One Midnight Gone!

Wow! A week goes by so fast and in Into the Woods terms we are at one midnight gone with the NYC rehearsal period ending tomorrow. We say goodbye to our home for the last two weeks, Pearl Studios and our main studio 412. It's been a busy week! Most of our props have now been shipped off to California along with most of what was clogging up the production office. Now it's just a couple of computers and the water, fruit and granola bars they keep on hand for us. We got to see pictures of most of our costumes and that was cool. I hope they all fit!

I've slowly been recovering from that nasty bug I got. Thankfully no one else in the company caught it! I'm not 100% but I'm finally eating solids and have most of my energy back. I look forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

Tuesday we started running the show then working through rough patches in the afternoons while the kids are with their tutor. They have to have school 3 hours a day but don't seem to mind it at all. They really are good kids. It's exciting to see how the show is coming together and we are in really great shape as we stand right now. Of course tech happens next week and heaven knows what that will do to us!

We've had a lot of audience members this week. Our creative team including designers, casting director and one of our producers, Aldo, have been watching the runs. Here's a link where you can find Aldo's bio and you'll see why I'm glad he's happy with what he's seeing.:

http://www.columbiaartiststheatricals.com/Bios.html

Wednesday night I had a quick dinner with Ashley and Brian and their friend Harry at Chipotle in Hell's Kitchen. We didn't have long as Ashley and Harry are both child wrangling over at the Roundabout for Jason Robert Brown's new show "13". Then I went to my old nail place on 45th (Kim still remembered me) to get my eyebrows waxed. This is the place where I used to run into Chita Rivera and we'd sit girly chatting while getting manicures in what is still a very surreal series of memories. I'm not particularly thrilled with the results. The girl who did them (Kim was busy with a pedi) didn't speak English and couldn't understand, clearly, the direction I was giving her. She just kept smiling and nodding and saying "Ok, you like?". Ugh. So I have little red bumps on my left eyebone and I'm not crazy about the shape but it's better than looking like a Yetti.

Last night Chaz and I went to see Gypsy on Broadway starring the diva herself, Ms. Patti Ann LuPone, at the St. James Theatre. Our asst. choreographer Steve is in the show too and it was fun to see him onstage. We ended up having Chaz pose as a Penn State student and show his old student i.d. for rush seats (which were still available at 2:30!). For $27 we sat in the front row. Now Steve had been very curious about where our seats were exactly. House right, A 6 & 8. It didn't take long to find out why! She came and delivered part of "Some People" directly to me and I sat there staring up at her with what I can only imagine was a dumb grin. Laura Benanti sang "Little Lamb" right in front of us then later winked at Chaz during a strip number. I had never understood why Miss Patti had not starred in the previous revival or one elsewhere as I had always seen her as being born to play the part. And she did not disappoint! She nailed every number, every nuance, the pathetic desperation of Rose and the comedic moments throughout. I suppose that's why she won the Tony for the role this year! I pray I get to play the part someday. Almost everyone was top notch. I can't recall the last show I saw where I didn't have at least some issues but this came close. I'm so glad we got to go before we leave since Patti leaves in March and this was likely my last opportunity to see her in the show.

So now it's time for the next installment of Meet the Cast! Please meet my new favorite theatre pal, Andrew Chartier. Andrew is friends with my friend Val as I mentioned a blog or two ago, so we knew we'd get along but we bonded almost instantly! It's the way me and Bryden and Bex did with The Full Monty. He is a 24 year-old singer/actor/dancer from Connecticut. He is also our male swing and our dance captain so he has to know EVERYTHING! Andrew put it best, "What is it about you!? When I'm around you it's like I'm 3!". We laugh SO much I can't believe we haven't gotten into trouble. He causes the type of giggling fits I have with my mother or Candace where I CANNOT stop and I'm crying and I can't breathe. See Andrew is a total type A. Very organized. His scripts are separated, one for ography and one for himself and everything is typed and labeled and bound neatly. I love this about him but we were sitting in notes (where the creative team tells us what worked or didn't in the run we just completed) yesterday about 3:00 (AFTER a lunch break...BAD idea) and I was just looking at his book and turned to him and said "I love your Type A-ness" which of course sounded like tight anus and we both immediately lost it and were crying. I had to excuse myself from the studio because we could not get it together. It happened again today when he said he wants to play the ! in the title, Oliver!. So I proceeded to do my impression of how you would tell someone you are playing the ! and he lost it so I soon followed as did Will. I wish I could show you all because I swear you'd find it funny. I'm sure it has a "have to be there" kind of feeling. Anyway that's Andrew and he rocks my socks!

Gotta get some sleep. Going to see Patti then getting back to Jersey had me up uber late last night and we had a long day. I need to be really focused tomorrow and get a lot of work done at our last run until dress next Friday!

I'm crazy homesick as the two week mark passes and I miss you all like mad! Especially my husband and "the kids". I've now taken to stopping nearly everone walking a dog to ask if I can pet them (the dog, not the person...well...sometimes both).