Sunday, August 23, 2009

Injuries and Sickness and Goodbyes

So i have been injured since thursday, other people have been sick and I thought.....
why not just update more often.  

So here goes......

Today we mourn the loss of yet another brother-
Monsieur Tally Sessions ( a.k.a. Aaron Schultz)
















He leaves us to go play with the
1st National Tour of SOUTH PACIFIC.  
So, we shed a pink tear and hope that we will see him soon.  
Jameson-a-plenty will be spilled in lieu of his departure....

                                                  
A highlight of the weekend, that I missed, was Christian Slater bringing his daughter to see the skit. 
But, courtesy of fellow cast members I have a picture. 

Can anyone say....
"Gleam the Cube!"

Also, if anyone is out and about tomorrow night, Monday Aug 24th, come to the 

STAR SPOT 
at 
ELEVEN NIGHTCLUB
881 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood

It starts at 9pm and there is no cover til then---
and a mere trifle to see us and all the other casts that are currently in town (SPAMALOT, PARADE, etc...)
It is hosted by Scott Nevins and Ryan O'Connor normally....
but tomorrow will also be

RUSTY MOWERY + HAYLIE DUFF

Be there or be square!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

LA LA LAND


Bunker down....its time to catch up!

We r simply goin to pretend that Fayetteville + Atlanta were blurs. 

Nuf said!

It involved swing magic (Alex went on a week early for a role he hadn't studied- as I predicted), understudies abounding, sickness, altered tracks, and now BPM is the UPS guy through LA. 

What I am at Liberty to say is that Rusty Mowery came out for Atlanta to be multiple people then settled on Kiki. And then Nathan Balser showed up for 3 weeks as KIKI til Rusty can return in LA for the month.

Highlights, however, were Megan Lewis and Rhiannons bdays. We all went skating and costumes abounded for Megans, whilst we limoed to a college bar for Rhiannons 21st----stunning the locals with girls dressed to the 9's when i think they were used to dress sweat pants.

Dallas Summer Musicals treated us well. We were in the middle of FAIR PARK, which is also home to the COTTON BOWL , which i think all my Texas family have been too for the famed UT vs OU game since the dawn of time. Our opening night party was held at a great law firm downtown, with glass windows looking out across the city. The highlight of the night wasn't just the hospitality and the live music being played, but also one of the producers. His father had run Dallas Sumer Musicals for a long time, and somewhere in the world found a pastel pink suit and pink patent leather shoes.
I wish I had a picture, because it was something better seen than read.

I feel like somebody was on vacation that week, but I couldn't honestly tell you who. 
The monday in between, which is always a coveted day, we were given free tickets to the RANGERS game and SIX FLAGS and asked to do a cabaret. But, due to a major rainstorm going through town we weren't able to do all three. Some baseball'ed it up and some did yet another BCEFA benefit cabaret at MAMMA's PARTY ( which took place in an old church), raising over 2000 dollars. There were jumpropes auctioned, jumproping, and BPM even carried a woman to her car for cash. Oh the things actors will do for money or food.......

The 2nd week brought alot of heat......and a grill out. We started a tradition now, if we can, of grilling out as a family in between shows on the weekend. Along with it came the arrival of casting director JUSTIN HUFF, which we had a bday party for, and the arrival of X Swing Leslie McDonel ( AKA Guadalupe) and Josh Walden. One of our favorite haunts was the DOUBLE WIDE, not far from the theatre, and it is exactly what the name implies. But, also add black velvet paintings on the wall and gay men ravagely playing BUCK HUNTER. 
It was surreal and beautiful.....

At the end of our DALLAS trip, before driving 15 miles to Ft Worth, we presented a box to the theatre. Every show that comes through is asked to build a box that best represents the show itself. We painted it pink and included alot of trinkets from the characters of the show and pictures. Then, we sadly said adieu to vacation swing Casey Leigh Thompson. I am going on a limb and saying that she will be back, but before she left we also started a game called WHERE CAN WE SHOVE CASEY? So far its been a laundry hamper, a company managers road box, a prop box, and my Pleated Cavaricci Pants from 1991 that we both stretched out to fit. It looked like something from the group PARABALUS.

So a weight fell offstage right during the harvard party, a cast member violently ill, understudy chihuahua was on, and Shep had her hat on under a visor ALA MushMouth during WYW. That was our Happy opening to Ft Worth!!

Ft Worth was great, sans the drive from our hotels in Arlington because 40,000 people convened on the city for an Evangelical Conference. 
But.......
The downtown area is great, and THE STOCKYARDS area just north is even more interesting. It is the oldest running cattle drive in the coutnry. Every day at 1130 and 4 they bring the cattle through the streets before they are shipped or slaughtered. It also has a great slew of vintage stores, boot shops( where I had a pair made by a Cherokee woman named Georgia), and the largest Honky Tonk in the world. 

If anyone is ever in the area, go to BILLY BOBS on the weekend or just stop in during eth day for $1. It is a huge space, with two performance stages, a dance floor, an indoor bull riding arena, pool tables, video games, and a BBQ restaurant that serves CALF FRIES- which is actually another name for Rocky Mountain Oysters. If you dont know what those are, they are Deep Fried Calf Testicles. Needless to say, nobody ordered any. We should have though, cause that is where we lost Nathan Balser to the quickly closing 9 TO 5. We will miss you Kiki 3.0!!!!!

Then off to LA......with a quick two day stop in Vegas for Gretchens Bday.

We also got to see PEEPSHOW while we were there, which is directed by our own captain JERRY MITCHELL and starring Bway's Josh Strickland, Shoshana Bean, former Bway LB member Nick Kenkel, and PLayboy Bunny and all around nice girl Holly Madison.

15 of us convened on what was the 1year anniversary of when we started rehearsals, but no better way to ring it in for the 2nd year but with a huge vat of milk, a smoldering car number, and a good ole 30 foot saddle ride, a Playboy Bunny, and old friends who may or may not remember the nights happenings.

If you go to Vegas soon, venture on over to the Planet Hollywood, spend some time in the
Pleasure Pit (yes thats its real name) then see PEEPSHOW!!! You wont regret it!

We flew into BURBANK just in time for sound check on wednesday, where we were greeted by the smiling JERRY MITCHELL. We waited for the double doors to pop open and he to come sweeping in embracing us with those mammothly long arms. But, it wasnt until stretching during the half hour that we saw him.

The crowd that night was great, and maybe it was due to the return of Rusty Mowery as KIKI......or they just understand the show better than the rest of America. Either way, it was a nice way to end the night running on minimal sleep.

The next day we had a brief note session before our second show, and then on to opening night---which had everyone a lil nervous. This opening was to be the equivalent of the original BWAY opening in NYC, and it came damn close. There was even a red carpet for the dogs to walk down...well and Dick Van Patten, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and many others.

The party was great, with both Larry + Nell coming in, after their current reading of HEATHERS, and all of our producers. As usual with this bunch, we shut the place down----eventually getting kicked out at 2 am. But, sleep was needed. We still had 4 shows for the weekend.

Now here we are in week 2. Its Tally's final week, with replacement Jonathan Rayson already here.

Cjay Hardy Philip went on early in the JUDGE/SALESWOMAN track, we know who the new poolboy will be in a few weeks, and there may be more people leaving. It could be a whole new show in a month, so stay tuned. But before that happens, Ass Dir. Marc Bruni also came in to tweek some things.

The highlights of the week:

* LOU the chihuahua from THE SOUP rode out with Mamie on the golf cart during WHAT YOU WANT. We are still waiting for the shmeer campaign that will be on cable!

*Cast members are filming Webisodes of THE BATTERYS DOWN

* And our friends from PEEPSHOW came in on their night off for a lil pink relaxation.

Ft Worth BabYYYYYYYYY!

Dallas ELLE CAM