Introducing the new Dorothy

Everyone knows that I am going to be touring with The Wizard of Oz starting in October. But what nobody knows yet is that I have been cast as Dorothy. Just wait until you see the dress!

Chihuly at the Borgata

The first thing that you notice upon entering the Borgata is this glass sculpture. Now I am not very well educated in the world of art, but I know enough to recognize a piece of Dale Chihuly's work. As I explored the Borgata, I kept seeing more of Chihuily's work so I decided to take pictures of some of my favorites. I hope to get better shots of a couple of these, and I have yet to photograph my favorite one. That one hangs in Specchio the Italian restaurant. There are always a bunch of people in the lobby of Specchio so I feel like a tool going in and snapping a picture of the art. When I do get a satisfactory picture though, I will post it.

Life Is Funny Sometimes

Whoopi Goldberg was performing at Harrah's last night after our show. All day I was wondering if I would get to see Whoopi. So who did I see at the theatre last night? Paula Deen

Presenting The Rare and Elusive Goober Bird

It is not such a stretch of the imagination to see where Pixar got the inspiration for their "For The Birds" short cartoon!

A Weekend with the Uncle

The one person I was sure would visit me here in Atlantic City was Uncle Glenn. Every year he plays in a golf tournament in Pennsylvania, and wines and dines some of his produce people in Atlantic City. After comparing schedules we discovered that our time on the Jersey Shore overlapped, and that time was this last weekend. In typical fashion it was a fun crazy weekend, that will require a couple of different posts to do it justice. Needless to say he once again went above and beyond for me, and I am grateful for everything! (The reflection is The Water Club tower which is mentioned below.)

Bally's and Borgata

(This is the only picture that I got at Bally's and I only took it because it is the ugliest planter that I have ever seen!)

I began my crazy Glenn weekend by meeting up with him and Kent at Bally's on Friday. He had made dinner reservations at the Reserve Steakhouse in Bally's and invited me to come along. So I met them at the top of the escalator by the ATM machine on the casino side of Bally's. (If you think that sounds confusing, you are right. There are escalators and ATMs everywhere in these casinos!)

We went up to his hotel room and awaited the arrival of his luggage, and the other dinner guests. The others involved in the evening were John, Mary Lou, and Marilyn, friends of his and people involved in his Giant Produce relationship (I think). Dinner was very entertaining. Mary Lou and Marilyn are a hoot! The food was good, but it did not impress me quite like I had hoped. I was under a bit of a time constraint because I had to make it over to Harrah's for the show that night so I ordered food that would in theory not take too long to prepare. I basically ordered Tapas style and had crab cakes and seared scallops. They were both good, but not the best I have ever had. The crab cakes were not served with a sauce so they were a bit dry. Oh well every meal cannot be the best I guess!

I was starting to cut it close on time, so I went ahead and hopped in a cab and everyone else finished their meal. As it turns out everyone except Kent came over to see The Wedding Singer. (I don't blame Kent. He saw the full length show in Fort Myers!) They were all very gracious about the show. Mary Lou and Marilyn had fun talking with JJ after the show. We then hopped in the car and drove over to the Borgata and began the events listed below.

We did meet up with that crew again for lunch the next day at the Borgata. Lunch was not necessarily exceptional but for the fact that I discovered the Gelato Bar in the Metropolitan Restaurant. I have just three words: passion fruit gelato!

The Water Club

(Between the 16 hour work week and the random nights in luxury hotels, I just don't know how I am surviving!)

Over the years the one thing that I have learned to expect from spending time with Glenn is the unexpected. So after the show, we all headed over to the Borgata. It was then that I discovered what he was planning. Originally 2 produce guys were supposed to drive in from Pennsylvania to see the show and spend the night at the Borgata. Well it turns out that they were not able to make it until the next day, so Glenn decided to let me use the room for the night. Now since nothing can ever be easy in my life, there was a problem with the reservation at the Borgata. Apparently they had given out all of the rooms with two beds so they sent us over to The Water Club. The Water Club is the newest hotel tower at the Borgata, and it is also the poshest hotel in Atlantic City. As it turns out, I not only got to spend Friday night in a luxurious hotel, I also got to spend Saturday night. The guys could not spend the night on Saturday so I lucked out once again!

The hotel is beautiful and absolutely dripping with money. Any hotel that gives you L'Occitane products for the complimentary toiletries is bound to be pretty nice! (Although the W hotels are still my favorite. They give you Bliss products!) Unfortunately my experience was a bit marred. The security guard refused to let me and my 3 dinner guests up to see the room after we had eaten. Apparently they have some bullshit policy about only 2 people being allowed up to the rooms per key card. I use the word bullshit for multiple implications but mostly because I had been up with 2 other people before dinner. Whatever, at least I got to bitch out the night manager, and tell her how ridiculous it is that 4 guys could not go up to admire the decoration of their precious hotel! Well she did give me a late check out of 12pm (instead of 11am). One hour. Fat lot of good that did me!

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch...

but sometimes when Glenn is around there is such a thing as a free dinner. As we were walking around the Borgata, Glenn asked if I might be able to get a couple of people together for dinner at the Bobby Flay Steakhouse. Needless to say that it was not such a challenge to find 3 other musicians or actors to go have dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in the poshest Atlantic City casino. So I decided to ask Tommy, Nate, and JJ. Unfortunately in the process of contacting people, my phone battery died, and I had no way of charging it. Thankfully we could not get a reservation until 10:45pm anyway so I had time to organize everything.

-After finishing the show, we cleaned up and headed over to the Borgata for our dinner. And oh was dinner amazing! We started with crab cake and tuna tartar appetizers. I ordered the restaurant's signature dish: the Philadelphia strip steak. The steak had a crunchy spice rub and was served with grilled onions and a provolone cheese sauce. Get it? "Philly" strip steak. They are very clever at the Bobby Flay Steakhouse! Nate ordered the soft shell crabs. Tommy got the Filet Mignon with a spicy chili sauce, and JJ had the rib chop. For side dishes we got the smashed baked potato with creme fraiche, goat cheese, and green onion; and the roasted asparagus with green peppercorn vinaigrette. Sadly none of us had the constitution to even look at the dessert menu. So I have to admit that as smarmy as Bobby Flay may seem on TV, he does know a thing or two about food!

-When we finished our dinner, we found Glenn at his favorite $1 Wheel of Fortune Slots, and thanked him profusely. After 3 weeks of eating at the Old Country Buffet, oh I mean the Harrah's cafeteria, it was nice to eat some real food!

Da na na na na na na na...na na na na na na na na...na na na na na na na na...Batman (well eventually)

I think that we have the midnight movie hex on this tour. In Tempe, a large group of us went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie at midnight the night it opened. The cinema was too far to walk so we arranged for cabs to take us there. Unfortunately one of the cab drivers had no idea where he was going and got totally lost. Thankfully Tami had a GPS phone, and was able to get the cab driver to the cinema, but sadly they were so late that they had to go to a different screening.

So not having learned our lesson, several of us got tickets to see the new Batman movie last night at midnight. Thankfully we have rental cars here in Atlantic City so we did not have to deal with stupid cab drivers. What we did not plan on was having to deal with stupid cinema employees.

Everything seemed normal until midnight came and went without the movie starting. Since our group bought tickets at different times we were spread out across three different screenings. After a little texting, we discovered that no one's movies had started. Although Mike's had started and stopped. As time passed the nerds started to get restless, and so people went out into the lobby to find out what was going on. Nobody could get a straight answer from the cinema employees or the police officers acting as security. We could see activity in the projection room, but there was no official word.

More time passed and still no movie. By this time it was approaching 1am and people were getting mad. The rumors were also out of control. Some of what I overheard include: "They did not have enough copies of the movie, They did not get all of the reels of the movie, They were waiting until everyone was in their seats to start the movie, They were trying to maximize snack profits, and on and on."

All along people had been leaving, but once 1am came and passed with no movie there was a mass exodus. I was starting to contemplate leaving, but the line for refunds was longer than the people lined up before the movie. Amazingly at about 1:30am the screen lit up with the previews. There was no sound, but at least we had something to watch. Then the movie started, and about 30 seconds into it the sound finally began working. So those who were left cheered, and sat back to watch the movie happy in the knowledge that they overcame the technical problems. Well except the sound cut out again about 2 hours into the movie during one of the most exciting chase scenes. At this point, I had invested a lot of time in seeing the movie, and I was going to stick it out even if it meant lip reading.

The sound did return from the dead after a few minutes, and we were able to finish out the movie without any other major issues. Had it not been so late, I would have gone out to the lobby and tried to get a refund. The whole evening was an exercise in poor management and apparent technical incompetence.

Oh and the movie, it was good.

A Messge for Jamie

I was walking behind Harrah's yesterday, and I was stopped by this bird. He asked me to pass on this message:

"Why won't you come visit us? I thought that you were our friend."

It was pretty sad. I think that he was crying little birdy tears.

He's Coming

All "Harry Potter and his Magic Wand" jokes aside, I would be interested in seeing this. It got pretty good reviews in London, and I have never seen Equus before. Unfortunately it is probably already sold out. (There has probably also been a surge in the sale of opera glasses in the city!) They were putting up the signs for Equus when I passed by the Broadhurst last Monday so I had to snap a picture.

A few photographic thoughts

Really with all of those rooms, Harrah's could not house us there?

"If I were king of the lampost"


Maybe this is why my allergies have been raging?!

Mmm tasty! Gotta love the Jersey shore.

A New Pleasure, A New Pleasure

I feel an intervention coming on.

Everyone else's car has grains of sand in the carpet.
Mine has grains of pretzel salt.

Let's Get Away From Atlantic City

-Now I realize that I have only been in Atlantic City for a week and a half, but I took my first little side trip on my day off. And as you can all guess, it was to New York. Last week I overheard Nate amongst others discussing going to see Damn Yankees at City Center. Now I knew that this production was happening. Damn Yankees is a part of the Summer Stars Encores! Series. The same series that produced the production of Gypsy that is currently on Broadway. Damn Yankees is a show that I have always liked, plus starring in this production is Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, and Sean Hayes. The concept behind Encores! is that they present the show with the original book played by a full orchestra and in the case of Damn Yankees with the original Fosse choreography. Over the years I have never gotten to see an Encores! show so I knew that this was the perfect chance. (Okay one of my big regrets in life is having passed up Promises, Promises at Encores! to see the first preview of Jekyll and Hyde. Was I smoking crack or what!)

-So I checked the schedule and the only Monday night performance listed was last Monday. I therefore hopped on a bus Sunday night after the show and made my way up to the city. For the first time in years I stayed with Brian. For years Brian was out of the city on tour so I got in the habit of staying with Eric, but this seemed the perfect opportunity to impose myself on Brian once again! And I am glad that I did. He lives up in Inwood which is the northernmost neighborhood on Manhattan's west side, and I must say that I liked the neighborhood and his apartment. The train ride is also not so bad especially considering that I had a 45 minute commute to the Woodwind every day. If I ever move to New York, I could see myself living in Inwood.

-As it turns out Brian had the day off on Monday and Tuesday so we got to hang out in the city. We started Monday by purchasing our tickets to the show and then we went shopping to kill time before meeting up with Eric for lunch. I purchased some new 80s socks from H&M in hot pink. (Now with the hot pink socks and tight rolled pants plus the new jacket I am wearing, I am the envy of all of the musicians. I will get a picture of the outfit and post it sometime.)

-We had lunch with Eric at the Thai place in the Chelsea Market. Afterwards Eric went back to Brooklyn, while Brian and I continued eating. Brian had the misfortune of discovering that I really have not been to most of the trendy eating establishments in New York. So we went to Soho to continue shopping but mostly to go to a place called Rice to Riches. Rice to Riches is a restaurant that only serves one thing: rice pudding. And oh the rice pudding. I had the Surrender to Mango flavor, and it was so good. Note to Sherry K: they ship their rice pudding. So if there were going to be an Indian feast say sometime in September, I might be persuaded to order some. Just saying.

-After failing to locate an inexpensive calculator watch to complete my Wedding Singer outfit and striking out at Macy's, we made our way back to City Center and saw the show. I found the show to be quite enjoyable. The book is rather dated, and the Fosse choreography did not entire suit Jane Krakowski, but just to hear that score being played by a full orchestra was more than enough for me. As it turns out, Nate did attend the show, but he had to catch a bus back to Atlantic City. So Brian and I went looking for a quick appetizer to share, and ended up eating a full meal at the Mexican restaurant that replaced Vinyl. Brian is probably still on a treadmill cursing my name!

-I caught the 2:30 bus back to AC on Tuesday, that is after eating a cupcake at the Cupcake Cafe with Brian. I was glad to get away for a couple of days, and now I am back to the good old Wedding Singer. BANG YOUR HEAD!

Another Openin' Another Party!

So it has been a pretty stressful week, but we all survived. Not only did we have to rehearse the new cast, orchestra, and crew members; we also had to learn the new material for the 90 minute version of the show. Also the director and musical supervisor were here to freshen up the show. Tuesday night was our first performance and Wednesday night was the press opening. The musicians probably fared the best as we had the least amount of change. I truly pity the dancers though because the show is now one huge full out dance number after another. Thankfully we had a party on Wednesday night to keep us going through the tedious rehearsals and first performances!

Once again I was obnoxious with my camera at the party and here are the results:

Ben (Guitar I), Max (Reed II), and Eric (Bass)

Ryan and Eric

Ryan and Susan (Fake Imelda Marcos)

Ryan and Sean (Drums)

Ryan and Eddie (Harold)

Ryan and Tami Lee (Hair)

Ryan and Erin (Julia)

Ryan and Ashley (Julia the night Glenn saw the show)

Ryan and Kim (Fake Tina Turner)

Dave (Audio) and Kim

The party was a very nice affair. Most people dressed up for the occasion. In fact before the show there was a line to use the iron at the theatre. Sadly this is probably the last official party for The Wedding Singer. You never know though, we are here for 8 more weeks!

The Boardwalk (and beach)

I decided to try out the panoramic feature on my new camera. It is not so bad. The quality is not perfect, but the camera does all of the work so I really cannot complain. (Actually if you double click the picture, it will increase the size of the picture.) I took this yesterday as Nate and I were killing time before the show. We were told to arrive before 6pm (for an 8pm show) because they close down the city at 6pm because of the 4th of July Celebrations. We also could not leave Harrahs until 10:30pm because they close off the parking lot due to the fireworks. So we had an hour to kill after the show too. It is amazing how I forget year to year how much I dislike the 4th of July! Oh and brace yourselves, I have another party's worth of pictures to post. (And just for the record Zachary, I am not drunk in any of these pictures. Just unphotogenic!)

Stupid Blogger

Just for the record I cannot figure out how to make the spaces between my paragraphs appear on the blog. As I am typing it out I leave spaces, but for some reason they do not appear when I publish the post. When I type on my laptop, this is a problem. When I type on a desktop, it is not a problem. Damnation!

Is This Home? Is This Where I Should Learn To Be Happy?

-Well for better or worse, I am now entrenched in my Atlantic City home for the next 9 weeks. To be honest, it is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Our hotel rooms are pretty spacious. We have a living room and a bedroom. In fact the room is set up almost exactly like my Woodwind Terrace apartment in Bloomington minus the kitchen appliances. The only real complaint I have is that we do not have a refrigerator or microwave.


-We do get to eat breakfast for free in the hotel. The food is okay, but that requires getting up and being presentable before 10am. That is pretty hard to do these days! We also get to eat for free in the Harrah's cafeteria anytime we want. It is open 24 hours.


-The theatre in Harrah's is fine although the pit leaves much to be desired. The set up is very similar to the RBT. The pit is actually above the stage on the house right side. It is pretty small for our group of nine people and the volume is pretty loud considering how close we are to each other.


-Harrah's itself is very casino-y. I have a feeling that I will be very sick of the casino by September. I have to be very careful about doing any gambling. It is so easy to lose buckets of money, and I have to walk through the casino every day. We do have a crew member who is up $1500 though!


-Atlantic City itself is pretty dumpy. The area around Harrah's is fine and the Boardwalk is okay, but the area in between is pretty depressed. Also the people here seem to think that they can walk across the road wherever and whenever they want. It is very annoying!


-Tomorrow night is our press night and opening night party. I will give a report about the show then. Suffice it to say that it has been a very strange experience to rehearse a shortened version of a show that you have played 100 times already.