks badly on me, because it’s my name is in the program under “musical direction by”. Enough of my rant – bottom line is that the shows since opening night in Tampa have been decidedly better musically, and I let the higher ups know that as well. To get the blessing of Ray (who directly told me that I’m doing a great job) and many of my other co-workers and bosses for being firm and strict and trying to get the best out of our show was truly touching. Totally something I can build on when – not if – but when I get my next show. Saw a good buddy of mine, Todd, down in Tampa. He lives there now with his girlfriend, Katie, and works at the National Weather Service. We went to grad school at Georgia Tech together. Had a couple of wild nights with them and a few of his friends. Loved Ybor City (thanks Becky!), the area in Tampa where the cool kids hang at night. Lots of bars, great food (best tacos I’ve had in years at Mema’s) and new drinks (found out about Harlem, a cheaper, more powerful version of Jagermeister that’s apparently sweeping the nation).
I tried to find an example to explain to the cast how things work, and this is what I told them. Back when I was playing the show, Sam was my boss. If he came to me after a rehearsal or a show and said that he didn't hear a certain chord in a particular measure in a given song then, regardless of whether or not I actually played it, I didn't play it. I could know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I played that chord. I could bet my life savings on the fact that I played that chord. But guess what? It doesn't matter. Sam is my boss, and he's right. If he didn't hear the chord, then I didn't play it. The next time I play that song, my job is simple: hit that chord with more conviction, so that he hears it. Case closed, problem solved, and I'll never get that note again. But these actors don't see it that way. Long story short, I felt that if they wouldn’t listen to me, then I had to go to a higher source. I may have lost the respect or friendship of a couple, but I hope I gained that of others. When we’re in the theatre, I’m not their friend first but instead, their musical director, and when the music is sung in a half-ass fashion, that looks badly on me, because it’s my name is in the program under “musical direction by”. Enough of my rant – bottom line is that the shows since opening night in Tampa have been decidedly better musically, and I let the higher ups know that as well. To get the blessing of Ray (who directly told me that I’m doing a great job) and many of my other co-workers and bosses for being firm and strict and trying to get the best out of our show was truly touching. Totally something I can build on when – not if – but when I get my next show. Saw a good buddy of mine, Todd, down in Tampa. He lives there now with his girlfriend, Katie, and works at the National Weather Service. We went to grad school at Georgia Tech together. Had a couple of wild nights with them and a few of his friends. Loved Ybor City (thanks Becky!), the area in Tampa where the cool kids hang at night. Lots of bars, great food (best tacos I’ve had in years at Mema’s) and new drinks (found out about Harlem, a cheaper, more powerful version of Jagermeister that’s apparently sweeping the nation).
Time to wrap this puppy up. West Palm last week was sweet. Saori, one of the interns from Tokyo who I’ve mentioned many times in my blog, loves us and the show so much that she opted to spend her holiday break with us. It was absolutely great seeing her again, and she really enjoyed seeing the show again from many different angles (the house, backstage, shadowing Deena’s track with her dresser, Emily, etc.). Had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with some members of the crew and band. I also spent a lot of time in a new open-air mall between the Kravis Center and our hotel called City Place. I went shopping with Doug – part 2 of my closet renovation is what he termed it. Quite successful, I’d say – highlights being 6 more shirts (2 of which were smalls!) and a pair of jeans (waist 32!). Damn, Nikki is good. Still at 178 after an intense boot camp this morning, which followed an awesome cast party last night. But so far, the best thing about Memphis wasn’t the Jameson on the rocks I had Monday night with Matos down on Beale Street while listening to a live band. It was the Memphis BBQ pulled pork omelet I had yesterday afternoon at Cockadoo’s – yes, the literal name of the restaurant is Cockadoo’s with a rooster as its emblem – with a side of sweet potato hash browns that were topped with powdered sugar and marshmallows. I’ll let that image marinate for a while. Until next time…
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
tgif again?
now in indianapolis, staying at a courtyard marriott where there is no food around...except for the friday's next door. takes us back to our time in costa mesa, where we ate at friday's every night. deja vu all over again. almost went to the colts game against the texans a couple of days ago, but tickets were a bit pricey (i mean, even the cheapest nosebleed tickets left were $57). and i didn't feel like paying $200 for a decent seat. instead, trevor and i watched it where. yep, at friday's, where the waiters went bonkers for every colts tackle.
here in indy for the week, week 4 of 8 consecutive one-weekers. in other words, we do eight shows a week (one on tues-fri, two on sat, two on sun...plus orchestra rehearsal every tuesday and additional cast rehearsal as the stage manager and myself, as acting musical director, see fit) before getting on a bus or plane on monday to travel to the next city. won't have a true day off for two months. and our cheap-ass company is trying to dodge having to pay the musicians overtime, even when our union requires that we get paid for not having complete days off (no show, no travel). come on, we all know that a day spent in an airport is not a day off. more like a pain in the ass. complete and utter bullshit that they don't want to pay us properly. it's not our fault that the schedule is what it is.
anyway, after san fran, we had two weeks off in nyc. it was sweet to be back in the city for a while to see friends for a bit. lots of settlers of catan, a bit of beirut, even a gentleman's club night with doug, eric and mac. then a week in atlanta. we played the fox and stayed at the georgian terrace right across the street. i sadly didn't have the time to see all the friends i've got in atlanta (especially laura z!), but it was nice to catch up with steve and jana, who came to the show, and tara and marcus, who i hadn't seen in forever. if you're in atlanta and haven't been to rusan's, then you're missing out. the fox is a truly magnificent theater, but i've been told that the one in detroit (our final stop on tour) is even more impressive. week 2 was in miami. in fact, starting with miami, the rest of the cities on the tour are places i've never been. glorious weather, and the week featured 3 highlights. drb, the democratic republic of beer, was a bar right across the street from the stage door. 500 beers from which to choose, and they had a lager-infused potato salad that was to die for. went there 4 nights, had the potato salad each night. and chatting up lisa, the really cute bartender, didn't hurt either. also went to a preseason heat game against the bobcats. it was lebron's first game back after he tweaked his hammie. he was sensational - i mean, i could look up his stat line, but just trust me, he was spot on that night. the heat rested their starters, and the backups promptly gave up the lead and lost the game, but who cared? lebron was back in good health, and the fans left with good spirits for the upcoming regular season. and wow, the beach was spectacular. romich finally convinced me to rent a bike for the first time all tour, and we rode out to the beach together. about a 40-minute ride from the bike shop, and it was the best fifteen bucks i've spent in a while. picturesque blue water, breathtaking mansions, and i saw for a moment why people live and party it up on miami beach. then, i remembered andrew. oh right, hurricanes hit florida. but wet willie's on 8th and ocean was pretty sweet, and the eye candy was to die for. then on to nashville. stayed with my harvard buddy, matt (or should i say garthew?) '06 who is in his second year at vandy med school. got along well with his roomies (especially ben and scott) and met quite a few of his friends, especially at their big halloween bash at their house saturday night. how i would kill to have a house with 4 roomies for only 3k a month. too bad i'm going back to nyc after this tour and will never experience that. nashville downtown is dead, if you don't know where to go. but if you're around 5th and broadway, near the predators' home of bridgestone arena, or in printer's alley (naked karaoke, what?!?), you're in good hands. there always seems to be live music - in nearly all bars, on every corner. it truly was a shame that there were better players in the bars at 2am than there were in the pit for our show. some awesome halloween costumes included a dude dressed as beerpong (big solo cup with a ping pong ball resting on its edge), and big spoon/little spoon, which speaks for itself. big props to matt for putting me up. even though we each had our respective crazy schedules, he saw our sunday matinee (he also watched me play in los angeles) and did what he could to be social, including picking me up from the airport after our wildest travel day in quite some time (from miami, we bussed to fort lauderdale, only to be delayed because of a faulty plane, before flying around storms to get to charlotte, switch planes, and then fly to nashville - gotta love 12-hour travel days). we went to mcdougal's and had amazing, messy chicken sandwiches, as well as cafe coco for brunch, which had a killer drink called the banana dream. since we went sunday morning before the show, it seemed apropos. but the best way to end our week in nashville was with a cast halloween party. the unofficial theme was to dress as another member of the company. so i went as sam - blonde wig, black shirt, red tie, fairly simple. i could list other amazing transformations that involve people you don't know, but let's not. suffice it to say that people put a surprising amount of energy into their costumes and with great success.
can't believe i wrote this short of an entry that encompassed five weeks. nice job, alvin.
here in indy for the week, week 4 of 8 consecutive one-weekers. in other words, we do eight shows a week (one on tues-fri, two on sat, two on sun...plus orchestra rehearsal every tuesday and additional cast rehearsal as the stage manager and myself, as acting musical director, see fit) before getting on a bus or plane on monday to travel to the next city. won't have a true day off for two months. and our cheap-ass company is trying to dodge having to pay the musicians overtime, even when our union requires that we get paid for not having complete days off (no show, no travel). come on, we all know that a day spent in an airport is not a day off. more like a pain in the ass. complete and utter bullshit that they don't want to pay us properly. it's not our fault that the schedule is what it is.
anyway, after san fran, we had two weeks off in nyc. it was sweet to be back in the city for a while to see friends for a bit. lots of settlers of catan, a bit of beirut, even a gentleman's club night with doug, eric and mac. then a week in atlanta. we played the fox and stayed at the georgian terrace right across the street. i sadly didn't have the time to see all the friends i've got in atlanta (especially laura z!), but it was nice to catch up with steve and jana, who came to the show, and tara and marcus, who i hadn't seen in forever. if you're in atlanta and haven't been to rusan's, then you're missing out. the fox is a truly magnificent theater, but i've been told that the one in detroit (our final stop on tour) is even more impressive. week 2 was in miami. in fact, starting with miami, the rest of the cities on the tour are places i've never been. glorious weather, and the week featured 3 highlights. drb, the democratic republic of beer, was a bar right across the street from the stage door. 500 beers from which to choose, and they had a lager-infused potato salad that was to die for. went there 4 nights, had the potato salad each night. and chatting up lisa, the really cute bartender, didn't hurt either. also went to a preseason heat game against the bobcats. it was lebron's first game back after he tweaked his hammie. he was sensational - i mean, i could look up his stat line, but just trust me, he was spot on that night. the heat rested their starters, and the backups promptly gave up the lead and lost the game, but who cared? lebron was back in good health, and the fans left with good spirits for the upcoming regular season. and wow, the beach was spectacular. romich finally convinced me to rent a bike for the first time all tour, and we rode out to the beach together. about a 40-minute ride from the bike shop, and it was the best fifteen bucks i've spent in a while. picturesque blue water, breathtaking mansions, and i saw for a moment why people live and party it up on miami beach. then, i remembered andrew. oh right, hurricanes hit florida. but wet willie's on 8th and ocean was pretty sweet, and the eye candy was to die for. then on to nashville. stayed with my harvard buddy, matt (or should i say garthew?) '06 who is in his second year at vandy med school. got along well with his roomies (especially ben and scott) and met quite a few of his friends, especially at their big halloween bash at their house saturday night. how i would kill to have a house with 4 roomies for only 3k a month. too bad i'm going back to nyc after this tour and will never experience that. nashville downtown is dead, if you don't know where to go. but if you're around 5th and broadway, near the predators' home of bridgestone arena, or in printer's alley (naked karaoke, what?!?), you're in good hands. there always seems to be live music - in nearly all bars, on every corner. it truly was a shame that there were better players in the bars at 2am than there were in the pit for our show. some awesome halloween costumes included a dude dressed as beerpong (big solo cup with a ping pong ball resting on its edge), and big spoon/little spoon, which speaks for itself. big props to matt for putting me up. even though we each had our respective crazy schedules, he saw our sunday matinee (he also watched me play in los angeles) and did what he could to be social, including picking me up from the airport after our wildest travel day in quite some time (from miami, we bussed to fort lauderdale, only to be delayed because of a faulty plane, before flying around storms to get to charlotte, switch planes, and then fly to nashville - gotta love 12-hour travel days). we went to mcdougal's and had amazing, messy chicken sandwiches, as well as cafe coco for brunch, which had a killer drink called the banana dream. since we went sunday morning before the show, it seemed apropos. but the best way to end our week in nashville was with a cast halloween party. the unofficial theme was to dress as another member of the company. so i went as sam - blonde wig, black shirt, red tie, fairly simple. i could list other amazing transformations that involve people you don't know, but let's not. suffice it to say that people put a surprising amount of energy into their costumes and with great success.
can't believe i wrote this short of an entry that encompassed five weeks. nice job, alvin.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
a san francisco treat
five weeks in the beautiful city of san francisco sure did fly by. i'm already back in new york. compact city (only 7x7 sq mi) that managed to keep me meteorologically entertained without there being any measurable precipitation. my amazing 10th floor view allowed me to watch the fog roll in from miles away. if there were fog present with a brisk northwesterly wind, it'd be 65. no fog with light and variable winds, it'd be 85. at times, the fog was so dense that seeing the buildings across the street became an ordeal. the leaves would gather tiny droplets of mist and periodically dump their contents on you as you walked down the street. i don't think i've seen clouds move as quickly and as often as they do in san fran. it really fascinated me that you could almost predict tomorrow's weather, just by studying the fog patterns the night before. if it were way off in the distance and struggling mightily to get into the city, you knew that tomorrow would be on the warm side. but if it were already funneling in at a steady clip at 2am, it wouldn't be much warmer than that come 2pm. really intriguing stuff that was brought to my attention on monday, the 13th.
9:30am, standing in front of the curran. 9 of us in total. but it should have been 10. dolores, effie's dresser, runs on CP (colored people) time and was egregiously late. 35 minutes late, to be exact. but none of us were terribly upset. that's because i had brought champagne and OJ. emily had brought pigs in blankets. cate had pancakes. and we ate and drank inside the back of a limo that was going to take us to wine country. best off day i've had in a while. once dolores did show up, we were off and running. that morning was cool and foggy, in the upper 50s. but once we crossed the absolutely gorgeous and stunning golden gate bridge and continued inland, the sun began to peek through clouds and wow, it was 80 almost instantly. nikki called me while we were still en route to ask me a question about the benefit (much more on that later), and i was working on my fourth or fifth glass of champagne. she knew that, overall, i was becoming increasingly annoyed by the benefit but could tell by my pleasant tone that morning that i was already a little buzzed. jordan partier, our new automation guy, was responsible for the entire outing, since his dad was driving us up in his city. his father is a napa/sonoma valley historian and really knows his stuff. the first place we pulled into was the jacuzzi vineyard. and it wasn't long before my wallet was open. we had a private tasting lined up and had about 6 or 7 wines. however, the one of note was the third wine, which happened to be our first red of the morning. it was a sangiovese, which is apparently used primarily as the base (approx. 60%) for chianti. well, the jacuzzi guy was telling us that the proper way to sniff wine is through your predominant nostril. so being right-handed, i inhaled the sangiovese through my right nostril and was blown away. the wine, in and of itself, was already pretty damn tasty. but then, he pulled out the vinturi. red wines taste better once poured through a decanter, which allows it to aerate, or breathe. however, proper decanting can take several hours. the vinturi is a handheld aerator that releases the bubbles in a red wine instantly, allowing it to breathe right before your very eyes. we had the same sangiovese after being poured through a vinturi, and i was instantly sold. much crisper taste, lighter on the palate, stronger aroma - noticeably better after one sip. yeah, i bought a bottle of sangiovese and a vinturi right then and there.
next to steltzner for a tasting of several more wines. this tasting was outside in the brilliant sunlight, where we learned that 2005 was apparently a really good year for wine. we all fell in love with a 2005 cabernet franc - so much so that we bought a case, with two of those bottles being mine. the best parts of the steltzner visit were getting to churn some grapes and walking through the caves. romich and i each took turns with the grapes that were sitting in this huge vat. the official grape churner showed us how it was done after our valiant attempts proved futile. and to cool down, we walked through part of their elaborate underground cave maze. barrels upon barrels were lined up along either side for as far as the eye can see. truly an amazing sight. we then had an amazing catered lunch - tasty sandwiches, corn and arugula salad, obviously more wine. then on to chandon, a truly remarkable structure. great tasting of four different champagnes, the last of which (the extra dry riche) i bought. quick nap in the limo on the way back, dropped my wine and vinturi back at my apartment, went to dinner (had a great salmon risotto) after a quick stop by the lush lounge, then on to bigfoot lodge. romich had learned that on polk and washington, at bigfoot lodge, there is bingo every monday night. first game of the night and who was the winner? that's right. this guy. reward: shot of washington apple with 107 proof whiskey. tack that on to one of their specialty drinks that featured a flaming marshmallow and 151 and a sasquatch, their glorified version of a long island and yeah, it was a long day of drinking. 300 bucks and countless drinks later, i finally called it a night, after walking back to the apartment and having a couple more beers. slept in the next day, then conducted the first of three SF shows. they went smoothly, and it was good to get back up on the podium again. you know, don't want to be rusty for the final two and a half months of the tour when i'm conducting full-time again.
quick aside: what the hell is up with people turning left on red in SF? i mean, my apartment was a good 20-minute walk from the theatre, and i always walked to work and depending on my mood/energy level after the show, i'd either walk or grab a bus back. but i saw nearly every day at least one person blatantly turn left on a red light. unbelievable. if that law does exist in sf, it's stupid.
now on the bane of my existence. when shows sit down in sf for a long time, they often get asked to do a benefit. well, on mon, the 20th, what would have been our fifth and final off day in SF, the cast and crew of dreamgirls did an aids benefit for the richmond/ermet aids foundation, locally based in san fran. i won't go through all the nitty gritty details, but i'll put it like this. i was the MD for the show and the rest of the band volunteered their time. instead of doing simple, tried-and-true numbers that fit the theme of the benefit, many people decided to sing original numbers or have me compose music for a skit or any other sort of wild thing you could imagine. and naturally, they wanted to rehearse numerous times, so much that it drove me crazy. i wasn't getting paid, and i was putting in extra work with dreamgirls to train new ensemble members that have joined the cast. i mean, we've now lost 4 ensemble members and one of them hasn't even been replaced yet. i'm actually sitting behind a table at 11am tomorrow morning in auditions to help choose the replacement for brittany lewis with bobby longbottom (the director) and courtney young (the assistant director). for the benefit, people didn't meet deadlines to get music to the band, didn't make enough copies for us, didn't send along an .mp3 for us to listen to until the last minute. and to boot, sheryl lee ralph (the original deena in the early '80s broadway production) was a featured guest, and i didn't get her music until noon the day of. we performed at the marines memorial theatre on sutter and mason, and i didn't leave from 11am (setting up instruments into sound check into rehearsal of each individual act) until the show ended at 11pm. sheryl was the worst...was supposed to get into town on sunday, but instead went to the wrong airport in DC (dulles instead of reagan) and missed her flight, meaning that the 11:30am rehearsal on monday that she demanded with me could no longer happen. yeah, an 11:30am rehearsal when i still didn't have the music. so she flew to sf through houston on monday morning, and her assistant finally e-mailed a .pdf of the entire song. her assistant had sent us a partial .mp3 of the song that faded out during a modulation. so wtf was i supposed to do with that? she finally shows up a little after 6pm, we run the song a few times to her liking and before you know it, it's nearing 7, and i haven't eaten anything all day. now, i've never requested anyone to go get me some food, and i was prepared to go hungry through the show, which i've done before. but since stage management had to cater to sheryl (and she wanted sushi), cate ran out and got some for both of us, which i scarfed down before the show...along with a bottle of wine i had snuck in that morning in case of such a situation. $11 bottle of fish eye chardonnay guzzled before the show. don't worry, i wasn't the only one drinking that night by any stretch. anyway, i could keep bitching, because this isn't anywhere near all the drama that occurred. just suffice it to say that the entire ordeal drove me crazy. but as things often do in the world of theatre, they magically worked out in the end because we're professionals. featured songs included: tonight's gonna be a good night (black eyed peas, for our opener), how glory goes from floyd collins, don't rain on my parade from funny girl, and home from the wiz. did the band hit every chord perfectly? no. did every song play itself down exactly how we did in rehearsal? hell no. but we sure did play one hell of a show. we had fun, we let our love for music (and ahem, the wine) kick in and take over, and we brought the house down. people dancing in the aisles on the closer, i will survive. that's what we do - things always change, and musicians are used to changing things on the fly...which was why we didn't need so much rehearsal in the first place. actors sure do like to over-rehearse shit, don't they? the show was scheduled to start at 7:30, didn't until 7:45, had an auction at intermission and ended just minutes before 11. the benefit show ended up being longer than a show of dreamgirls, unbelievable. and it's the last free time i'm doing in a long time. i celebrated by going back to my apartment and drinking the three bottles of wine and the bottle of two buck chuck i picked up at trader joe's a while back with matos, tom, emily and cate. while playing uno. and yes, i did use my vinturi. score.
like i said, the five SF weeks sure did fly by. peter saw the show and loved it, as did amy and a couple of her ucsf friends. ray, our stage manager, took a few of us out who worked tirelessly on the benefit as a thank you. yummy chinese food. ray and his partner actually live in san fran, so he knows the city quite well. the gentlemen's club had many rendezvouses, and we plan to have at least one during the layoff. yeah, i'm off for two weeks in new york now. one of the members of said club, eric jackson, is leaving us behind, along with brittany lewis. ian michaud (our original automation guy), bob bones (an assistant stage manager) and sam (the MD) all concluded their respective runs of dreamgirls in san fran. man, people sure are dropping like flies. but the four original band members are still holding strong. matos, tom and i sure had fun in our apartment - many a late night playing the new halo reach and/or uno, plenty of beers consumed (in fact, we got low on beers last wednesday, so after rehearsal thursday afternoon, i went to bev mo and carried three twelve-packs a half-mile back to our apartment...i got a huge pat on the back for that one), many late-night safeway steak dinners (since there was a safeway two blocks away from us) and overall, many good times. i'm probably forgetting things - such is life when you go three weeks without posting. off to auditions in the morning. seems like i can't even get away from dreamgirls, even on a layoff...
9:30am, standing in front of the curran. 9 of us in total. but it should have been 10. dolores, effie's dresser, runs on CP (colored people) time and was egregiously late. 35 minutes late, to be exact. but none of us were terribly upset. that's because i had brought champagne and OJ. emily had brought pigs in blankets. cate had pancakes. and we ate and drank inside the back of a limo that was going to take us to wine country. best off day i've had in a while. once dolores did show up, we were off and running. that morning was cool and foggy, in the upper 50s. but once we crossed the absolutely gorgeous and stunning golden gate bridge and continued inland, the sun began to peek through clouds and wow, it was 80 almost instantly. nikki called me while we were still en route to ask me a question about the benefit (much more on that later), and i was working on my fourth or fifth glass of champagne. she knew that, overall, i was becoming increasingly annoyed by the benefit but could tell by my pleasant tone that morning that i was already a little buzzed. jordan partier, our new automation guy, was responsible for the entire outing, since his dad was driving us up in his city. his father is a napa/sonoma valley historian and really knows his stuff. the first place we pulled into was the jacuzzi vineyard. and it wasn't long before my wallet was open. we had a private tasting lined up and had about 6 or 7 wines. however, the one of note was the third wine, which happened to be our first red of the morning. it was a sangiovese, which is apparently used primarily as the base (approx. 60%) for chianti. well, the jacuzzi guy was telling us that the proper way to sniff wine is through your predominant nostril. so being right-handed, i inhaled the sangiovese through my right nostril and was blown away. the wine, in and of itself, was already pretty damn tasty. but then, he pulled out the vinturi. red wines taste better once poured through a decanter, which allows it to aerate, or breathe. however, proper decanting can take several hours. the vinturi is a handheld aerator that releases the bubbles in a red wine instantly, allowing it to breathe right before your very eyes. we had the same sangiovese after being poured through a vinturi, and i was instantly sold. much crisper taste, lighter on the palate, stronger aroma - noticeably better after one sip. yeah, i bought a bottle of sangiovese and a vinturi right then and there.
next to steltzner for a tasting of several more wines. this tasting was outside in the brilliant sunlight, where we learned that 2005 was apparently a really good year for wine. we all fell in love with a 2005 cabernet franc - so much so that we bought a case, with two of those bottles being mine. the best parts of the steltzner visit were getting to churn some grapes and walking through the caves. romich and i each took turns with the grapes that were sitting in this huge vat. the official grape churner showed us how it was done after our valiant attempts proved futile. and to cool down, we walked through part of their elaborate underground cave maze. barrels upon barrels were lined up along either side for as far as the eye can see. truly an amazing sight. we then had an amazing catered lunch - tasty sandwiches, corn and arugula salad, obviously more wine. then on to chandon, a truly remarkable structure. great tasting of four different champagnes, the last of which (the extra dry riche) i bought. quick nap in the limo on the way back, dropped my wine and vinturi back at my apartment, went to dinner (had a great salmon risotto) after a quick stop by the lush lounge, then on to bigfoot lodge. romich had learned that on polk and washington, at bigfoot lodge, there is bingo every monday night. first game of the night and who was the winner? that's right. this guy. reward: shot of washington apple with 107 proof whiskey. tack that on to one of their specialty drinks that featured a flaming marshmallow and 151 and a sasquatch, their glorified version of a long island and yeah, it was a long day of drinking. 300 bucks and countless drinks later, i finally called it a night, after walking back to the apartment and having a couple more beers. slept in the next day, then conducted the first of three SF shows. they went smoothly, and it was good to get back up on the podium again. you know, don't want to be rusty for the final two and a half months of the tour when i'm conducting full-time again.
quick aside: what the hell is up with people turning left on red in SF? i mean, my apartment was a good 20-minute walk from the theatre, and i always walked to work and depending on my mood/energy level after the show, i'd either walk or grab a bus back. but i saw nearly every day at least one person blatantly turn left on a red light. unbelievable. if that law does exist in sf, it's stupid.
now on the bane of my existence. when shows sit down in sf for a long time, they often get asked to do a benefit. well, on mon, the 20th, what would have been our fifth and final off day in SF, the cast and crew of dreamgirls did an aids benefit for the richmond/ermet aids foundation, locally based in san fran. i won't go through all the nitty gritty details, but i'll put it like this. i was the MD for the show and the rest of the band volunteered their time. instead of doing simple, tried-and-true numbers that fit the theme of the benefit, many people decided to sing original numbers or have me compose music for a skit or any other sort of wild thing you could imagine. and naturally, they wanted to rehearse numerous times, so much that it drove me crazy. i wasn't getting paid, and i was putting in extra work with dreamgirls to train new ensemble members that have joined the cast. i mean, we've now lost 4 ensemble members and one of them hasn't even been replaced yet. i'm actually sitting behind a table at 11am tomorrow morning in auditions to help choose the replacement for brittany lewis with bobby longbottom (the director) and courtney young (the assistant director). for the benefit, people didn't meet deadlines to get music to the band, didn't make enough copies for us, didn't send along an .mp3 for us to listen to until the last minute. and to boot, sheryl lee ralph (the original deena in the early '80s broadway production) was a featured guest, and i didn't get her music until noon the day of. we performed at the marines memorial theatre on sutter and mason, and i didn't leave from 11am (setting up instruments into sound check into rehearsal of each individual act) until the show ended at 11pm. sheryl was the worst...was supposed to get into town on sunday, but instead went to the wrong airport in DC (dulles instead of reagan) and missed her flight, meaning that the 11:30am rehearsal on monday that she demanded with me could no longer happen. yeah, an 11:30am rehearsal when i still didn't have the music. so she flew to sf through houston on monday morning, and her assistant finally e-mailed a .pdf of the entire song. her assistant had sent us a partial .mp3 of the song that faded out during a modulation. so wtf was i supposed to do with that? she finally shows up a little after 6pm, we run the song a few times to her liking and before you know it, it's nearing 7, and i haven't eaten anything all day. now, i've never requested anyone to go get me some food, and i was prepared to go hungry through the show, which i've done before. but since stage management had to cater to sheryl (and she wanted sushi), cate ran out and got some for both of us, which i scarfed down before the show...along with a bottle of wine i had snuck in that morning in case of such a situation. $11 bottle of fish eye chardonnay guzzled before the show. don't worry, i wasn't the only one drinking that night by any stretch. anyway, i could keep bitching, because this isn't anywhere near all the drama that occurred. just suffice it to say that the entire ordeal drove me crazy. but as things often do in the world of theatre, they magically worked out in the end because we're professionals. featured songs included: tonight's gonna be a good night (black eyed peas, for our opener), how glory goes from floyd collins, don't rain on my parade from funny girl, and home from the wiz. did the band hit every chord perfectly? no. did every song play itself down exactly how we did in rehearsal? hell no. but we sure did play one hell of a show. we had fun, we let our love for music (and ahem, the wine) kick in and take over, and we brought the house down. people dancing in the aisles on the closer, i will survive. that's what we do - things always change, and musicians are used to changing things on the fly...which was why we didn't need so much rehearsal in the first place. actors sure do like to over-rehearse shit, don't they? the show was scheduled to start at 7:30, didn't until 7:45, had an auction at intermission and ended just minutes before 11. the benefit show ended up being longer than a show of dreamgirls, unbelievable. and it's the last free time i'm doing in a long time. i celebrated by going back to my apartment and drinking the three bottles of wine and the bottle of two buck chuck i picked up at trader joe's a while back with matos, tom, emily and cate. while playing uno. and yes, i did use my vinturi. score.
like i said, the five SF weeks sure did fly by. peter saw the show and loved it, as did amy and a couple of her ucsf friends. ray, our stage manager, took a few of us out who worked tirelessly on the benefit as a thank you. yummy chinese food. ray and his partner actually live in san fran, so he knows the city quite well. the gentlemen's club had many rendezvouses, and we plan to have at least one during the layoff. yeah, i'm off for two weeks in new york now. one of the members of said club, eric jackson, is leaving us behind, along with brittany lewis. ian michaud (our original automation guy), bob bones (an assistant stage manager) and sam (the MD) all concluded their respective runs of dreamgirls in san fran. man, people sure are dropping like flies. but the four original band members are still holding strong. matos, tom and i sure had fun in our apartment - many a late night playing the new halo reach and/or uno, plenty of beers consumed (in fact, we got low on beers last wednesday, so after rehearsal thursday afternoon, i went to bev mo and carried three twelve-packs a half-mile back to our apartment...i got a huge pat on the back for that one), many late-night safeway steak dinners (since there was a safeway two blocks away from us) and overall, many good times. i'm probably forgetting things - such is life when you go three weeks without posting. off to auditions in the morning. seems like i can't even get away from dreamgirls, even on a layoff...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
could it be? last sunday, i actually enjoyed...
the beginning of this post will best be understood by two people. my mother and my most serious ex-girlfriend, amy. they both know, in their respective ways, how much i hate the topic i'm about to discuss. it is the very bane of my existence. who knew that after this past sunday, i would actually enjoy it. thursday night, trevor, douglas and i ended up at a sushi bar after the show. a pair of $15 house sauvignon blanc bottles later, they had successfully staged an intervention that would include romich and eric on sunday after the show. the topic, you may ask?
shopping.
yes, doug and eric, two of the gay guys in our ensemble, volunteered their time to make me over. trevor and romich tagged along for shits and advice but ended up trying things on by the end, once they saw how well i was doing. no mom, i didn't buy any pink. yes amy, what i did buy is pretty fierce. i've gone from 185 when i got measured for my costume for this show, up to 199 in late february when we left columbus, down to 169 a few weeks back and today, i'm 175. have my clothes changed at any point? nope. i'm willing to admit this much publicly - i still wear some t-shirts from back in college when i was 220. so yeah, my shirts are pretty much falling off my shoulders now. well, we went to the westfield shopping mall on powell and market. ate in the food court first, which was actually the most upscale food court i'd ever seen. i had salmon risotto with asparagus, parmesan and a lemon aioli. yeah, i know, right? in a food court!?! best $16.70 i've spent eating in a mall. then, the expedition began. i had never stepped foot in a zara before, but it's actually pretty sweet. got a fitted red (which, if you don't know, is my favorite color) t-shirt that actually shows my frame, slim fit dark-colored 34 jeans (never owned 34s in my life) and a nice jacket for the cool evenings here in san fran and into the rest of the fall. took our party across the street to gap, once the mall closed at 7. i was stunned that the first outfit doug and eric sent me into the fitting room at zara worked. so now, i was fully comfortable and open to their expertise. tried on all sorts of things in different combinations at gap. shirts, khakis, jeans, shoes, you name it. we were among the last in the store when it closed at 8:30. settled on a pair of keds (primarily brown and white with some red trim), some ankle socks to go with the keds and 3 more shirts of varying colors (red, blue striped, brown/gray checkered). $330 well spent, and i felt that i had instantly lost weight just by putting on clothes that fit. put on my digs and hit the town sunday night. karaoke bar, sugar cafe. the five of us sure had fun. $115 of drinks later on my card and after singing "hey jude" with doug (so much fun harmonizing on that song), i cabbed it back to my apartment and played video games with matos until 6:30 in the morning. awesome sunday. total confidence booster. and many kudos to doug and eric. can't wait for round 2, which'll feature more in the way of accessories, before we leave sf.
ok, i should probably go back to where i left off at the end of the last post. nearly three wednesdays ago, i did indeed have dinner back in nyc during our layoff with my buddies kiernan and mac. great catching up with them. but unbelievably, after we walked back to kiernan's apartment and dropped him off, mac and i ran into...well, put it this way. in a city of several millions, what are the odds you'd run into one of the guys in dreamgirls on 54th and 8th? yep, we ran into douglas. and the greatness of that wednesday night is what has spawned our thirsty thursdays that will occur for the rest of the tour - the first of which being last thursday that galvanized my shopping spree. oh life. doug was on his way to meet a couple of friends, so mac and i went to a bar, the three of them joined us for a drink before heading to snug on 51st and 9th. had never been there before but totally want to go back. doug turned me on to a new drink - disaronno and cranberry, and the rest is history. we met some girl who claimed to be a bebe model, at which point she would strike a pose. that was the only coherent thing she could say all night. i mean, she was cute. maybe not, bebe cute. but definitely drunk off her ass. one guy was way too forward with her - i mean, sticking his hand up her dress kind of forward - and to the best of my knowledge, it was the first time i actually feared for a girl when she stumbled out of the bar and that guy sketchily followed mere seconds ago. hopefully, she's all right. in any event, we made friends with some of the guys who were playing darts and played until 4am. i don't think i've ever played darts and neither had doug, but the alcohol brought out our competitive juices, and we played as if we were darting champions. doug and his buddy got the best of mac and i overall, but we were having so much fun by the end that we didn't care about score. ended up at some diner (i think it was olympic on 48th and 8th), then i walked back to chelsea by 5. fun times.
the next night, i did go to mike's housewarming on 92nd and 1st. he and jenn have two cats - igby (as in goes down) and maeby (as in george michael's cousin on arrested development). super cute. saturday was awesome. got up at the asscrack of dawn, and 8 of us in 2 cars drove up to saratoga. deringer, on his drive up from princeton, bought 90 beers and enough ingredients for 3 gargantuan muffaletta sandwiches. i had never bet on horses before, but i had a great time. 11 races (we just missed the first one, so we only bet on 10), one every half-hour. people downing beers, picnicking, just having a great time. it was a gorgeous day, and i actually turned the $100 i started out with into $113. obviously, nothing to write home about, but i had a roller coaster day. up to start, down in the middle, then up on the last race. so i was happy with my $13 surplus. stopped at cracker barrel on the way home and had a wonderful drunken dinner. needless to say, we had two DDs who were quite responsible. the other six of us were complete drunkards. definitely took me back to my college days. we started drinking at 1 in the afternoon and kept polishing off beers when we got back to my apartment in manhattan until 1am. 12 hours, 19 beers. still 6 shy of my record in one day (ski trip, vermont, january 2006), but still a shit-ton of beer. let's say that i spent the majority of sunday recovering instead of going to the frying pan (it was raining anyway). played a lot of settlers of catan, an old game that we just recently discovered. if you're looking for a strategic board game to pick up, i highly recommend it.
monday, aug 23 saw me on a plane to san francisco. we're playing the curran for 5 weeks, and tonight begins week 3. in a 3-bedroom with matos and tom. 66 cleary court, apt #1001. sick view looking south over sf. and an arguably sicker apartment. the people who normally live here are awesome. there are heated floors here, a clock made of forks and spoons, and all sorts of cool accessories - i mean, anti-slam drawers, small balconies in each of the 3 bedrooms as well as the living room, a sweet indoor/outdoor thermometer. i could go on and on, but i'll continue making you jealous. in fact, we had a little party our first sunday night here and invited over some cast and crew. our first intention was to obviously host a good party and have fun, but a close 1b in terms of intentions was to make everyone jealous about our sweet pad and how much better it is than their crappy hotel rooms. both 1a and 1b succeeded. anyway, the curran theatre is actually a pretty small theatre, reminiscent of our time spent in columbus and back at the apollo. backstage crossovers are nonexistent (got to go across downstairs), although our backs are directly up against the wall like at the apollo. oh right, i'm back to playing onstage. my summer conductorship has come and gone, as sam is back at the post. it does feel good to actually play the show again. in fact, having 3 months off from playing it has given my mind time to come up with some embellishments i could add to the actual score. don't worry, it didn't take long for sam to tell me to cut it out and keep things simple. =) sam is, however, taking the 14th and 15th off, so i will get 3 shows to conduct here, as darryl will come back to play the show. perhaps the most comforting thing is putting my wig back on. it's been so lonely for so long but now, i'm shaking my head like a crazy person onstage like old times. i've got some friends here who i haven't seen in quite some time, which is nice. amy tao ('07), peter behroozi ('06) and lacey whitmire ('05) are all currier buddies back from harvard who are out here in school - peter at stanford, amy and lacey at ucsf. peter's coming to the show this coming thursday, hopefully i'll get to see lacey (she's on rotations), and amy and i have already hung out twice, the best being yesterday. she just started her second year of med school and had never been to coit tower, which overlooks the city beautifully. it was 78 yesterday with nary a cloud in the sky, so the view was absolutely picturesque. we probably climbed 7,369 steps to get to the tower (only a slight exaggeration), but it was totally worth it. rolled back down the hill and straight into fisherman's wharf. awesome sights, smells, sounds. sea lions frolicking about. and the wonderful tastes of in-n-out. yes, i know that rhymes. we hit up in-n-out for an appetizer of animal fries before heading to an italian place she had found on yelp that had four and a half stars. for some inexplicable reason, it was closed on labor day (wouldn't you want to take advantage of the extra tourists and locals out on the holiday?), so we doubled back to in-n-out and completed our meal with burgers and a shake. even picked up some groceries at a trader joe's for our respective kitchens. ah yes, seven hours of bliss. i always love hanging out with amy, and i hope that her upcoming exams and the rigors of med school don't preclude us from meeting up again.
that pretty much sums things up so far. other sf highlights include the tonga room, for sure. been there twice already, the first being more important in that we bade farewell to kaitlyn, one of our wardrobe gurus. she's off to toronto to join south pacific. angela and gene in wardrobe are also leaving in san fran, as is bob bones, one of our assistant stage managers. anyway, the tonga room is amazing. in the fairmont hotel, at california and mason. hawaiian/polynesian theme. live band on a boat in the middle of a large pool, into which it rains every 30 minutes. yes, and there's lightning. although the drinks are expensive, they are tasty, and most come with umbrellas (poor kaitlyn ended up with at least 50 umbrellas hidden in her purse by the end of the night as a practical joke) and pineapple slices. hell, one drink even comes IN a pineapple. that pineapple royal became with the $16.50 i paid for it once the bartender handed me a spoon to dig in and devour the pineapple. definitely recommend it if you're in the city. but go there asap. apparently, someone wants to buy the place and turn it into a condo. utter lunacy, since it works so great as a bar. but money talks, so go now if you're in sf anytime soon. also, wow - you ain't seen hills until you been here. when we landed on monday, i thought it would be wiser for me to take the company bus into town and then to walk to my apartment from the last stop. a few folks are staying at the corinthian on van ness and mcallister, down near city hall. no true hills yet, coming from the airport. the third and final stop was the steinhart on sutter and hyde. why did i skip the second? because it's the nob hill suites on powell and pine. and lordy, getting to and from those suites in a big-ass bus was something to behold. at one point, the bus driver labeled one hill as the "whee" hill. i was confused at first, thinking he meant "wii" or something. he then clarified by saying that everyone goes "whee" when he drives down it. he timed the lights well and gunned it about halfway down. my butt literally left the seat, and many of you know that i don't do roller coasters or crazy shit like that. i was not happy with that bus driver during that. but the more massive hills here take up several blocks - i mean, could be a dozen or more. so at the very least, i hope to have some stronger calves after 5 weeks. ok, that's it. i worked out with nikki right before writing this post, and i've been craving a protein shake. i'm choosing protein over proofreading, so if i misspelled something or wrote something that doesn't make sense, bite me.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
hairspray?!? i thought i was doing dreamgirls.
so i'm on layoff, and i get this e-mail. in short, it asks if i'm free for the next week to sub on hairspray at the cape playhouse. a show i've always wanted to do but never gotten the opportunity to play. turns out that brian usifer, the same guy who helped me get dreamgirls, passed my name along since he knew i'd be on a break. knowing that i've got several weeks off spread out over the remainder of the tour, i figured i should jump on this and make back some of the money i would have made had the tour gone to dc as scheduled. so on saturday morning, i jump on a train to providence, switch over to a bus, and i'm out on the cape that night watching the show. i'd be playing a key 2/key 3 split book. the show was meant to run for 2 weeks but got extended another week, and the MD, jesse vargas, had a gig back in the city. so chris littlefield slid up to be key 1/conductor, and i became the new chris. great cast - lot of broadway talent (chris sieber was edna) mixed with up-and-comers that actually knew a lot of the dreamgirls cast. like i said, i watched the show on saturday, had the off day on sunday, rehearsed with chris monday afternoon and played my first show monday night. nothing against dreamgirls, but it was a blast playing another show after so many months. the atmosphere was electric, and the cast and crew welcomed me with open arms.
i'd only been on the cape once, and that was for a field trip back at harvard for only a matter of hours. so this was my first true trip of merit to the bicep of massachusetts, and it was quite quaint. single-laned roads, spotty cell and internet service, quiet beyond belief. i stayed at the kingfisher motel with many of the cast members. in fact, a few of them, like marsena and shelese, had done the same tour that kim and talitha (ensemble girls in dreamgirls) had, and others (cedric, paige and more) knew jarran...pretty much, i felt right at home pretty quickly. and believe it or not, some of them just couldn't get enough of the show and were planning to do it elsewhere right after this run closed (randy, the guy who played seaweed, is in houston for four months and liz, or traci turnblad, was heading to papermill). perhaps the best small world moment came from susan jacks. she played the gym teacher/penny's mom/other miscellaneous roles in the show and had actually done the full monty last summer with milton craig nealy, who is our marty. elaine stritch was also in their production, and susan shared some hilarious stories about her.
the theatre itself is in dennis, mass and has been around for several decades and always does a summer series that is quite the hit for locals. right across the street is the scargo cafe, where cast, crew and patrons alike go for a drink after the show. and boy, i had quite the time at the scargo. before going to harvard, i had no qualms eating, say, campbell's proclaimed new england clam chowder. but after four years of the real deal in college, i haven't had...correction, i refuse to consume clam chowder unless i'm in the northeast. the seafood at scargo was to die for - shrimp, scallops, lobster, the clam chowder, everything. and on top of that, they had lobster mac and cheese. needless to say, i'm not 169 anymore. but 174 still ain't bad. 8-show week with consecutive doubles on wed and thurs, which felt odd since i'm used to doing doubles on the weekend with DG. the week flew by pretty quickly, and i really had a great time. two really awesome late-night memories at the kingfisher. tiffany topol serenaded us on the ukulele with her angelic voice one night. she brought two of them with her and played them both with ease. so yeah, i'm calling you out, cate. hurry up and learn how to play your uke. and then on the last night, a lot of us stayed up all night and went skinny-dipping outside at 4am under the stars. hadn't seen that many boobs, i mean, stars in a long time. got on the bus at 9:30 sunday morning, got back to new york after an eight-hour, traffic-laden excursion, repacked and before i knew it, i was on a plane to charlotte.
so the airport in greenville, sc is tiny. therefore, in order to get all of us on one plane, company management flew us from laguardia to charlotte, then bussed us to greenville. i remember thinking last monday morning that i had spent way too many hours on a bus the last two days. greenville was quaint, but definitely a spot where a week was long enough to be there. stayed at the westin on main street, and the other company hotel was the hyatt, a few blocks up main. between the two hotels right on main, the town wasn't that bad. decent selection of bars, restaurants, shops, whatever...but after leaving that little 8-block strip of main, greenville didn't have much to offer. the peace center was unfortunately pretty peaceful throughout our run, because there were quite a few empty seats. but those who did show seemed to have a good time. it was the end of my first stint as conductor, and although it will be fun to play the show once again in san francisco, i will miss being on the podium. sam is coming back for our 5-week run in san fran before leaving again for the rest of the tour. which now has an end date.
john breglio, our producer, surprised us on opening night. it turns out that the show is really struggling financially. whether that's a result of us being in a recession, poor marketing to the black community, excessively high ticket prices or some combination of those and other unforeseen complications remains to be seen. what we do know now is this: since the producer cannot pay back his investors and is on the verge of launching other DG productions around the world with foreign casts (south africa and london next year and potentially brazil and elsewhere soon after), he has to make changes to the american schedule. we were scheduled to go to naples in january, and there was talk of possibly rebooking dc or going to toronto in late jan/feb. well, none of that is happening now. instead of building an entirely new set, he will ship our set to johannesburg in january in preparation for their march opening. after their six-month run (and proposed profits), he then intends to bring the show, based on theater availability, to broadway. if that doesn't work, he may take the american company to paris or through europe for a tour of indeterminate length until he finds a broadway theatre. highly unlikely that he'll get the majority of the cast and crew back for something that far down the road, but he remains optimistic. so our tour is definitively closing in detroit on jan 2. going back to when i started rehearsals in early october, that'll be 15 months of great, solid, steady, lucrative, fun work that will hopefully set me up for equally, if not, more exciting work in the future. so i really can't complain, despite it being upsetting that after dangling broadway in front of our noses for the entire run, that isn't happening anymore. but i'll continue to enjoy all the curveballs that seem to be thrown our way while the run is still going...
saturday night show in greenville. almost at the end. during curtis' solo of the reprise of 'you are my dream.' i'm muttering to myself that i'm glad we're almost at the end of a two-show day, because i'd had a long week (james harkness is leaving, and i helped to start training his replacement, grasan kingsberry. so i had a 4- or 5-hour rehearsal and a show, or two shows, every day in greenville. and that's another thing. when we finish the DG exit music, it's almost 11. another pro of doing hairspray was that it was done before 10:30 every night. i felt like i got a half-hour of my life back eight times that week. ok, back to the original story). i'm starting to dig in, because i'm conducting a huge ritard (short for ritardando, or gradually getting slower) that leads from curtis' solo into 'hard to say goodbye,' the closing number. all of a sudden, the entire house hears a snap, crackle, pop. instant darkness, save a single spot and our stand lights and probably a handful of other things. dazed and confused but not frazzled, i get the orchestra through the ritard and subsequent accel (short for accelerando, or gradually speeding up) into 'hard to say.' after, oh, about a minute or so, the lights do come back on. power surge. don't know if it was a possum. wasn't a lightning strike or anything, but something happened, and it affected a good chunk of downtown (in fact, long after the show had ended, there was no power in our hotel rooms, so naturally, a lot of us ended up at the closest bar with electricity.). but as they always say, the show must go on. unfortunately, both keyboards were zapped for the rest of the show. so there was an awkward moment during a piano solo, where i was yelling chords in the mic for matos to play on guitar. this show has been through a lot - blizzards in baltimore and columbus, earthquakes in LA, bats/thunderstorms in KC. i think the only natural disasters we've avoided are tornadoes and hurricanes. did i just jinx us?
so yeah, never a dull moment with this show. now, i'm on yet another layoff - this one was already scheduled, however. left greenville at 9:30 monday morning, bussed to charlotte, had a couple of stiff bloody marys at the bar, boarded the plane...and sat there. apparently, jfk has been doing construction on a runway all summer, which has led to lengthy delays. so we sat on the tarmac from 1 until 2:30. finally got to new york around 4. now, the pilot said that people making connecting flights should deplane first. i was in 21C and eric 21D. we're seated, as this lady rushes down the aisle, only to get stopped right between us. we mumble to each other that she must have a connector. well, she turns around, and we are instantly overcome with alcohol. this lady was drunk off her ass! i don't know how many cocktails she had had behind us, but let's just suffice it to say that it was more than a couple. obviously trapped, she starts speaking in broken, slurred belligerent english that she has a ride outside waiting for her, and that the people in front shouldn't be talking and lolligagging. she was too drunk to realize that many of the passengers on that plane were with dreamgirls. harkness simply told her that her ride would wait, at which point she got even more riled up. if you could have then seen the look on nikki's face...she looked like she was about to get fit with this drunk girl's jaw. and we all know the saying - karma's a bitch. because even though she rushed off the plane yammering with just her purse (she proclaimed to be traveling lightly), she was still waiting on the corner for her supposed "ride," as we each hopped in taxis on our way back to manhattan.
fun first night back in nyc. took a long time to plan this, but me and the boys had a roomie past, present and future dinner at shun lee near lincoln center. and we nearly had 100% of those who have ever lived in the dorm room (our apartment's nickname at 25th and 6th) present (greg was in boston). the invite was also extended to frequent couch-goers who've never actually lived there. in total, we were 9 and ran up an $800 bill. but it was the best 88 bucks i've spent in quite some time. dumplings, scallion pancakes, 2 ducks, different types of chicken. i think i sucked a lamb bone drier than any chicken counterpart in my life. and i'd never even heard of a cucumber sake-tini, but boy, were they good. pj clarke's, right across the street from lincoln center, followed and prompted us to make an almost brash decision to jump in deringer's car and go to atlantic city. instead, we went back to the dorm room and played poker, $200 buy-in. after a couple of hours, we got hungry and stumbled to the chelsea square diner on 23rd and 9th. damn good munchie platter. came back, played poker until almost 6 in the morning, and i actually came out up 33 bucks. don't know if any night this week can top that, but i'll try. had dinner and drinks with the ex last night. hadn't seen amy in a while, and it was good to catch up. we went to s'mac on the LES, and if you've been checking my blog constantly (or simply know me as a human being), you know about my unwavering love for mac and cheese. this place was awesome - highly recommend it. reasonably priced and very good. two elbows up! =) just go early if you want a seat. thankfully, we had dinner at 6, so we beat the rush. we then walked around for quite a while. went to ben and jerry's, babeland (the sex shop where she works in soho) and ended up at a bar (sala 19) back in chelsea. fun times. tonight, it's dinner at five napkin with kiernan and mac soto (the three of us wrote a musical back in college - 'hello, dali!' - and it was so much fun putting that together. i don't think i've seen the two of them in the same place since i graduated, so tonight promises to be wonderful.), thursday - mike james' housewarming on the UES, friday - hanging with knewton folk around union square, saturday - day trip up to saratoga to go to the racetrack, and sunday - buckets of coronas on the frying pan on 25th and the hudson. then it's off to san francisco for 5 weeks. got a 3-bedroom near japantown with matos and tom. it'll be my first time in SF, and it should be amazing.
i'd only been on the cape once, and that was for a field trip back at harvard for only a matter of hours. so this was my first true trip of merit to the bicep of massachusetts, and it was quite quaint. single-laned roads, spotty cell and internet service, quiet beyond belief. i stayed at the kingfisher motel with many of the cast members. in fact, a few of them, like marsena and shelese, had done the same tour that kim and talitha (ensemble girls in dreamgirls) had, and others (cedric, paige and more) knew jarran...pretty much, i felt right at home pretty quickly. and believe it or not, some of them just couldn't get enough of the show and were planning to do it elsewhere right after this run closed (randy, the guy who played seaweed, is in houston for four months and liz, or traci turnblad, was heading to papermill). perhaps the best small world moment came from susan jacks. she played the gym teacher/penny's mom/other miscellaneous roles in the show and had actually done the full monty last summer with milton craig nealy, who is our marty. elaine stritch was also in their production, and susan shared some hilarious stories about her.
the theatre itself is in dennis, mass and has been around for several decades and always does a summer series that is quite the hit for locals. right across the street is the scargo cafe, where cast, crew and patrons alike go for a drink after the show. and boy, i had quite the time at the scargo. before going to harvard, i had no qualms eating, say, campbell's proclaimed new england clam chowder. but after four years of the real deal in college, i haven't had...correction, i refuse to consume clam chowder unless i'm in the northeast. the seafood at scargo was to die for - shrimp, scallops, lobster, the clam chowder, everything. and on top of that, they had lobster mac and cheese. needless to say, i'm not 169 anymore. but 174 still ain't bad. 8-show week with consecutive doubles on wed and thurs, which felt odd since i'm used to doing doubles on the weekend with DG. the week flew by pretty quickly, and i really had a great time. two really awesome late-night memories at the kingfisher. tiffany topol serenaded us on the ukulele with her angelic voice one night. she brought two of them with her and played them both with ease. so yeah, i'm calling you out, cate. hurry up and learn how to play your uke. and then on the last night, a lot of us stayed up all night and went skinny-dipping outside at 4am under the stars. hadn't seen that many boobs, i mean, stars in a long time. got on the bus at 9:30 sunday morning, got back to new york after an eight-hour, traffic-laden excursion, repacked and before i knew it, i was on a plane to charlotte.
so the airport in greenville, sc is tiny. therefore, in order to get all of us on one plane, company management flew us from laguardia to charlotte, then bussed us to greenville. i remember thinking last monday morning that i had spent way too many hours on a bus the last two days. greenville was quaint, but definitely a spot where a week was long enough to be there. stayed at the westin on main street, and the other company hotel was the hyatt, a few blocks up main. between the two hotels right on main, the town wasn't that bad. decent selection of bars, restaurants, shops, whatever...but after leaving that little 8-block strip of main, greenville didn't have much to offer. the peace center was unfortunately pretty peaceful throughout our run, because there were quite a few empty seats. but those who did show seemed to have a good time. it was the end of my first stint as conductor, and although it will be fun to play the show once again in san francisco, i will miss being on the podium. sam is coming back for our 5-week run in san fran before leaving again for the rest of the tour. which now has an end date.
john breglio, our producer, surprised us on opening night. it turns out that the show is really struggling financially. whether that's a result of us being in a recession, poor marketing to the black community, excessively high ticket prices or some combination of those and other unforeseen complications remains to be seen. what we do know now is this: since the producer cannot pay back his investors and is on the verge of launching other DG productions around the world with foreign casts (south africa and london next year and potentially brazil and elsewhere soon after), he has to make changes to the american schedule. we were scheduled to go to naples in january, and there was talk of possibly rebooking dc or going to toronto in late jan/feb. well, none of that is happening now. instead of building an entirely new set, he will ship our set to johannesburg in january in preparation for their march opening. after their six-month run (and proposed profits), he then intends to bring the show, based on theater availability, to broadway. if that doesn't work, he may take the american company to paris or through europe for a tour of indeterminate length until he finds a broadway theatre. highly unlikely that he'll get the majority of the cast and crew back for something that far down the road, but he remains optimistic. so our tour is definitively closing in detroit on jan 2. going back to when i started rehearsals in early october, that'll be 15 months of great, solid, steady, lucrative, fun work that will hopefully set me up for equally, if not, more exciting work in the future. so i really can't complain, despite it being upsetting that after dangling broadway in front of our noses for the entire run, that isn't happening anymore. but i'll continue to enjoy all the curveballs that seem to be thrown our way while the run is still going...
saturday night show in greenville. almost at the end. during curtis' solo of the reprise of 'you are my dream.' i'm muttering to myself that i'm glad we're almost at the end of a two-show day, because i'd had a long week (james harkness is leaving, and i helped to start training his replacement, grasan kingsberry. so i had a 4- or 5-hour rehearsal and a show, or two shows, every day in greenville. and that's another thing. when we finish the DG exit music, it's almost 11. another pro of doing hairspray was that it was done before 10:30 every night. i felt like i got a half-hour of my life back eight times that week. ok, back to the original story). i'm starting to dig in, because i'm conducting a huge ritard (short for ritardando, or gradually getting slower) that leads from curtis' solo into 'hard to say goodbye,' the closing number. all of a sudden, the entire house hears a snap, crackle, pop. instant darkness, save a single spot and our stand lights and probably a handful of other things. dazed and confused but not frazzled, i get the orchestra through the ritard and subsequent accel (short for accelerando, or gradually speeding up) into 'hard to say.' after, oh, about a minute or so, the lights do come back on. power surge. don't know if it was a possum. wasn't a lightning strike or anything, but something happened, and it affected a good chunk of downtown (in fact, long after the show had ended, there was no power in our hotel rooms, so naturally, a lot of us ended up at the closest bar with electricity.). but as they always say, the show must go on. unfortunately, both keyboards were zapped for the rest of the show. so there was an awkward moment during a piano solo, where i was yelling chords in the mic for matos to play on guitar. this show has been through a lot - blizzards in baltimore and columbus, earthquakes in LA, bats/thunderstorms in KC. i think the only natural disasters we've avoided are tornadoes and hurricanes. did i just jinx us?
so yeah, never a dull moment with this show. now, i'm on yet another layoff - this one was already scheduled, however. left greenville at 9:30 monday morning, bussed to charlotte, had a couple of stiff bloody marys at the bar, boarded the plane...and sat there. apparently, jfk has been doing construction on a runway all summer, which has led to lengthy delays. so we sat on the tarmac from 1 until 2:30. finally got to new york around 4. now, the pilot said that people making connecting flights should deplane first. i was in 21C and eric 21D. we're seated, as this lady rushes down the aisle, only to get stopped right between us. we mumble to each other that she must have a connector. well, she turns around, and we are instantly overcome with alcohol. this lady was drunk off her ass! i don't know how many cocktails she had had behind us, but let's just suffice it to say that it was more than a couple. obviously trapped, she starts speaking in broken, slurred belligerent english that she has a ride outside waiting for her, and that the people in front shouldn't be talking and lolligagging. she was too drunk to realize that many of the passengers on that plane were with dreamgirls. harkness simply told her that her ride would wait, at which point she got even more riled up. if you could have then seen the look on nikki's face...she looked like she was about to get fit with this drunk girl's jaw. and we all know the saying - karma's a bitch. because even though she rushed off the plane yammering with just her purse (she proclaimed to be traveling lightly), she was still waiting on the corner for her supposed "ride," as we each hopped in taxis on our way back to manhattan.
fun first night back in nyc. took a long time to plan this, but me and the boys had a roomie past, present and future dinner at shun lee near lincoln center. and we nearly had 100% of those who have ever lived in the dorm room (our apartment's nickname at 25th and 6th) present (greg was in boston). the invite was also extended to frequent couch-goers who've never actually lived there. in total, we were 9 and ran up an $800 bill. but it was the best 88 bucks i've spent in quite some time. dumplings, scallion pancakes, 2 ducks, different types of chicken. i think i sucked a lamb bone drier than any chicken counterpart in my life. and i'd never even heard of a cucumber sake-tini, but boy, were they good. pj clarke's, right across the street from lincoln center, followed and prompted us to make an almost brash decision to jump in deringer's car and go to atlantic city. instead, we went back to the dorm room and played poker, $200 buy-in. after a couple of hours, we got hungry and stumbled to the chelsea square diner on 23rd and 9th. damn good munchie platter. came back, played poker until almost 6 in the morning, and i actually came out up 33 bucks. don't know if any night this week can top that, but i'll try. had dinner and drinks with the ex last night. hadn't seen amy in a while, and it was good to catch up. we went to s'mac on the LES, and if you've been checking my blog constantly (or simply know me as a human being), you know about my unwavering love for mac and cheese. this place was awesome - highly recommend it. reasonably priced and very good. two elbows up! =) just go early if you want a seat. thankfully, we had dinner at 6, so we beat the rush. we then walked around for quite a while. went to ben and jerry's, babeland (the sex shop where she works in soho) and ended up at a bar (sala 19) back in chelsea. fun times. tonight, it's dinner at five napkin with kiernan and mac soto (the three of us wrote a musical back in college - 'hello, dali!' - and it was so much fun putting that together. i don't think i've seen the two of them in the same place since i graduated, so tonight promises to be wonderful.), thursday - mike james' housewarming on the UES, friday - hanging with knewton folk around union square, saturday - day trip up to saratoga to go to the racetrack, and sunday - buckets of coronas on the frying pan on 25th and the hudson. then it's off to san francisco for 5 weeks. got a 3-bedroom near japantown with matos and tom. it'll be my first time in SF, and it should be amazing.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
shoulda. coulda. woulda. belinda.
Did I really just step on the scale this morning to see a 169? I suppose all this training and working out is doing me some good. Nikki’s even got me on protein now. I went to GNC back in Dallas and bought my first Isopure. Nikki claims that I’ll see results by the end of our run in SF (late Sept). Only time will tell…
I suppose I randomly started with what I saw today than going back to the end of my last entry. Went to a Rangers game in Arlington, Texas back on the 5th in Dallas. And wow, DSM (Dallas Summer Musicals) sure knows how to party. They have their own private suite, the Willie Stargell, and waiters actually come and take your orders for food and drink. Even though the Indians won convincingly, it didn’t dampen our spirits – that is, since we had plenty of beer flowing. The girls sang my arrangement of the national anthem yet again before the game, and as expected, did a magnificent job. The Ballpark at Arlington was a pretty sweet stadium, but it had nothing on the monstrosity that lay behind it. Jerry Jones’ new baby, the new Cowboys Stadium, sits within view of the baseball stadium. In fact, the two stadia and Six Flags are part of a huge complex just off the freeway. Even though I’m a ‘Skins fan, I had to take a couple of pictures for the sake of my mom who, inexplicably, is a diehard ‘Boys fan.
Moving on, the remainder of our time in Dallas was great. The Mosaic turned out to be an excellent choice, and I’m so glad we stayed there. Pool time was great, even though on the last day, I drunkenly banged my foot up against the side of the pool and gashed it open pretty good. It was Dolores’ (Moya’s dresser) birthday party, and we went all out. Luckily, we only had a Sunday matinee to close, so that the crew could load-out and drive the trucks all the way to Kansas City in time for a Tuesday night opening. So we made the most of our Sunday night – staying up ridiculously late, drinking plenty of booze – you know, the usual with us. But nothing could top our ridiculously late night the previous Monday.
The Mosaic had a nice gaming area that closed at 10 on weekdays. Well, at the beginning of our third and final week in Dallas, we decided that it’d be a good idea to play poker. However, we didn’t want to end at 10 but rather begin at 10. So Matos and I snuck down to the gaming room on the 8th floor and, uh, borrowed the poker chips (don’t worry, we returned them the next afternoon). We had an epic six-way battle: Matos, Tom, Romich, Joe, myself and Greg, who is the drummer on the Beauty and the Beast tour (more on B&B to come). Twenty-dollar buy-in. Some pretty epic hands that I got lucky on, the most notable of which being my full house of 3s full of 5s beating Greg’s 3s full of 4s. By 5 or 6 in the morning, everyone had conked out, save me and Matos. We played until the sun came up, with Dave reluctantly holding right around his original twenty bucks. He just refused to dip below 20. So eventually, I gave up a little after 8am and went home with $107.50 (Tom lost a total of $29), and Dave with $21.50. Can’t believe I got to bed at 8:30 in the frickin’ morning. But such is the life when you’re on tour and didn’t have a show until 8pm the next day. I mean, the same day.
The Dallas band was a pleasure to work with – nice guys, solid players. But the best thing they did was actually a sweet gesture toward me. After our first layoff, I realized that I had made a pretty grave mistake. I had accidentally left the plethora of ties that I had carrying around on tour back in my apartment in New York. And knowing that I would be conducting more during this stretch with only one tie was painful. So night in and night out, I wore the same red tie on that conductor’s stand. Well, a few members of the Dallas band each pitched in a tie from their respective wardrobes and laid out five of them on the music stand before I came down for the last Saturday night show. They told me that I could keep the ties, but that I had to pick one to wear for our closing matinee on Sunday. One of them would win a cool side bet of $25. They were convinced I had schemed with the winner, because I ended up picking the tie that the key 2 player, Brian, had left. A piano player conspiracy it was not, trust me.
Back to Beauty. It turns out that their tour overlapped with ours during our third week in Dallas. They came to see our Thursday matinee (and the associate conductor, Patrick, sat in the pit with me), and many members of our company went to their Sunday night show (I didn’t, due to load-out). But their best contribution to the betterment of our lives occurred on Thursday night after our second show of the day. I had never heard of whirlyball until the Beauty kids challenged us. Whirlyball combines bumper cars, alcohol and lacrosse. In other words, you can drink to the hilt upon entering the building (and between games, for that matter), then jump in a bumper car with a lacrosse stick. Pretty much the only time in the world when it’s legal to drink and drive. There are bulls-eye goals at the ends of the court, and you must take your lacrosse stick to scoop up the ball and score. I played 3 games, and despite having a record of only 1-2, I scored the game-winning goal in overtime for my only win, 3-2. SO much fun, and if I ever come across it again in another city, I’ll be there.
My last memories of Dallas are quite hazy. I mistakenly didn’t set an alarm to get me up on Travel Monday. The bus was scheduled to leave the Aloft (the hotel chosen by the company) at 10am. When I naturally woke up in my apartment in the Mosaic after having been drinking all night, I saw that it was already 9:30! Thankfully, I had done most of my packing earlier on Sunday – otherwise, I’d have been in even deeper shit. I haphazardly threw my toiletries and whatever else was lying around into a suitcase and simply left the keys and check for payment on the coffee table. “Shit, it’s already 9:45!” Now, the hard part. Driving to the Aloft…shhh, don’t tell anybody…but I may or may not have still been drunk. On my way out of the parking garage, Jason calls me to ask where the hell I am. Out of breath, I tell him that I’m pulling out of the garage now. Several careful blocks of driving later, I got to the Aloft, dropped off the keys and paperwork at the front desk, put my bags under the bus and collapsed in a seat…at 9:56! Lord knows I didn’t deserve to be on that bus in time, and I wouldn’t know that I had actually gotten everything until I got to my hotel room in Kansas City.
The Hotel Phillips was a definite downgrade from what we had at the Mosaic. But at least I had miraculously managed to grab all my stuff from my Mosaic apartment. The Starlight Theatre in KC was our first and only outdoor venue. Seating over 8,000, it was a sprawling complex that had a well-known track record for canceling very few shows over the many decades of its existence. That record was put to the test on Tuesday. Orchestra rehearsal, 9am-2pm. Goes without a hitch. Move the instruments to the pit by 3, and there is nary a cloud in the sky. We drive back to the hotel (oh yeah, we had cars in KC as well, since the hotel and theatre were about 15 minutes apart via I-71) to relax for a bit, knowing not what was in store. Sure, I knew that was a decent chance of thunderstorms that evening (40-50%) but certainly didn’t expect what was to come. By 5pm, the sky had darkened, and a pretty severe storm was imminently upon us. I drove to the theatre in a pretty good downpour which, naturally, slowed the freeway traffic to a crawl. Upon arrival, we were told that our scheduled 6pm sound check would definitely not start on time. It turns out that a pretty bad storm had hit the Starlight back in May or June and had punctured holes in the tarp. Were these holes fixed? Was some sort of other contingency plan hatched in the event that, oh, another storm ever hit Kansas City in the middle of the summer again? NO!!!! The idiots put the same holey tarp back over the pit and naturally, it caved in under the weight of the water. Music ruined. Equipment soaked. Leaky pit ceiling. Drenched players. Not only that, but sound equipment was in shambles as well – light fixtures, multiple speakers. Pretty much, you name it, it got wet. I guess that’s what happens when 2” of rain falls in less than an hour, and there’s no real plan in place for when that occurs. Gotta tip my hat to the crew though. They cleaned things up as best they could, and we were able to do our normal sound check – only 50 or 60 minutes late. And the show started only 30 minutes late, which was a shock. But the rain persisted throughout the show, with intermittent thunder and lightning, as the squall line began to stall over us. I suppose this was the true test of “the show must go on.” I was tucked under the pit, with the tarp covering it, with no fans and rain dripping down on us and the pit players intermittently. Talk about humid and a hot, sweaty mess. During the book scene before Family, Ray called me to say that too much rain had built up on the deck and that we would have to stop the show after the song. Needless to say, I plowed the hell through that song, much to the actors’ surprise. But as soon as the announcement was made that we were holding the show, they understood why I had rushed the number. After a brief delay, we came back to finish the first act and completed the second act without stopping. But the best part of the entire ordeal was that we didn’t end the show until 11:16. Which meant OVERTIME all around! Can’t wait to see my bank account on Friday morning when that direct deposit kicks in. It promises to be a healthy amount, fo’ sho’. The other interesting night was Saturday, when another storm, albeit weaker, hit a couple of hours before curtain. Although we never stopped the show, it did rain intermittently throughout before really picking up again toward the end of the second act. I started the show on my conductor platform but was put under the pit for act two. The funniest ad lib, perhaps, of the entire run happened at the end of this show. Deena has just told Curtis that she’s leaving him, much to his chagrin. Just before he’s supposed to utter, “Come on, let’s go,” a huge bolt of lightning appears in the distance. Curtis instead says, “Come on Deena, it’s lightning!” and rushes off the stage, leaving her down center. The audience roared, but stage management did not appreciate the ad lib.
KC also marked the first time in a while that I had friends come to the show. My good college buddy, Naveen, drove from Columbia (where he’s in med school) on Friday night to partake in the festivities. Hadn’t seen him in quite some time (hell, was it since Bardin’s wedding back on Labor Day weekend ’09?), and it was great for us to catch up. He found out pretty quickly that the KC band just might have been the best ever. Since there is so much hubbub after the show, with so many patrons trying to leave, the local orchestra has learned that it’s usually wise to wait out the rush. And what’s the best way to wait something out? With beer, of course! Yep, they tailgate after every show. Talk about my heaven. Except Friday night’s was bigger than usual. A big barbecue was had by all, with BBQ staples from bratwursts to Natty Ice. After crashing that for a while, he and I headed out to find a sweet bar in the area. We ended up off I-35 at Tomfooleries. Couldn’t even get halfway through out first beer, when this pretty hot chick comes over and sits down with us. We chat for a bit, but it’s pretty clear that she’s exhausted and truly not that interested. She leaves for a minute and brings back her friend – not as hot but still, well, you know. She, too, seemed tired. I suppose that made sense, since it was almost 3 in the morning and close to last call, but still – ladies, would it have hurt to put in a bit more effort and seem quasi-interested? They did, however, both perk up when I mentioned that I was with Dreamgirls. The hot girl mumbled something before saying that she was a professional dancer, which obviously got my attention. It turns out that Naveen heard what she had mumbled and told me after we had gone our separate ways that Belinda, the hot girl, is actually a cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s right, Belinda Post. 21 and from Topeka. Not too shabby – you know, getting hit on by an NFL cheerleader and all. Google Image her. It’ll be worth your while. In any event, Naveen picked me up at noon the next day and took me out for some real KC BBQ. Not only was this exciting, but simply the fact that we had no matinees in Kansas City (due to the daytime heat) was unbelievable. Only 6 shows and getting paid as if we had done 8. What could be better than that? Oklahoma Joe’s was our destination, which was in Kansas City, KS, meaning that I can now cross Kansas off the list of states never visited. The restaurant was literally in a gas station, but by 12:15ish, the line was already snaking its way around the establishment. Once we finally got inside, we finally realized why the line was so long. The aromas were unreal, and once we sat down with our food, our conversation died pretty quickly. We split a Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich, a Z-Man (beef brisket sandwich with provolone and two onion rings, yum!) and a half-slab of, arguably, the best ribs I’ve ever had. I’m telling you, fall-off-the-bone, lick-your-fingers-to-the-bone kind of ribs. So tender, and the sauce was hot and tasty, too. Throw in some fries and a pair of drinks, and it was the best 32 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Well, if I had gotten with Belinda the night before, I’m sure that more than 32 bucks would have been better spent. =)
Turns out that wasn’t the only BBQ I would have that day. When I was in Portland, I mentioned hanging out with Jeremy, an ’08 Harvard friend of mine. When we went hiking around the Columbia River Gorge, we weren’t alone. He brought along a dear friend of his, Kaylee. The three of us had a fun time that Sunday morning, and they came to see the show that night. Kaylee works in Lincoln, NE and told me several weeks ago that she would be coming down to KC the weekend Dreamgirls was in town. And she held true to her word. She and her bestie, Margaret (who is getting married tomorrow – super congrats!), came to see the Saturday night show. But not before taking me to Jack Stack, another of KC’s claims to fame when it comes to the BBQ (the others being Gates and Bryant’s). I thought that Oklahoma Joe’s was better, but I still had some really tasty burnt ends and lamb ribs (two things I’d never had before, believe it or not). They enjoyed the show, especially because I got them tickets pretty close to the stage. Kaylee is actually a theatre girl in her own right and has performed many times at the Starlight. So taking her around backstage was actually a bit of a shock, since it’s been renovated recently and many things were unfamiliar to her. Our night was capped off by a trip to the Cheesecake Factory, where I got a strawberry creamsicle that made everything right with the world, after yet another rainy show. With any luck, I can convince Kaylee to come visit me in another city on tour or perhaps in NYC, where she hasn’t been in a long time…
Wow, didn’t realize I’d have so much to say about three weeks of my life. I’m writing this from one of the couches in my NYC apartment, which isn’t what the tour schedule had marked for this week. I was supposed to spend this week and next in DC, with the show playing at the National Theatre. Obviously, I was gonna stay with my mom and grandma at home, while conducting 16 shows in front of many friends and family. Unfortunately, we were told in Dallas that the presenters were backing out of DC due to horrendous advance ticket sales. The National isn’t that large (capacity around 1,700), but ticket sales were only at 14% a week and a half before opening. So not only do I not get to spend time at home, but I’m also out of two weeks’ worth of salary. The positive spin on all of this is that I’m back in New York, enjoying my vacay. Just had lunch a couple of hours ago with someone I hadn’t seen in years, Derrick Wang. He and I spent many countless hours on pianos at Harvard, doing many shows and concerts together. He’s heading to law school in a couple of weeks, and it was awesome to shoot the shit with him here before he heads down to Maryland.
Damn, I wrote this in Word before transferring it to Blogspot, and it’s over 3100 characters. I gotta start writing shorter entries…
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