12.22.11 Agent Hunting We closed Show Boat in late September, and the majority of our cast filtered back to NYC to join the ranks of actors seeking work. We had a very close cast, and within weeks, we were planning reunions. In late October, I hit a little bump in the show-biz road. My manager unexpectedly went out of business. I suddenly found myself unrepresented for the first time in over a decade. I spent the next two months interviewing various agents, going to open calls, and working on self-generated projects. Looking for a new agent is a lot like dating. I didn’t think some were a good match for me, and others didn’t think I was right for their office. Its important to stay mentally centered during a time like this. You have to know what you are looking for (not to take the first thing that comes along), and its helpful to have a thick skin. Agents may pass on you for various reasons: they represent predominantly young talent, or they may have an actor just like you already in their ‘stable’. I’m confident in what I have to offer, so it was really a matter of interviewing until the right match happened. And almost two months from the date my former manager closed, I found my new agent. I’m looking forward to the new relationship. Its a good forward step, and I’m eager to see how things in the new year progress. 9.3.11 Docking after a Hurricane Hurricane Irene left New York City relatively unscathed. But wasn’t as gentle to New England. The opera house didn’t experience wind damage, although there were downed trees in the area. But the Connecticut River rose high enough to flood the basement level. The theater says this happens at least once a year, so they were prepared for it. The biggest challenge was no electricity for 5 days. The theater itself has a large generator so the show can go on. But they had to move the actors to a hotel 30-minutes away. It felt a bit like I was on tour again. (pic of CT River flooding, dock under water) Show Boat has proven to be one of Goodspeed’s most successful shows. Reviews were great, and the producers have been elated all summer. And now we close 2 weeks from today. The cast as been one of the most simpatico casts I’ve ever been a part of. Everyone has gotten along, and not one ‘bad apple’. The runs are long here at Goodspeed, and I am definitely looking forward to something new. I’m not sure what that something is yet, but that is the life of an actor. 6.29.11 Show Boating After a great vacation in mid-May, I headed up to the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut for the summer to do a production of Show Boat. Goodspeed is a two-time Tony Award winning regional theater that dedicates itself to classic American musical theater. This is my fifth production up here, having previously done productions of Brigadoon and A Little Night Music (2001), King of Hearts (2002), and 1776 (2007). This production of Show Boat is garnering interest because a 25 person cast of this show in a space as limiting as the historic opera house seems un-produceable. Our director Rob Ruggiero has been given artistic freedom by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to reconstruct the show for the space. As economic times make smaller shows more attractive for regional producing organizations, a 25 person Show Boat should be of great interest if it proves a success. We will have our first performance on July 1st, and I have to say, it looks like its going to be a great show. The set alone is truly a wonder in the small jewel-box of a theater. The opera house sits alongside the beautiful Connecticut River, a perfect setting for the show. The inside of the theater has a horseshoe-shaped balcony around a house that has a remarkable resemblance to the inside of an actual show boat. The feel of the grand old opera house built in 1876, about a decade before the our show takes place should add an extra bit of authenticity for our audience. 5.3.11 End of Tour and New Opportunities The South Pacific tour closed on March 20th, 2011, in Toronto. I was happily extended into their Toronto run. Originally I was only contracted through Cleveland. In the end, I was with the company for a little over 3 months. I enjoyed the entire experience: great cast, supportive, and talented. Closing both the Broadway and tour productions was a special experience. And it was a huge part of my life for nearly 3 years. I am grateful for the experience. It was truly life-changing. The show will now remount and go out in the fall non-union. After only a week back from tour, an opportunity came out of nowhere to guest-artist teach at Nebraska Weslayan University for a week. It was a demanding but rewarding experience. The students were hungry for knowledge about the business and living in New York City. I met some talented eager young performers, and I wish them well as they continue to train or begin their careers. After Nebraska, and a trip to my own alma mater to attend a wedding where I saw friends I had not seen in almost 20 years, I returned to NYC and hit the auditions again. I have a terrific manager and he kept me busy. Happily my next job came up after only 2 weeks back. I will be heading up to Goodspeed to do Show Boat from June through mid-September. In the meantime, I plan to do a little vacation time before my next gig starts. 2.3.11 On The Road Again It’s been 7 years since I’ve been on tour, and I’ve missed it. I guess I just like the adventure of discovering new cities, finding a great coffee shop or pub, the after-show unwind with fellow cast, and the sightseeing. From December 14th through the holidays until mid-January, the tour of South Pacific played The Kennedy Center in Washington DC for 5 weeks. Performing on the stage where presidents have been inaugurated was exciting. From DC, we had a nice respite from the cold with a week in Fort Myers, FL. We sold very well in both cities. DC because its a theater town and the military aspect of our show appealed to them, and Fort Myers no doubt because of the general age of the audience many of whom remembers WWII personally. Our next stop was Newark. The NJPAC is only a few years old, big and beautiful. The other nice thing was that I could commute from home and sleep in my own bed. Winter was in full force though, and we had a couple shows canceled due to the blizzard. I won’t lie, it was nice to have the extra nights off at home, even if it was blizzarding outside. Now we are spending 2 weeks in Cleveland before heading on to Toronto. I played the same theater (the Palace - see left) here in Cleveland a decade ago on the Parade national tour. Its a beautiful ‘old school’ touring house. The backstage is way too small but there’s a romanticism to the drafty stairways and cramped hallways. I’m glad I got to play at least one old theater in the 5 cities I’m hitting. The others are all modern and comfortable. But there’s something about those old theaters that brings out the romantic idea of a tour. 12.7.10 Redeployed After a very slow time in the biz during November, I got a call to go out as a temporary replacement for 8 weeks on the Broadway National Tour of South Pacific. Having had a nice 3 month break from the Broadway production, I find myself pretty excited to be hitting the road with the show. I’m particularly excited to be spending a month in Washington DC playing the Kennedy Center, and then a week in Ft. Myers, Florida in the middle of January. We then play Newark (where I can commute from my own home in NYC), then a final two weeks in Cleveland. The tour goes on to Toronto from there, but as of now, I’m not contracted for that leg. I have not been on tour since 2003 with The Sound of Music, and I’m eager for the adventure. 10.19.10 Costume Change I am excited to be doing a play, and in beautiful Vermont during the height of New England autumn: Amadeus, at Northern Stage. I’ve spent some autumns in Connecticut, and the color even farther north is even more amazing in the Vermont mountains. Due to a short rehearsal process, we really crammed. We blocked the entire show in 3 days. Its a good group of people, and I’m enjoying the process. The internet has become an actor’s best friend when it comes to research. We all know everything on the internet isn’t accurate, but researching time period, and listening on YouTube to a particular accent (Italian for my character), or music (Mozart, obviously, and some of Salieri and other composers of the late 1700’s) has proven invaluable. The costumes are very similar to when I did 1776 at Goodspeed in 2007. The difference is colonial America vs. the royal courts of Vienna. But otherwise, its the same time period. My wig is enormous, and no one recognizes me outside of the theater. This area is very theater savvy, and people recognize the actors at restaurants, at the gym, etc. This happened when I was up here doing The Full Monty. (With Monty there was always a little wink and a smile when they said they “saw” me onstage.) With this show, I’ve seen the recognition with our Mozart, Salieri, and our gentleman that play the Venticelli. But my amazing wig completely transforms me, and no one recognizes the Count. Ha! 9.26.10 Closing and a visit to High School South Pacific closed on August 22nd. It was an emotional but celebratory event. The PBS Broadcast “Live At Lincoln Center” of the musical aired on August 18th, the Wednesday before. The whole final two weeks were a blur. I was satisfied to be saying goodbye. It was a wonderful run. I had been on Broadway in one show for two years, two and a half months. I was ready for a change and ready to do something creatively different than being a swing. So with a final farewell with a lovely closing party atop the Empire Hotel, we all parted ways. I had four weeks off before beginning my next job. During a short trip to Missouri for a family wedding, I had a chance to speak to the Drama Club at the high school where I attended, North County High School. It was great to meet these eager young artists who are just now discovering the world of acting. I tried to offer them a glimpse into the world of a professional actor. Many of them had never really seen professional theater, but it was nice to see that spark in their eyes. I wish them all well in their acting endeavors, and expect to hear of great successes from them. 8.11.10 Coming into Port Its a feeling you get during the final two weeks of school. Nearing the end of something you have spent several years of your life with, you start emotionally saying goodbye, you take pictures, you feel happy, sad, excited, bittersweet, and a little apprehensive. Change is good, if you embrace it. But it can feel monumental when your life has been the same for so long. For an actor, change is often the norm. So after having a chance at a stable schedule in a Broadway show, when the end comes, it feels big. We said farewell for the last time to Laura Osnes as Nellie Forbush on Sunday. Laura is universally loved by our cast and it was really tough to say goodbye to her 2 weeks before we close. Between that, and having Kelli back, it really has sunk in that we are at the end. Being a swing, I have an added challenge of never knowing when my last show really is. I’ve tried to take in the last few shows I was on as if it were my last. I was onstage for Laura’s last show, and it felt like my last show too. Chances are slim but not impossible that I could be on sometime during the last two weeks - but it feels over for me. In many ways, I’ve already left. And at 410 onstage performances, I feel happy with the end. 7.29.10 Baring it for Charity and Belting in Bryant Park In late June, I participated for the first time in the annual Broadway burlesque fundraiser: Broadway Bares, now in its 20th Season. Broadway Bares presents Broadway’s sexiest performers in a sort of burlesque show- one of the most popular events in New York City. It raises money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and this year we raised over a million dollars! Broadway Cares is now the #1 charity organization in the country for AIDS research as well as helping to fight breast & ovarian cancer. The Broadway community does make a difference. As for dancing down to my skivvies in front of thousands of people, well, after doing The Full Monty, this was easy! And it was a fun, sexy, exciting evening full of love and positive energy. The theme was Monopoly, and I was in the ‘Go To Jail’ number. It was a night I’ll never forget. Here’s a YouTube clip: Broadway Bares: Stripopoly On July 15th, the boys of South Pacific sang “Nothing Like A Dame” at the annual Broadway in Bryant Park concert. Its a great way to bring Broadway to the masses. It was a fun, if hot afternoon, and most likely the last public event our cast will perform before the live televised performance on August 18th, and before we close. 6.11.10 Summer Transitions April and May was a fairly uneventful time. We had a few cast changes in the ensemble of South Pacific, and our original Captain Bracket (Skip Sudduth) has returned. In April, the show had its 2 Year Anniversary Party. It was a more subtle, less swanky affair than the 1 Year Anniversary- but still incredibly generous of Lincoln Center. One big change, I guess, is that after 10 years, I changed agent representation. I just felt like it was time to shake things up. Many actors seem dissatisfied with their agents, and I had my own dissatisfactions. I could certainly pinpoint specifics, but mostly it was just a general feeling that I needed to move on. And the time felt right. I now have a new manager. I’ve known Achilles socially for a couple years, and I’ve been impressed with how he represents his clients. Even though its a new business relationship, it seems like a good fit. With South Pacific’s closing only 2 1/2 months away, I’m finding myself back on the audition circuit. After the initial adjustment, I’m getting my the‘auditioning legs’ back. Auditioning is often compared to a muscle. It has to be stretched and worked on, otherwise it gets weak. Its an entirely different thing than performing onstage. Actors can be amazing performers onstage, and be terrible auditioners, or terrific auditioners and be awful onstage. Learning how to audition well is an entirely separate skill-set. And I’ve been getting back to it. I passed my own 2 Year Anniversary with the show on June 10th. By that date I had been onstage 367 performances. Life for me has changed a lot in those two years- my confidence, my connections in the business, a personal age benchmark...I’m excited to see where my career takes me from here. It certainly is a whole new ball game, not just for me, but for the industry as a whole as the economy has evolved, and is still evolving. My goal has been to be adaptable to that evolution, and ready myself for the new career roads that lie ahead. 3.20.10 Sondheim: The Birthday Concert Spring came early to NYC, and the Spring Breakers have brought back the crowds. My aunt and cousins came to see the show during the only Nor’easter this month. Luckily they’d seen most the touristy stuff a few years ago, so they did museums and indoor stuff during the torrential freezing rains. Now New Yorkers are celebrating the warm sunshine. On Monday, March 15th, I participated in the chorus of composer Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday Concert performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. It was a star-studded event that will be televised on PBS sometime in the Fall. Myself along with 300 other Broadway performers sang in the evening’s finale song: “Sunday” from Sondheim’s musical Sunday In The Park with George. The 300 filled the stage, every aisle, and around both balconies. The sound was enormous, and brought the crowd and Mr. Sondheim to tears. It was a very special event to be a part of. 2.23.10 Broadway Backwards On Monday February 22nd, I performed in a benefit concert for Broadway Cares called Broadway Backwards 5, where men sing women’s Broadway songs, and vice versa. It was star studded: Florence Henderson hosted, and it included Broadway stars Robert Cuccioli, Ann Harada, Julia Murney, Gary Beach, Len Cariou, Lee Roy Reams, Tonya Pinkins, Aaron Lazar, Douglas Sills, Raul Esparza, Lea Salonga, Seth Rudetsky, and Tituss Burgess. And tv/film stars: Richard Kind, Eve Plumb, Marion Ross, Valerie Harper, Becki Newton (from Ugly Betty?), Dan Butler, Michele Lee, Bruce Vilanch, and Mario Cantone. To say it was fun is an understatement! I performed in 6 numbers, and worked closely with Florence Henderson, Gary Beach, and Douglas Sills. It was held at our theater, so I was very comfortable in the environment…but with over 50 different chorus members, and celebrities in every hallway. Florence Henderson was a darling. She is so friendly and accessible. 2.20.10 Six Months to Shore Leave On Thursday night, the producers and director of South Pacific called a company meeting and told us that the show would have its final performance on August 22, 2010. The cast has been hearing rumors since before the holidays that we would probably run until the end of the summer, so this did not come as a shock to anyone. We knew it wouldn’t last forever, and the show has already run longer than anyone expected. The whole experience has been magical, and we are all daily thankful to be a part of such a successful production with the incredible organization Lincoln Center. By the time it ends, South Pacific will have played 1000 performances and 37 previews, making it the longest-running Broadway revival of any of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals. Click here for the Playbill Online announcement: South Pacific closes 2.10.10 Snow Day in the South Pacific So here we are in the peak (slump?) of the low season for Broadway: the deadly early February weeks post-holiday and pre-Spring Break. Last year at this time our show saw its first few empty seats since opening. But riding high on the post-Tony buzz, we were still doing very well for the time. Sliding into our second year, its a little different. We aren’t the hot new show anymore. We’ve still been having decent crowds before now, and we expect it to go back up in a few weeks. But today is a 2-show day and a blizzard is raging outside. We have a very supportive, very small crowd in the audience. It gives us all incentive to give them a great show. But its scary when it feels like there are more people backstage than in the audience. Its at times like this that it helps to remember whether its 1 or 1,000 people in the audience, they have paid their money to be entertained, to take a journey, to escape from their world for 3 hours - and its our job to give it to them. 1.11.10 New Year New Changes Happy New Year. No entries for a couple months, partly because of the busy holidays, partly...nothing new. The crowds for South Pacific were a little lower over the holiday season than expected, but that was true of the entire Broadway community, not just our show. This holiday season the recession was more obvious on Broadway than last year. But we still are holding strong, with an expected drop during the bleak next 2 winter months before the Spring Break-ers arrive in March. Kelli O’Hara finished out her brief return from October 11th until January 3rd. Now we have the delightful Laura Osnes back. Otherwise the cast has stayed intact since some of them left for tour back in September. click here for prior blog entries

12.22.11 Agent Hunting

We closed Show Boat in late September, and the majority of our cast filtered back to NYC to join the ranks of actors seeking work. We had a very close cast, and within weeks, we were planning reunions.

In late October, I hit a little bump in the show-biz road. My manager unexpectedly went out of business. I suddenly found myself unrepresented for the first time in over a decade. I spent the next two months interviewing various agents, going to open calls, and working on self-generated projects.

Looking for a new agent is a lot like dating. I didn’t think some were a good match for me, and others didn’t think I was right for their office. Its important to stay mentally centered during a time like this. You have to know what you are looking for (not to take the first thing that comes along), and its helpful to have a thick skin. Agents may pass on you for various reasons: they represent predominantly young talent, or they may have an actor just like you already in their ‘stable’. I’m confident in what I have to offer, so it was really a matter of interviewing until the right match happened. And almost two months from the date my former manager closed, I found my new agent. I’m looking forward to the new relationship. Its a good forward step, and I’m eager to see how things in the new year progress.

9.3.11 Docking after a Hurricane

Hurricane Irene left New York City relatively unscathed. But wasn’t as gentle to New England. The opera house didn’t experience wind damage, although there were downed trees in the area. But the Connecticut River rose high enough to flood the basement level. The theater says this happens at least once a year, so they were prepared for it. The biggest challenge was no electricity for 5 days. The theater itself has a large generator so the show can go on. But they had to move the actors to a hotel 30-minutes away. It felt a bit like I was on tour again.

(pic of CT River flooding, dock under water)

Show Boat has proven to be one of Goodspeed’s most successful shows. Reviews were great, and the producers have been elated all summer. And now we close 2 weeks from today. The cast as been one of the most simpatico casts I’ve ever been a part of. Everyone has gotten along, and not one ‘bad apple’. The runs are long here at Goodspeed, and I am definitely looking forward to something new. I’m not sure what that something is yet, but that is the life of an actor.

6.29.11 Show Boating

After a great vacation in mid-May, I headed up to the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut for the summer to do a production of Show Boat. Goodspeed is a two-time Tony Award winning regional theater that dedicates itself to classic American musical theater. This is my fifth production up here, having previously done productions of Brigadoon and A Little Night Music (2001), King of Hearts (2002), and 1776 (2007). This production of Show Boat is garnering interest because a 25 person cast of this show in a space as limiting as the historic opera house seems un-produceable. Our director Rob Ruggiero has been given artistic freedom by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to reconstruct the show for the space. As economic times make smaller shows more attractive for regional producing organizations, a 25 person Show Boat should be of great interest if it proves a success. We will have our first performance on July 1st, and I have to say, it looks like its going to be a great show. The set alone is truly a wonder in the small jewel-box of a theater. The opera house sits alongside the beautiful Connecticut River, a perfect setting for the show. The inside of the theater has a horseshoe-shaped balcony around a house that has a remarkable resemblance to the inside of an actual show boat. The feel of the grand old opera house built in 1876, about a decade before the our show takes place should add an extra bit of authenticity for our audience.

5.3.11 End of Tour and New Opportunities

The South Pacific tour closed on March 20th, 2011, in Toronto. I was happily extended into their Toronto run. Originally I was only contracted through Cleveland. In the end, I was with the company for a little over 3 months. I enjoyed the entire experience: great cast, supportive, and talented. Closing both the Broadway and tour productions was a special experience. And it was a huge part of my life for nearly 3 years. I am grateful for the experience. It was truly life-changing. The show will now remount and go out in the fall non-union.

After only a week back from tour, an opportunity came out of nowhere to guest-artist teach at Nebraska Weslayan University for a week. It was a demanding but rewarding experience. The students were hungry for knowledge about the business and living in New York City.

I met some talented eager young performers, and I wish them well as they continue to train or begin their careers.

Final Cast of the South Pacific National Tour

After Nebraska, and a trip to my own alma mater to attend a wedding where I saw friends I had not seen in almost 20 years, I returned to NYC and hit the auditions again. I have a terrific manager and he kept me busy. Happily my next job came up after only 2 weeks back. I will be heading up to Goodspeed to do Show Boat from June through mid-September. In the meantime, I plan to do a little vacation time before my next gig starts.

2.3.11 On The Road Again

It’s been 7 years since I’ve been on tour, and I’ve missed it. I guess I just like the adventure of discovering new cities, finding a great coffee shop or pub, the after-show unwind with fellow cast, and the sightseeing. From December 14th through the holidays until mid-January, the tour of South Pacific played The Kennedy Center in Washington DC for 5 weeks. Performing on the stage where presidents have been inaugurated was exciting. From DC, we had a nice respite from the cold with a week in Fort Myers, FL. We sold very well in both cities. DC because its a theater town and the military aspect of our show appealed to them, and Fort Myers no doubt because of the general age of the audience many of whom remembers WWII personally.

Our next stop was Newark. The NJPAC is only a few years old, big and beautiful. The other nice thing was that I could

commute from home and sleep in my own bed. Winter was in full force though, and we had a couple shows canceled due to the blizzard. I won’t lie, it was nice to have the extra nights off at home, even if it was blizzarding outside. Now we are spending 2 weeks in Cleveland before heading on to Toronto. I played the same theater (the Palace - see left) here in Cleveland a decade ago on the Parade national tour. Its a beautiful ‘old school’ touring house. The backstage is way too small but there’s a romanticism to the drafty stairways and cramped hallways. I’m glad I got to play at least one old theater in the 5 cities I’m hitting. The others are all modern and comfortable. But there’s something about those old theaters that brings out the romantic idea of a tour.

12.7.10 Redeployed

After a very slow time in the biz during November, I got a call to go out as a temporary replacement for 8 weeks on the Broadway National Tour of South Pacific. Having had a nice 3 month break from the Broadway production, I find myself pretty excited to be hitting the road with the show. I’m particularly excited to be spending a month in Washington DC playing the Kennedy Center, and then a week in Ft. Myers, Florida in the middle of January. We then play Newark (where I can commute from my own home in NYC), then a final two weeks in Cleveland. The tour goes on to Toronto from there, but as of now, I’m not contracted for that leg. I have not been on tour since 2003 with The Sound of Music, and I’m eager for the adventure.

10.19.10 Costume Change

am excited to be doing a play, and in beautiful Vermont during the height of New England autumn: Amadeus, at Northern Stage. I’ve spent some autumns in Connecticut, and the color even farther north is even more amazing in the Vermont mountains. Due to a short rehearsal process, we really crammed. We blocked the entire show in 3 days. Its a good group of people, and I’m enjoying the process. The internet has become an actor’s best friend when it comes to research. We all know everything on the internet isn’t accurate, but researching time period, and listening on YouTube to a particular accent (Italian for my character), or music (Mozart, obviously, and some of Salieri and other composers of the late 1700’s) has proven invaluable.

The costumes are very similar to when I did 1776 at Goodspeed in 2007. The difference is colonial America vs. the royal courts of Vienna. But otherwise, its the same time period. My wig is enormous, and no one recognizes me outside of the theater. This area is very theater savvy, and people recognize the actors at restaurants, at the gym, etc. This happened when I was up here doing The Full Monty. (With Monty there was always a little wink and a smile when they said they “saw” me onstage.) With this show, I’ve seen the recognition with our Mozart, Salieri, and our gentleman that play the Venticelli. But my amazing wig completely transforms me, and no one recognizes the Count. Ha!

9.26.10 Closing and a visit to High School

South Pacific closed on August 22nd. It was an emotional but celebratory event. The PBS Broadcast “Live At Lincoln Center” of the musical aired on August 18th, the Wednesday before. The whole final two weeks were a blur. I was satisfied to be saying goodbye. It was a wonderful run. I had been on Broadway in one show for two years, two and a half months. I was ready for a change and ready to do something creatively different than being a swing. So with a final farewell with a lovely closing party atop the Empire Hotel, we all parted ways.

I had four weeks off before beginning my next job. During a short trip to Missouri for a family wedding, I had a chance to speak to the Drama Club at the high school where I attended, North County High School. It was great to meet these eager young artists who are just now discovering the world of acting. I tried to offer them a glimpse into the world of a professional actor. Many of them had never really seen professional theater, but it was nice to see that spark in their eyes. I wish them all well in their acting endeavors, and expect to hear of great successes from them.

8.11.10 Coming into Port

Its a feeling you get during the final two weeks of school. Nearing the end of something you have spent several years of your life with, you start emotionally saying goodbye, you take pictures, you feel happy, sad, excited, bittersweet, and a little apprehensive. Change is good, if you embrace it. But it can feel monumental when your life has been the same for so long. For an actor, change is often the norm. So after having a chance at a stable schedule in a Broadway show, when the end comes, it feels big. We said farewell for the last time to Laura Osnes as Nellie Forbush on Sunday. Laura is universally loved by our cast and it was really tough to say goodbye to her 2 weeks before we close. Between that, and having Kelli back, it really has sunk in that we are at the end.

Being a swing, I have an added challenge of never knowing when my last show really is. I’ve tried to take in the last few shows I was on as if it were my last. I was onstage for Laura’s last show, and it felt like my last show too. Chances are slim but not impossible that I could be on sometime during the last two weeks - but it feels over for me. In many ways, I’ve already left. And at 410 onstage performances, I feel happy with the end.

7.29.10 Baring it for Charity and Belting in Bryant Park

In late June, I participated for the first time in the annual Broadway burlesque fundraiser:

Broadway Bares, now in its 20th Season. Broadway Bares presents Broadway’s sexiest performers in a sort of burlesque show- one of the most popular events in New York City. It raises money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and this year we raised over a million dollars! Broadway Cares is now the #1 charity organization in the country for AIDS research as well as helping to fight breast & ovarian cancer. The Broadway community does make a difference.

As for dancing down to my skivvies in front of thousands of people, well, after doing The Full Monty, this was easy! And it was a fun, sexy, exciting evening full of love and positive energy. The theme was Monopoly, and I was in the ‘Go To Jail’ number. It was a night I’ll never forget. Here’s a YouTube clip: Broadway Bares: Stripopoly

On July 15th, the boys of South Pacific sang “Nothing Like A Dame” at the annual Broadway in Bryant Park concert. Its a great way to bring Broadway to the masses. It was a fun, if hot afternoon, and most likely the last public event our cast will perform before the live televised performance on August 18th, and before we close.

6.11.10 Summer Transitions

April and May was a fairly uneventful time. We had a few cast changes in the ensemble of South Pacific, and our original Captain Bracket (Skip Sudduth) has returned. In April, the show had its 2 Year Anniversary Party. It was a more subtle, less swanky affair than the 1 Year Anniversary- but still incredibly generous of Lincoln Center.

One big change, I guess, is that after 10 years, I changed agent representation. I just felt like it was time to shake things up. Many actors seem dissatisfied with their agents, and I had my own dissatisfactions. I could certainly pinpoint specifics, but mostly it was just a general feeling that I needed to move on. And the time felt right. I now have a new manager. I’ve known Achilles socially for a couple years, and I’ve been impressed with how he represents his clients. Even though its a new business relationship, it seems like a good fit.

With South Pacific’s closing only 2 1/2 months away, I’m finding myself back on the audition circuit. After the initial adjustment, I’m getting my the‘auditioning legs’ back. Auditioning is often compared to a muscle. It has to be stretched and worked on, otherwise it gets weak. Its an entirely different thing than performing onstage. Actors can be amazing performers onstage, and be terrible auditioners, or terrific auditioners and be awful onstage. Learning how to audition well is an entirely separate skill-set. And I’ve been getting back to it.

I passed my own 2 Year Anniversary with the show on June 10th. By that date I had been onstage 367 performances. Life for me has changed a lot in those two years- my confidence, my connections in the business, a personal age benchmark...I’m excited to see where my career takes me from here. It certainly is a whole new ball game, not just for me, but for the industry as a whole as the economy has evolved, and is still evolving. My goal has been to be adaptable to that evolution, and ready myself for the new career roads that lie ahead.

3.20.10 Sondheim: The Birthday Concert

Spring came early to NYC, and the Spring Breakers have brought back the crowds. My aunt and cousins came to see

the show during the only Nor’easter this month. Luckily they’d seen most the touristy stuff a few years ago, so they did museums and indoor stuff during the torrential freezing rains. Now New Yorkers are celebrating the warm sunshine.

On Monday, March 15th, I participated in the chorus of composer Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday Concert performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. It was a star-studded event that will be televised on PBS sometime in the Fall. Myself along with 300 other Broadway performers sang in the evening’s finale song: “Sunday” from Sondheim’s musical Sunday In The Park with George. The 300 filled the stage, every aisle, and around both balconies. The sound was enormous, and brought the crowd and Mr. Sondheim to tears. It was a very special event to be a part of.

2.23.10 Broadway Backwards

On Monday February 22nd, I performed in a benefit concert for Broadway Cares

called Broadway Backwards 5, where men sing women’s Broadway songs, and vice versa. It was star studded: Florence Henderson hosted, and it included Broadway stars Robert Cuccioli, Ann Harada, Julia Murney, Gary Beach, Len Cariou, Lee Roy Reams, Tonya Pinkins, Aaron Lazar, Douglas Sills, Raul Esparza, Lea Salonga, Seth Rudetsky, and Tituss Burgess. And tv/film stars: Richard Kind, Eve Plumb, Marion Ross, Valerie Harper, Becki Newton (from Ugly Betty?), Dan Butler, Michele Lee, Bruce Vilanch, and Mario Cantone.

To say it was fun is an understatement! I performed in 6 numbers, and worked closely with Florence Henderson, Gary Beach, and Douglas Sills. It was held at our theater, so I was very comfortable in the environment…but with over 50 different chorus members, and celebrities in every hallway. Florence Henderson was a darling. She is so friendly and accessible.

2.20.10 Six Months to Shore Leave

On Thursday night, the producers and director of South Pacific called a company meeting and told us that the show would have its final performance on August 22, 2010. The cast has been hearing rumors since before the holidays that we would probably run until the end of the summer, so this did not come as a shock to anyone. We knew it wouldn’t last forever, and the show has already run longer than anyone expected. The whole experience has been magical, and we are all daily thankful to be a part of such a successful production with the incredible organization Lincoln Center. By the time it ends, South Pacific will have played 1000 performances and 37 previews, making it the longest-running Broadway revival of any of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals. Click here for the Playbill Online announcement:

South Pacific closes

2.10.10 Snow Day in the South Pacific

So here we are in the peak (slump?) of the low season for Broadway: the deadly early February weeks post-holiday and pre-Spring Break. Last year at this time our show saw its first few empty seats since opening. But riding high on the post-Tony buzz, we were still doing very well for the time. Sliding into our second year, its a little different. We aren’t the hot new show anymore. We’ve still been having decent crowds before now, and we expect it to go back up in a few weeks. But today is a 2-show day and a blizzard is raging outside. We have a very supportive, very small crowd in the audience. It gives us all incentive to give them a great show. But its scary when it feels like there are more people backstage than in the audience. Its at times like this that it helps to remember whether its 1 or 1,000 people in the audience, they have paid their money to be entertained, to take a journey, to escape from their world for 3 hours - and its our job to give it to them.

1.11.10 New Year New Changes

Happy New Year. No entries for a couple months, partly because of the busy holidays, partly...nothing new. The crowds for South Pacific were a little lower over the holiday season than expected, but that was true of the entire Broadway community, not just our show. This holiday season the recession was more obvious on Broadway than last year. But we still are holding strong, with an expected drop during the bleak next 2 winter months before the Spring Break-ers arrive in March.

Kelli O’Hara finished out her brief return from October 11th until January 3rd. Now we have the delightful Laura Osnes back. Otherwise the cast has stayed intact since some of them left for tour back in September.

click here for prior blog entries