Blog Installment January 20, 2011

Hello, Happy 2011 to you all. I hope this finds you all enjoying Winter.

Well, I just got off of a 10 hour bus ride. To say that every bone aches would be an understatement. But let me backtrack. I left you as I was heading to Schenectady for a week “sit-down”, ah Heaven is staying in one place!!! Sammy did show up and was with us for the week. In fact, we had rehearsals for two days and notes almost every day, refining and adding business, changing blocking and actually learning how to get great laughs!! The man is a genius when it comes to knowing audiences and what works onstage. I love working with him and told him so!! His family came to see us perform on the Friday night show. John and I had fun changing some of our routines. Of course, every night we had shows while all these changes were happening. So of course, I would have to write down the changes and make sure that I was able to remember them while doing a show I had already performed 66 times. Muscle memory gets in the way, but I succeeded. We had some great laughs during rehearsals trying to get everyone to do new things. But we all accomplished wonderful stuff and the show got better and better. The audiences in Schenectady are very theater savvy as shows have been performing here for years before they go to Broadway. We had several sell outs and the other houses were 80% full. Incredible!! The house management was quite happy as were we. It was such fun to get great laughs in places that had not had laughs before!! I feel like a half rock star now as I also get some cheering when I come out for my bow. John is clearly the rock star of the show, but it is great to have to hold while the audience laughs at my lines!! I am really enjoying the stillness that is necessary to deliver many of my funny moments. One is never too old to learn this craft; it keeps one on their toes and makes for very memorable adventures onstage. I cannot tell you how great this cast is. I hope you don’t think I am redundant, but even Sammy had praise for us, and he doesn’t praise lightly. The bottle dancers are excellent, every night they stop the show; “To Life” is another crowd pleaser as well as “the Dream” and “Do You Love Me”.

I am not the only actor who benefitted from Sammy’s direction. The entire cast has grown in their roles and continues to meld into a vibrant and interesting village, seething with character and drive and enthusiasm. The Stage lights up with the energy everyone brings to their roles and the applause at the end of each performance has grown exponentially with cheers and standing ovations galore. We are all so happy to be onstage together and it shows in the performances.

This caring and good will carries over into our day to day interactions as well. Since Schenectady, we have been in a different city almost every day, we had an occasional two nighter once a week for the past two weeks. But we are traveling long distances on the bus and then have a performance. Get home, sleep in a different hotel every night, get back on the bus, travel for 5-6 hours, (except for today which was 10 but there is no show tonight, thanks be to the Gracious Higher Being!!) then perform, go home, sleep in a different hotel, get back on the bus, etc….for 2 weeks this has been our life. Not very much fun. But today Nicole announced on the bus that this was the best bus group ever and I second that!! No one complains, no one whines, everyone smiles a greeting and is totally supportive of each other. It is amazing. And I salute everyone of my bus mates.

We did have a wonderful time in Charleston, SC, Sixty Degree weather and blue skies, as well as wonderful audiences. We had the morning free yesterday; in the afternoon there was a rehearsal as we got an addition to our company—a new male swing. We were and are thrilled as punch as this will hopefully help out when people are sick and need to call out. I think I mentioned how difficult it was when everyone started getting sick in December and Aaron had to go home as he hurt his foot quite badly. Our male swing, Patrick, was admirable, sometimes doing up to three different characters in one show. He is amazing!! Anyway, the new swing, Cort, is terrific and debuted last night as one of the Russians. He is already a wonderful addition to our Anatevka family. Back to our free morning: with the beautiful weather, I decided to walk to lunch at a restaurant that was a mile away from the hotel. As I was walking I realized first that this was the first day in weeks that I had seen the sun and secondly, this was the first in weeks that I was able to walk somewhere without having to get back on the bus within 15 minutes or an hour…we usually have a 15 or 20 minute pit stop in the morning, an hour for lunch and another 15 minute stop if the trip is longer than 5 hours. Otherwise, we barrel through to our hotel. Please see other blogs for more details of bus trips….I relished the walk and the sunshine and eating in a grown up restaurant that was not a chain or fast food. It is remarkable how the simplest things become so important and relaxing.

We are on our way now to Lowell, MA (my son will be at the show there), then Portland, ME Saturday for two shows, and then on to West Point, NY where I will have a crowd to see me. I can’t wait to be able to perform for my family and friends. It will be so very nice to have people I know and love in the audience!! Then we have one more 6am call (we had several very early calls this week with long distances to cover) and then the distances get shorter and we can sleep a little in the mornings. This will make for happier campers I think. We are all anxiously awaiting a ‘sit-down’. I think I explained that in an earlier blog. Anyway, it is exactly what it sounds like. We actually stay in one place for a few days. Toledo, OH will see us for four or five nights in early February. In mid-February we will be in Cincinnati for two entire weeks. We will even have a Golden Day in Each of these cities. Golden Days are VERY SPECIAL. It means No Travel and No Performance!! We don’t get many of them, but we certainly appreciate them when we do have them.

I hope you all have a good weekend and if you get to a show, please let me know. I would love to see you before or after!!

Good night and more later…..