saturday night = laurence fishburne (aka morpheus) in the audience. not to mention matthew morrison (and select others) from glee.
monday morning = wardrobe is so disgusted with me when i conduct that i'm still occasionally wearing a suit that i bought when i was 40 pounds heavier...that one of the girls (cate) and i drove out to pasadena to a men's warehouse to buy me a new suit. getting altered as we speak, and i'll go pick it up on wednesday afternoon before i conduct again on thursday night (for the last time in LA). as for tonight, three of us (dave romich, cate and myself) enjoyed the monday special at big wangs (buy a pitcher for either 11 [domestic] or 13 and get a free one-topping pizza) before going over to the conga room. not only were our own chaz lamar shepherd (curtis), chester gregory (jimmy) and syesha mercado (deena) performing tonight, but the host was mark curry (hangin' with mr. cooper)...featuring jaleel white (urkel)! absolutely awesome night, and i will definitely enjoy sleeping in tomorrow morning, before our show tues night. the best part of the upcoming week is that we have two shows on thursday and only one on easter sunday (a matinee at 1pt), in order to prepare us for the 5pt first pitch of yankees-sox to truly get the 2010 baseball season going strong. sadly, the dodgers don't have a home exhibition or regular season game before we leave...and neither do the mariners in seattle for the week we're there. looks like i'll have to wait until we're in costa mesa in three weeks to go see the lackey-less angels at home against the tigers...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
21 days later
technically 22, since it's the 27th, and my last post was on the 5th.
LA has been awesome. a blur of a synopsis. can't believe we're almost through week 5 of 6 here. week 3 featured three groups of friends coming to see the show. tuesday saw garthew, i mean, matt gartland (c-house '06) and his super-sweet gf, rajshri, swing through on their vanderbilt med school spring break. over a drink at the library bar, they were both thrilled that the show will be going through nashville in late october. megan kerr (c-house '08) and her little sister katie saw the show on thursday. katie has done some theatre at pitzer and truly appreciated the backstage tour. i would see megan again the following monday (the 15th) for a couple hours of bowling at lucky strike at LA Live before a clippers game (loss to the hornets, 108-100) with carly schwartz (stay alum) and her bf devin...who came to see my show on sunday afternoon, the 14th.
i conducted 6 of the 8 shows during week 4. lot of fun, and a great precursor to the summer. i don't believe i've said this in my blog, but sam is definitely taking a break for a while over the summer - from cincinnati in june until san francisco in late august. we're in the process of finding someone to play my book while i take over conducting (and musical directing) duties for those two and a half months. indeed, i'm thrilled at the opportunity and am really looking forward to june. but in no way am i overlooking the next couple of months, where we head to seattle, portland, costa mesa and yes...tokyo. anyway, week 4 started on monday with me taking my off day to explore universal city. i walked through citywalk, went to one of my favorite places in nyc that is also in LA (yogurtland - where i got nearly a pound of self-serve...yum) and saw alice eve in 'she's out of my league.' not as funny as 'the hangover,' which is how it was advertised. but still, very funny. the conducting went well - only one big snafu...that wasn't even my fault, even though i was initially blamed for it. the understudy was on for the saturday matinee, and she always sings the big number of the show (i'm not going - end of act I) in A-flat. well, she decided to start singing it in B-flat, the normal key for the main effie. we the band continued playing in A-flat until she correctly herself, which thankfully only took a couple of seconds...but those were 2 of the longer seconds of my life. =)
i do not. i repeat. i DO NOT like being 3 hours earlier than normal east coast time. especially not in march. i don't care if temps almost hit 90 degrees on two consecutive days earlier in the month. i don't care if we haven't had the threat of rain for seemingly forever. having to wake up to watch 9am college basketball games during conference tourneys and the madness have been brutal. especially when you work at night. i suppose that once i woke up at 8:30 for breakfast in the hotel before watching the 9am depaul-south florida game in the big east tourney, i had set an unfortunate precedent. but it's march, and i value sleep FAR less than good ol'-fashioned baskitball. once the big dance arrived, i knew that i had to watch outside of my hotel room - i mean, one game versus watching 4 at a bar...obvious choice. a few of us in the show explored our options downtown for st. patty's night after the show and discovered a place called (don't laugh too hard) big wangs. their motto is 'size matters.' and they advertised having all big dance games on for the entirety of the tournament. needless to say, i was having a mimosa with pineapple juice at 9:30am the following morning. byu/fla, 99-92 in double OT = not a bad way to start off the 2010 dance. i was at big wangs so much over the next four days for tournament games that the waitresses knew me by sight. on that friday (the 19th), sir robert koenig (c-house '06) swung by LA and after his intense daytime meetings, he came to big wangs in the late afternoon before coming to the first act of the show. sadly, he missed act II because he had to catch a red-eye back to boston. but i know he'll come to see the entire show at some point on tour...
...which just got extended to include detroit for two weeks - christmas and new year's. we are now officially on tour for the entirety of 2010 (our last scheduled show in detroit is on 1/2/11)...
the end of week 4 was awesome. for my first show back on the keys (sun mat, 3/21), i saw a lot of family. my cousin tracey and her husband sean....grandma, aunts renee and sandra, my cousin rea...AND my new young cousins nicolas (two and three-quarters years old, which he is very adamant about) and pierson (conveniently two and three-quarters months old)...both being tracey's children. outside of tracey and her immediate family, who now live out in studio city, the rest were flown out by tracey for the week, and the timing worked out perfectly that i was performing here, too. they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we went to kendall's in between shows. the next day, they picked me up from my hotel, and we went to see tavis smiley's 'america i am' traveling exhibit of the generational struggle of blacks from slavery to present-day. absolutely moving piece at the california ScienCenter out in exhibition park, where the coliseum stands. wow, what a huge stadium. makes harvard stadium look like a miniature horseshoe. on our way to lunch at aroma in studio city, we drove past griffith park, by forest lawn (where michael jackson is buried) and through burbank. tracey's house is sweet - super spacious, great view, pool and jacuzzi, etc. her house was almost part of a new pilot. the photographers wanted to get two houses in the neighborhood that were directly across the street from one another, so that they could film from one house straight into the other. unfortunately, they went with two other houses - tracey and sean would have gotten 30k if their house had been chosen for 5 days of filming. well, the plot of the pilot: married dude gets divorced in quaint little neighborhood...and moves in with his mistress DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET! unreal.
i spent monday evening into tuesday afternoon with my family. nothing against those associated with the show, but it was great to spend time with blood family. cousin alvin was a big hit with pierson and especially nicolas, who had me running around with grover, elmo and whatever other cool toys you can think of. it's funny - even though i totally hope to have a wife and kids at some point in my life, i'm not entirely looking forward to the exhaustion of parenting. after just 24 hours with a pair of kids, i was beat, lol. their nanny, lillian, exposes nicolas to spanish when it's just the two of them. i wish i had that growing up - learning two different languages simultaneously. that kid sure is smart - knowing that daddy (who just made partner) drives a porsche. that mommy (senior VP at TCW) is going back to work in a couple of weeks. that music is an integral part of life - he is already learning the raw basics of the guitar and drums...in preschool! i could go on and on about how cute nicolas is, but i think you get the point. anyone with a heart truly understands how being around someone who doesn't have a care in the world can really change your view of life - dumb it down to the raw basics. no matter how many wrong notes i hit during a show...no matter how inconvenient a delayed flight to the next city might be...no matter what could possibly go wrong...i still have my sight, my hearing, my health, my laughter, my ability to play piano - so many god-given abilities that others simply don't have. to wake up each day as i do is a blessing.
the rest of the week has been fun. paula abdul came to the show tonight to see syesha (deena) who, as you all know, was second runner-up during season 7. totally took a picture with her (and hopefully, emily will put it up on facebook soon). yesterday, i had one of my best days in LA. ben austin, one of the many faceless students i used to teach while i was an on-camera teacher at knewton (mad props to knewton, and i'm actually still on their website - http://www.knewton.com/gmat/teachers/teachers#alvin), actually made his presence known to us after improving his score to a 740 on the gmat, which helped him get into both columbia and wharton (the latter is a bit premature - he was supposed to find out earlier today, but i already know he got in, lol). the four of us (ben, me - the math teacher, evan - the verbal teacher, and james - the head TA of the class) had drinks in new york before i left. he's been living in LA for the past five and a half years and offered to show me around the city while i was here. well, that day was thursday - i took the subway out to wilshire/western, and he took me to the museum of jurassic technology out in culver city. absolutely enthralling hole in the wall - not very much to do with either the jurassic period or technology, but a much-appreciated change of pace to my normal life on tour. the exhibit featured old wives' tales on how to cure diseases long before anyone knew what the word 'vaccination' meant. not to mention unique cat's cradle designs and the history of vectography. right down the street was an in-n-out. double-double animal-style with fries, also animal-style, equated to heaven in my mouth. before $4 happy hour mac-n-cheese at backstage, a ben austin recommendation, while watching the first two games of the sweet 16. saw the entire butler upset live, got back to do the show - where i watched with pins and needles on my phone during the entire first act as the xavier-kansas state game unfolded. i was able to see the end of double overtime during intermission as k-state held on for the victory (and covered, btw - 101-96 covered the 4.5 point spread). after the show, 7 of us went bowling out in silver lake. dirt-cheap beer, greasy late-night food and overall, a ton of fun. my goal during any game is to hit trip dig (which i did twice - 104 and 114, respectively), but the true battle of the night came when martin's first-game 158 was being heavily challenged by james' early onslaught of strikes and spares in game two. he entered the tenth frame with 148. 9 on the first roll. and he narrowly missed the spare - failing to match and all but guarantee a besting of martin's high score.
alas, it is nearing 4am, and bed is calling. after all, i am conducting tomorrow afternoon at 2pm and should probably rest up.
LA has been awesome. a blur of a synopsis. can't believe we're almost through week 5 of 6 here. week 3 featured three groups of friends coming to see the show. tuesday saw garthew, i mean, matt gartland (c-house '06) and his super-sweet gf, rajshri, swing through on their vanderbilt med school spring break. over a drink at the library bar, they were both thrilled that the show will be going through nashville in late october. megan kerr (c-house '08) and her little sister katie saw the show on thursday. katie has done some theatre at pitzer and truly appreciated the backstage tour. i would see megan again the following monday (the 15th) for a couple hours of bowling at lucky strike at LA Live before a clippers game (loss to the hornets, 108-100) with carly schwartz (stay alum) and her bf devin...who came to see my show on sunday afternoon, the 14th.
i conducted 6 of the 8 shows during week 4. lot of fun, and a great precursor to the summer. i don't believe i've said this in my blog, but sam is definitely taking a break for a while over the summer - from cincinnati in june until san francisco in late august. we're in the process of finding someone to play my book while i take over conducting (and musical directing) duties for those two and a half months. indeed, i'm thrilled at the opportunity and am really looking forward to june. but in no way am i overlooking the next couple of months, where we head to seattle, portland, costa mesa and yes...tokyo. anyway, week 4 started on monday with me taking my off day to explore universal city. i walked through citywalk, went to one of my favorite places in nyc that is also in LA (yogurtland - where i got nearly a pound of self-serve...yum) and saw alice eve in 'she's out of my league.' not as funny as 'the hangover,' which is how it was advertised. but still, very funny. the conducting went well - only one big snafu...that wasn't even my fault, even though i was initially blamed for it. the understudy was on for the saturday matinee, and she always sings the big number of the show (i'm not going - end of act I) in A-flat. well, she decided to start singing it in B-flat, the normal key for the main effie. we the band continued playing in A-flat until she correctly herself, which thankfully only took a couple of seconds...but those were 2 of the longer seconds of my life. =)
i do not. i repeat. i DO NOT like being 3 hours earlier than normal east coast time. especially not in march. i don't care if temps almost hit 90 degrees on two consecutive days earlier in the month. i don't care if we haven't had the threat of rain for seemingly forever. having to wake up to watch 9am college basketball games during conference tourneys and the madness have been brutal. especially when you work at night. i suppose that once i woke up at 8:30 for breakfast in the hotel before watching the 9am depaul-south florida game in the big east tourney, i had set an unfortunate precedent. but it's march, and i value sleep FAR less than good ol'-fashioned baskitball. once the big dance arrived, i knew that i had to watch outside of my hotel room - i mean, one game versus watching 4 at a bar...obvious choice. a few of us in the show explored our options downtown for st. patty's night after the show and discovered a place called (don't laugh too hard) big wangs. their motto is 'size matters.' and they advertised having all big dance games on for the entirety of the tournament. needless to say, i was having a mimosa with pineapple juice at 9:30am the following morning. byu/fla, 99-92 in double OT = not a bad way to start off the 2010 dance. i was at big wangs so much over the next four days for tournament games that the waitresses knew me by sight. on that friday (the 19th), sir robert koenig (c-house '06) swung by LA and after his intense daytime meetings, he came to big wangs in the late afternoon before coming to the first act of the show. sadly, he missed act II because he had to catch a red-eye back to boston. but i know he'll come to see the entire show at some point on tour...
...which just got extended to include detroit for two weeks - christmas and new year's. we are now officially on tour for the entirety of 2010 (our last scheduled show in detroit is on 1/2/11)...
the end of week 4 was awesome. for my first show back on the keys (sun mat, 3/21), i saw a lot of family. my cousin tracey and her husband sean....grandma, aunts renee and sandra, my cousin rea...AND my new young cousins nicolas (two and three-quarters years old, which he is very adamant about) and pierson (conveniently two and three-quarters months old)...both being tracey's children. outside of tracey and her immediate family, who now live out in studio city, the rest were flown out by tracey for the week, and the timing worked out perfectly that i was performing here, too. they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we went to kendall's in between shows. the next day, they picked me up from my hotel, and we went to see tavis smiley's 'america i am' traveling exhibit of the generational struggle of blacks from slavery to present-day. absolutely moving piece at the california ScienCenter out in exhibition park, where the coliseum stands. wow, what a huge stadium. makes harvard stadium look like a miniature horseshoe. on our way to lunch at aroma in studio city, we drove past griffith park, by forest lawn (where michael jackson is buried) and through burbank. tracey's house is sweet - super spacious, great view, pool and jacuzzi, etc. her house was almost part of a new pilot. the photographers wanted to get two houses in the neighborhood that were directly across the street from one another, so that they could film from one house straight into the other. unfortunately, they went with two other houses - tracey and sean would have gotten 30k if their house had been chosen for 5 days of filming. well, the plot of the pilot: married dude gets divorced in quaint little neighborhood...and moves in with his mistress DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET! unreal.
i spent monday evening into tuesday afternoon with my family. nothing against those associated with the show, but it was great to spend time with blood family. cousin alvin was a big hit with pierson and especially nicolas, who had me running around with grover, elmo and whatever other cool toys you can think of. it's funny - even though i totally hope to have a wife and kids at some point in my life, i'm not entirely looking forward to the exhaustion of parenting. after just 24 hours with a pair of kids, i was beat, lol. their nanny, lillian, exposes nicolas to spanish when it's just the two of them. i wish i had that growing up - learning two different languages simultaneously. that kid sure is smart - knowing that daddy (who just made partner) drives a porsche. that mommy (senior VP at TCW) is going back to work in a couple of weeks. that music is an integral part of life - he is already learning the raw basics of the guitar and drums...in preschool! i could go on and on about how cute nicolas is, but i think you get the point. anyone with a heart truly understands how being around someone who doesn't have a care in the world can really change your view of life - dumb it down to the raw basics. no matter how many wrong notes i hit during a show...no matter how inconvenient a delayed flight to the next city might be...no matter what could possibly go wrong...i still have my sight, my hearing, my health, my laughter, my ability to play piano - so many god-given abilities that others simply don't have. to wake up each day as i do is a blessing.
the rest of the week has been fun. paula abdul came to the show tonight to see syesha (deena) who, as you all know, was second runner-up during season 7. totally took a picture with her (and hopefully, emily will put it up on facebook soon). yesterday, i had one of my best days in LA. ben austin, one of the many faceless students i used to teach while i was an on-camera teacher at knewton (mad props to knewton, and i'm actually still on their website - http://www.knewton.com/gmat/teachers/teachers#alvin), actually made his presence known to us after improving his score to a 740 on the gmat, which helped him get into both columbia and wharton (the latter is a bit premature - he was supposed to find out earlier today, but i already know he got in, lol). the four of us (ben, me - the math teacher, evan - the verbal teacher, and james - the head TA of the class) had drinks in new york before i left. he's been living in LA for the past five and a half years and offered to show me around the city while i was here. well, that day was thursday - i took the subway out to wilshire/western, and he took me to the museum of jurassic technology out in culver city. absolutely enthralling hole in the wall - not very much to do with either the jurassic period or technology, but a much-appreciated change of pace to my normal life on tour. the exhibit featured old wives' tales on how to cure diseases long before anyone knew what the word 'vaccination' meant. not to mention unique cat's cradle designs and the history of vectography. right down the street was an in-n-out. double-double animal-style with fries, also animal-style, equated to heaven in my mouth. before $4 happy hour mac-n-cheese at backstage, a ben austin recommendation, while watching the first two games of the sweet 16. saw the entire butler upset live, got back to do the show - where i watched with pins and needles on my phone during the entire first act as the xavier-kansas state game unfolded. i was able to see the end of double overtime during intermission as k-state held on for the victory (and covered, btw - 101-96 covered the 4.5 point spread). after the show, 7 of us went bowling out in silver lake. dirt-cheap beer, greasy late-night food and overall, a ton of fun. my goal during any game is to hit trip dig (which i did twice - 104 and 114, respectively), but the true battle of the night came when martin's first-game 158 was being heavily challenged by james' early onslaught of strikes and spares in game two. he entered the tenth frame with 148. 9 on the first roll. and he narrowly missed the spare - failing to match and all but guarantee a besting of martin's high score.
alas, it is nearing 4am, and bed is calling. after all, i am conducting tomorrow afternoon at 2pm and should probably rest up.
Friday, March 5, 2010
opening night
absolutely riveting. the original dreams were there (sheryl lee ralph, jennifer holliday, loretta devine), as well as other big-wigs like raven symone and nia long. mmm, nia long. we delivered a very strong show, feeding off the electric vibe of the house. even better opening night party - at j lounge on 11th and olive. awesome bar, tasty hors d'oeuvres (man, that lobster was killer), and delectable drinks. there were three specialty drinks named after effie, deena and lorrell. after seeing a lorrell made, which ended with a splash of chambord, i was sold. desserts, open air space upstairs - truly a great spot. but the best part of the night was getting to spend it with lindsey gary. i hadn't seen her since graduation, and we both cringed at the fact that our 5-year isn't that far away. she came to the show and loved it. i showed her around backstage and naturally, she took a picture of my wig and posted it on facebook. catching up with her at the party was awesome, and there are definitely plans in the making for us to hang out soon.
quick aside - the party ended at 2, and a lot of the cast went to mel's diner on hollywood and highland. i decided to call it a night but kinda wish i didn't. hindsight is always 20/20, ain't it? apparently, those who went met the most decorated winter olympian in united states history. yep, apolo anton ohno. chowing down on french toast at 4am. oh well, i can live vicariously, can't i?
ok, back to lindsey. she gave me some great tips on places i can go around LA sans car. well, i took advantage of that yesterday. took the red line out to hollywood and highland - not to go to mel's, but to check out the walk of fame. now granted it was thursday, but the block on hollywood blvd from highland to orange was already blocked off for the oscars. took a few pics of the kodak theatre, the bleachers in the street, a handful of the stars. my mom is in love with denzel washington, so i made sure to find his prints and signature and take a couple of pictures for her. then i walked down hollywood to vine, where i had lunch at dillon's. great...uh...female scenery in form of the waitresses, cheap beer (a 22-oz hoegaarden for 5 bucks!) and arguably, the best burger i've ever had. their famous mac 'n cheese burger. it was topped with so much macaroni and was so large in its own right that the plate was accompanied by a steak knife. i literally never picked up the burger but had to eat my sandwich with fork and knife. throw in an appetizer of avocado fries, which were delish as well - and that was 30 bucks well spent. took it easy today, but we've got our traditional 5-show weekend on the horizon, so it's back to the grind soon.
how's that for a concise, yet informative update? more to come next week!
quick aside - the party ended at 2, and a lot of the cast went to mel's diner on hollywood and highland. i decided to call it a night but kinda wish i didn't. hindsight is always 20/20, ain't it? apparently, those who went met the most decorated winter olympian in united states history. yep, apolo anton ohno. chowing down on french toast at 4am. oh well, i can live vicariously, can't i?
ok, back to lindsey. she gave me some great tips on places i can go around LA sans car. well, i took advantage of that yesterday. took the red line out to hollywood and highland - not to go to mel's, but to check out the walk of fame. now granted it was thursday, but the block on hollywood blvd from highland to orange was already blocked off for the oscars. took a few pics of the kodak theatre, the bleachers in the street, a handful of the stars. my mom is in love with denzel washington, so i made sure to find his prints and signature and take a couple of pictures for her. then i walked down hollywood to vine, where i had lunch at dillon's. great...uh...female scenery in form of the waitresses, cheap beer (a 22-oz hoegaarden for 5 bucks!) and arguably, the best burger i've ever had. their famous mac 'n cheese burger. it was topped with so much macaroni and was so large in its own right that the plate was accompanied by a steak knife. i literally never picked up the burger but had to eat my sandwich with fork and knife. throw in an appetizer of avocado fries, which were delish as well - and that was 30 bucks well spent. took it easy today, but we've got our traditional 5-show weekend on the horizon, so it's back to the grind soon.
how's that for a concise, yet informative update? more to come next week!
Monday, March 1, 2010
week one in the city of angels
you know you're in LA when it mists one night. that's right - there was no measurable rain, only drizzle. and the leading stories on the eleven o'clock news are: 1) someone is found murdered and 2) slippery roads may add time to your commute, so use extra caution. really? for mist? for a trace of rain? you know you're in LA when a little more than a half-inch of rain falls overnight friday, and you walk by a couple of people the following afternoon asking one another..."so how's your house holding up after all this rain?" i know mudslides run rampant out here, but really? after only a half-inch?
anyway, as for my $60 cab ride. a good friend of mine, monique midgette, is currently in the lion king out in vegas. she and i were introduced in 2006 and did a lot of theatre stuff together in dc during my year off between harvard and georgia tech. absolutely phenomenal voice and an even better person. even though i was excited to go to tech to start my master's in the summer of 2007, a part of me was hugely disappointed - because monique got a cruise gig and really wanted me to go with her and a couple of her friends as their accompanist for several months. ah well, who knows? maybe we'll get to work together on a ship one day in the future. as for now, she and a few of her cast came to see our show on friday night. turns out that friday is the traditional off night for vegas theatre, since most tourists are flying in then. this was an awesome revelation, because this means that i can totally one of my other mondays off and go to vegas to see her show. and gamble away one of my weekly paychecks.
they enjoyed the show and were going to go out afterwards to a birthday party. monique asked if i wanted to come along and since i hadn't seen her in three years, i obviously said sure, since i wanted to catch up with her, which was so nice. after getting off the 101 and onto santa monica boulevard, it seemed that we were driving through multiple different neighborhoods on one street. the freeway turned into the ghetto, which turned into an affluent section with a whole foods and a trader joe's, which turned into "ladies of the evening"ville, which turned back into the ghetto, which turned into party central with clubs all over the place once we hit north robertson. little did i know that the club would be in west hollywood. little did i know that they were spending the night in hollywood hills, which is even farther away from downtown...meaning that riding to their place after going out would have been pointless. little did i know that the abbey would turn out to be one of the premiere gay clubs in the country. little did i know that two drinks would cost me $34. little did i know that i would get hit on in said club. i'm standing in the corner, sipping a patron anejo and pineapple while checking a text, when i hear, "so my friend over there really wants to dance with you." i look up to see this guy gesturing towards his two friends - one male, one female. "oh, the girl's kinda cute," i think...only to see the other guy wave at me. "uh, nope, that's ok, i'm good right here, thanks." little did i know that a cab ride back to the marriott would cost me $60. little did know that catching up with monique would cost me close to a benjamin. but it truly was, uh, an experience. hopefully, my trip to vegas to see lion king will involve more females and maybe a few extra bucks won in my wallet.
dreamgirls is at the ahmanson, which is in an awesome part of town. there are four theatres within the music center, including the walt disney concert hall, where the la philharmonic plays. nice little water plaza and several outdoor restaurants where you can eat before a show. truly a nice setting, a bit better than the area around the pantages theatre, where the color purple was playing. however, i found out after the fact that next door to the pantages on hollywood and vine is an irish pub called dillon's, where you can get a ten-dollar macaroni and cheese burger. i love burgers. i love mac and cheese. and there's a metro stop right at hollywood and vine. so i'll definitely be having that burger before i leave. the color purple was an absolutely amazing show, from start to finish. very talented cast, solid orchestra, and the pantages itself is a gorgeous theatre, much more so than ours. its architecture was astounding, with a double proscenium and gothic art all over the place. our theatre is kinda vanilla and (in the words of one of our cast members) "boring"! fantasia was amazing and because of the recent death threats and racial epithets thrown at her, we didn't see her when we went backstage. but we saw most of the rest of the cast, and they returned the favor by coming to see us on thursday afternoon. our first 7 shows in four days (plus an understudy rehearsal) are behind us thankfully, and we can finally establish a regular pattern of shows - one each day from tues-fri and then doubles on the weekend. if anyone is reading this and is in los angeles, i've got a code to get cheaper tickets. go to www.centertheatregroup.org/GOING and you'll get twenty bucks off select seats (rear orchestra, rear mezzanine and balcony) to all performances from now until march 14. and obviously, if you come, give me a call afterwards (202-288-3488).
last thing - we've been extended. although the newer dates/places aren't on the website yet (www.dreamgirlsonstage.com), we have been informed of the new cities. after kansas city, we'll be in DC for two weeks, SF for 5 (with a possibility for a 6th) in late august to early october, and then a plethora of one-weekers in the southeast before going to buffalo for a week in december. from early oct to mid-dec, we'll be in atlanta, miami, nashville, indianapolis, tampa, west palm beach, memphis and buffalo. if you live in any of these places, we'll talk more about details as the summer approaches. as for now, we're in LA until easter, then seattle and portland for a week each before returning to costa mesa, ca for two weeks. after that, we get a 13-day layoff (may 3-15) before heading to tokyo for three weeks.
also, i have to include this...because i know that sam is an avid follower of my blog. two wednesdays ago in columbus at our orchestra rehearsal at 9am (following the two-day travel nightmare), i played the opening tune with my music. then i got lazy and didn't feel like turning any more of them damn pages. i only had the music on my stand in case we started in the middle of a song at a particular measure. well, i had always wondered if i could play the show without music. and i did in rehearsal. so that night - opening night in columbus, the stand that sits on my piano onstage was bare for the entire show. i proved to myself that i could do it in rehearsal, so i actually did it during a show. all those who passed by my stand onstage or could see it from offstage were stunned to see me playing without my music. and i played a near-flawless show. and the mistakes i did make were so minor that only i noticed them. so in a rare selfish moment, i'm gonna go ahead and pat myself on the back. don't worry, sam. i've been playing with the music ever since that night. i feel like...eh, been there, done that. boring. =)
that's it for now. time to put something in my belly. oh - real quick. quick shoutout to patrice covington, our effie cover. not only is she vastly improving every time she goes on as effie, but she got engaged last week! we're all super happy for both her and elijah, and they had a celebratory party at the rooftop bar and lounge of the standard hotel on 6th and flower. awesome party again, i'm super thrilled for them!
anyway, as for my $60 cab ride. a good friend of mine, monique midgette, is currently in the lion king out in vegas. she and i were introduced in 2006 and did a lot of theatre stuff together in dc during my year off between harvard and georgia tech. absolutely phenomenal voice and an even better person. even though i was excited to go to tech to start my master's in the summer of 2007, a part of me was hugely disappointed - because monique got a cruise gig and really wanted me to go with her and a couple of her friends as their accompanist for several months. ah well, who knows? maybe we'll get to work together on a ship one day in the future. as for now, she and a few of her cast came to see our show on friday night. turns out that friday is the traditional off night for vegas theatre, since most tourists are flying in then. this was an awesome revelation, because this means that i can totally one of my other mondays off and go to vegas to see her show. and gamble away one of my weekly paychecks.
they enjoyed the show and were going to go out afterwards to a birthday party. monique asked if i wanted to come along and since i hadn't seen her in three years, i obviously said sure, since i wanted to catch up with her, which was so nice. after getting off the 101 and onto santa monica boulevard, it seemed that we were driving through multiple different neighborhoods on one street. the freeway turned into the ghetto, which turned into an affluent section with a whole foods and a trader joe's, which turned into "ladies of the evening"ville, which turned back into the ghetto, which turned into party central with clubs all over the place once we hit north robertson. little did i know that the club would be in west hollywood. little did i know that they were spending the night in hollywood hills, which is even farther away from downtown...meaning that riding to their place after going out would have been pointless. little did i know that the abbey would turn out to be one of the premiere gay clubs in the country. little did i know that two drinks would cost me $34. little did i know that i would get hit on in said club. i'm standing in the corner, sipping a patron anejo and pineapple while checking a text, when i hear, "so my friend over there really wants to dance with you." i look up to see this guy gesturing towards his two friends - one male, one female. "oh, the girl's kinda cute," i think...only to see the other guy wave at me. "uh, nope, that's ok, i'm good right here, thanks." little did i know that a cab ride back to the marriott would cost me $60. little did know that catching up with monique would cost me close to a benjamin. but it truly was, uh, an experience. hopefully, my trip to vegas to see lion king will involve more females and maybe a few extra bucks won in my wallet.
dreamgirls is at the ahmanson, which is in an awesome part of town. there are four theatres within the music center, including the walt disney concert hall, where the la philharmonic plays. nice little water plaza and several outdoor restaurants where you can eat before a show. truly a nice setting, a bit better than the area around the pantages theatre, where the color purple was playing. however, i found out after the fact that next door to the pantages on hollywood and vine is an irish pub called dillon's, where you can get a ten-dollar macaroni and cheese burger. i love burgers. i love mac and cheese. and there's a metro stop right at hollywood and vine. so i'll definitely be having that burger before i leave. the color purple was an absolutely amazing show, from start to finish. very talented cast, solid orchestra, and the pantages itself is a gorgeous theatre, much more so than ours. its architecture was astounding, with a double proscenium and gothic art all over the place. our theatre is kinda vanilla and (in the words of one of our cast members) "boring"! fantasia was amazing and because of the recent death threats and racial epithets thrown at her, we didn't see her when we went backstage. but we saw most of the rest of the cast, and they returned the favor by coming to see us on thursday afternoon. our first 7 shows in four days (plus an understudy rehearsal) are behind us thankfully, and we can finally establish a regular pattern of shows - one each day from tues-fri and then doubles on the weekend. if anyone is reading this and is in los angeles, i've got a code to get cheaper tickets. go to www.centertheatregroup.org/GOING and you'll get twenty bucks off select seats (rear orchestra, rear mezzanine and balcony) to all performances from now until march 14. and obviously, if you come, give me a call afterwards (202-288-3488).
last thing - we've been extended. although the newer dates/places aren't on the website yet (www.dreamgirlsonstage.com), we have been informed of the new cities. after kansas city, we'll be in DC for two weeks, SF for 5 (with a possibility for a 6th) in late august to early october, and then a plethora of one-weekers in the southeast before going to buffalo for a week in december. from early oct to mid-dec, we'll be in atlanta, miami, nashville, indianapolis, tampa, west palm beach, memphis and buffalo. if you live in any of these places, we'll talk more about details as the summer approaches. as for now, we're in LA until easter, then seattle and portland for a week each before returning to costa mesa, ca for two weeks. after that, we get a 13-day layoff (may 3-15) before heading to tokyo for three weeks.
also, i have to include this...because i know that sam is an avid follower of my blog. two wednesdays ago in columbus at our orchestra rehearsal at 9am (following the two-day travel nightmare), i played the opening tune with my music. then i got lazy and didn't feel like turning any more of them damn pages. i only had the music on my stand in case we started in the middle of a song at a particular measure. well, i had always wondered if i could play the show without music. and i did in rehearsal. so that night - opening night in columbus, the stand that sits on my piano onstage was bare for the entire show. i proved to myself that i could do it in rehearsal, so i actually did it during a show. all those who passed by my stand onstage or could see it from offstage were stunned to see me playing without my music. and i played a near-flawless show. and the mistakes i did make were so minor that only i noticed them. so in a rare selfish moment, i'm gonna go ahead and pat myself on the back. don't worry, sam. i've been playing with the music ever since that night. i feel like...eh, been there, done that. boring. =)
that's it for now. time to put something in my belly. oh - real quick. quick shoutout to patrice covington, our effie cover. not only is she vastly improving every time she goes on as effie, but she got engaged last week! we're all super happy for both her and elijah, and they had a celebratory party at the rooftop bar and lounge of the standard hotel on 6th and flower. awesome party again, i'm super thrilled for them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)