"Say does anyone know how to do the Madison?"

Madison is a town that I have always wanted to spend some time visiting. As a general rule, I enjoy visiting college towns. I have heard from many people that Madison is a really fun college town so I was very much looking forward to our weekend run. It was also our last weekend before our Christmas break so I think that we were all ready to have some fun and then go home!

Of course we were not in Madison during the ideal time of year. December in Wisconsin can be pretty brutal, and well it was. But I made the best of it, and did as much exploring as the weather and time would allow.

The Overture Center in Madison is a newer, state of the art facility. The building itself is quite spectacular with the openness of its design due to all of the glass windows. The theatre is very modern looking, but not ugly like some new theatres. Where are the pictures of the inside of the theatre you might ask? Well I certain took some, but they are gone forever. I will explain why in the post about my Christmas break. Stay tuned!

The one problem that we had with The Overture Center is that it was more difficult to move through the building than I imagine Fort Knox to be. Most of the doors are locked. You cannot get from backstage to the house and back without either going outside and reentering or finding an employee to unlock the doors. The route to the pit was not well marked, but we made it there on our first day. Unfortunately when we tried to leave after our sound check, we found that the doors we had come through were locked going the other direction. So then we tried certain elevators. The problem with that is they do not stop on all of the floors especially the ones that we needed. So after trying in vain to find the way, a couple of stagehands took pity on us and showed us where to go. I have a feeling that they have experience with visiting performers getting lost in that place. The strange thing is we have no idea why the security there was so tight. Everyone had to show their badge to even get backstage, and the security guard controlled the lock to the stage door. I know that I haven't toured extensively, but this is the first time that I have experienced anything like The Overture Center.

In the same complex as the Overture Center, is the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Contemporary art is very hit or miss with me, but I decided to give it a try and see if anything hit me. The museum is rather small (actually shockingly small), but they did have an exhibit which I found to be very interesting. It was called George Segal: Street Scenes, and featured Segal's big bronze and plaster sculpture of people placed in meaningful everyday life situations. One of the more powerful and famous pieces was a line of five bronze men standing outside a door in a brick wall entitled, "Depression Bread Line". It was very moving, and sadly may be very timely given the state of the country! As for the rest of the museum, there was a roof top sculpture garden. I did venture out there, but it was covered in snow, and I could only make out a couple of pieces underneath the snow. Well at least it was free!

While in Madison, I also visited the Wisconsin State Capital which looks an awful lot like the US State Capital. What made it interesting was that you could freely walk inside and take pictures (that is certainly not the case in DC!) There are some beautiful murals inside that I of course took pictures of, and given the time of year the state Christmas tree was also up. Alas I do not have any of those pictures! Again, see the post about my Christmas break.

I did expand my fast food horizons while in Madison. There is a chain of burger places called Five Guys. To just look at the restaurant one would not think, "Oh that is a place I should go and eat at." But now that I have eaten at one, I highly recommend trying a burger there. They were very tasty. Five Guys also prides itself on serving freshly cut french fries from potatoes that are sitting in sacks stacked all around the restaurant.

To finish up my time there, I did have one other excursion which is worthy of its own post. After our weekend of five performances (one of which was attended by some relatives), we packed up our stuff on the bus in the sub zero wind chills (ha ha Floridians!), and they drove us to O'Hare for our journey home.

Wausau, Wisconsin

After our stopover in Oak Brook we hopped on the bus to finish the trip to Wausau, Wisconsin. This was the first time that I have arrived in a city, played a show, and then turned around and left in the same day. I have to say that it is somewhat unsatisfying. As it turns out, Wausau is a cute little town, and I wouldn't have minded spending more than just one day there. The downtown area is full of little shops (including several bookstores?!) and restaurants. Before the show we ate at a little place called The Mint Cafe. The food was fantastic, and the people were really nice. It seemed like the sort of place that should be profiled on The Food Network.

The theatre itself was really nice, and if I remember correctly we were able to do just about the full production in it.

There is a fairly small mall right in downtown Wausau about two blocks from the theatre. We actually had a Wizard of Oz display set up there.

Unlike the theatre in Huntington, the Grand Theatre has obviously been well kept over the years. In terms of decoration there was nothing really spectacular about it, but that was okay. Sometimes it is nice to be in a stately classical theatre.

After the show we hopped the bus again (after making a stop in a store literally called "The Store" for snacks) and headed to Madison.

Stopover Surprises

Chances are nobody reading this has studied our tour itinerary as closely as I have. If you had, you would have noticed that there are some great distances to be covered in terms of traveling between tour stops. Take for example traveling from Huntington, West Virginia to Wausau, Wisconsin. When I originally signed on to do Wizard I was told that it would be a flying tour. Well with the high cost of flying especially due to the ludicrious baggage fees, our tour quickly became a bus and truck. This is unfortunate because as I said we have some epic journies to make between cities.

When we finished up in Huntington our next performance was in Wausau. So to make it there in time we split the travel into two days. Generally they try to limit the travel to 10 hours a day, but that usually means more like 11 or 12 given the potty stops and lunch stop. Our stopover city between Huntington and Wausau was Oak Brook, IL. After leaving Huntington at whatever ungodly hour we did, it was announced that we would be stopping for lunch at a mall north of Indianapolis. Now I know that area there fairly well, especially the malls, and I couldn't think of any malls north of the city. There are a couple of great malls on the northside of Indy, but nothing north of the city. So imagine my surprise and pleasure when the bus exits I-465 on Keystone Ave and turns into The Fashion Mall, my favorite Indianapolis mall! It brought back memories of driving to Indy to meet Brian and more often than not, going shopping. Sadly I did not find anything that I needed to buy, but well you cannot win them all.

So then we continued up I-65 to Oak Brook. I made a couple of phone calls when we passed the Lowell exit to let Mom and Dad know that I was driving through the area. I did tell a few people on the bus that we were extremely close to where I live, but nobody was really that interested.

Eventually we made it to Oak Brook. Now all along the way, Chris (trumpet 1) was asking around if anyone wanted to go to a seafood restaurant that had been recommended to him for dinner. The restaurant is located in the Oak Brook Mall which is right across from the hotel where we stayed. I'm always up for good seafood therefore I gave a definite yes. After we arrived at the hotel, and was killing time before dinner playing on the internet. I found some information of interest about the upcoming trip to New York that Heather and I are concocting so I gave her a call. At some point during our conversation she asked where I was. I said Oak Brook, and she said, "Hey I'm just 20 minutes done the road from you." Who knew? So she hopped in the car and we met up after dinner to do a little shopping. When the mall closed, she took me back to the hotel and we had a quick drink. Needless to say it was a pleasant surprise.

Sadly most stopover cities are not nearly that exciting. They are usually more about getting some sleep as we usually have a 5am or 6am bus call the next morning!

Huntington, West Virginia? What?!?

Up to this point, West Virginia has only been a drive through state not a destination. Well no longer. Huntington was not necessarily a "one nighter", since we had two performances, but we were only there for one day. Needless to say it was a bit shocking to go from performing in Philadelphia and Washington DC to Huntington, but the biggest shock to us was that we had a 9:30am performance. And not only was it a 9:30am show it was also our first performance in Huntington which meant that we had to be at the theatre at 7:30am for sound check and munchkin rehearsal. Of course with such an early performance it could only mean one thing: little school children. After our sound check we ran out to get something to eat, and when we came back there was a two block long line of school buses. Oh what my blood pressure must have been!! To their credit, the little kids behaved as well as can be expected, and we will certainly not have a louder audience response at the end of the show again. The evening show was fine, and the theatre was packed with very appreciative people which is always good. Afterwards, we had an opening night party which was fine although they ran out of food by the time that the musicians got done tearing down and arrived at the party! Oh well at least they gave up free drinks (unlike Greenville, but more on that later!). On a side note the restaurant we had the party in was right on the edge of Marshall University which is the location for the "We Are Marshall" movie.

After the morning show I was taking pictures of the theatre little knowing that Noah was in the bottom left of my picture waving furiously.

The theatre itself was pretty nice, but sorely in need of some restoration work.

I know that gold leaf is expensive, but surely matching paint is not out of reach.

This was our busted dressing room. I shouldn't complain though. Sometimes the musicians have to share with the male chorus. That is never fun!

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So after the party, a couple of us went out to the Pizzeria Uno to actually have some food. On the way back to the Red Roof Inn, we noticed that our cab driver had been reading a publication called "West Virginia Lockup". It was a newspaper made up of all mug shots of convicted criminals in West Virginia prisons. As disturbing as that is, it kind of was the perfect ending to our West Virginia experience.

Finishing Up in DC

Here are a few more activities and thoughts to wrap up my adventure in Washington DC. The National Theatre pictured below happens to be a decently sized theatre that is just around the block from the Warner where we played. It is where Roger and I saw Whistle Down the Wind back in college, and it also happens to be the ugliest theatre I have ever been inside. The house is painted aquamarine. It truly has to be seen to be believed, but if you see it make sure that you bring some anti-nausea medication. You'll need it!

The new Broadway revival of West Side Story was in rehearsal for their out of town tryout while we were in DC. I am really interested in seeing it since I have never seen a big West Side production. Also West Side Story is one of the more painful memories that I have of working at the Round Barn, and I would like to counteract that with a good memory!

I also went to the Hirshhorn Museum one day. I have been to the Hirshhorn before, and I was glad because a significant amount of the limited exhibition space was closed off. Oh well thank goodness for the National Gallery!

Giacometti at the Hirshhorn

Look familiar?

After visiting the Hirshhorn, I popped my head into the Air and Space Museum. I seem to remember this being the most difficult museum to get into when I was here on my band trip. Sadly now it is in need of a freshening up. I should have just gone to the American History Museum. Oh well!

This construction was just in front of the White House. It was neat to see something specific to the upcoming inauguration as I will be nowhere near DC on that day. Hopefully I will get to watch the coverage on a TV in whatever city we will be in.

"Don't even think about sitting here!"

So aside from the show itself, I had a most successful week, and I haven't even told you about meeting up with a college friend and a Wedding Singer friend. (I'm sure that you are already bored at this point!) So we left DC and headed to...where?!!?!?!

At the Warner Theatre

As much as I enjoyed all of my free time in DC, I have to say that I have had the least fun playing the show in DC. We had our smallest audiences in what has been our smallest theatre to date. In fact it was here in Washington DC that Dorothy's Condo made its debut. (In other words a smaller version of her house) Sadly we were playing to half full houses for most of the week. It didn't help that there were a bunch of musicals either already playing in DC or about to start performing. (In fact we were staying in the same hotel with some of the West Side Story actors.) The theatre is beautiful though, and if it was located in Manhattan it would be considered a large theatre. Sadly for a touring production designed to fit into large touring houses it is too small. We could not do some of the flying including the balloon at the end of the show. Also the munchkins were the least prepared of all the cities we visited so far. And worst of all since the theatre was so small there was no good place to warm up before the show so I felt like my playing was also a bit lacking. So all in all not the best engagement we have played so far. But the theatre is beautiful, and here are a few pictures: