NETworking

After playing almost 4 months of The Wizard of Oz, and spending a week in New York seeing shows, what did I do on my layoff? Why I saw more shows of course. This time though, I did have more than just entertainment on my mind though. Part of any profession is meeting people and networking to help advance your career and being a musician it is doubly important. There really are very few chances to audition or interview for a job. You can send a resume, but chances are if the contractor does not know your playing or know someone who does, you are not going to be hired. So I had checked over the tour itineraries for the other NETworks tours and discovered that I could feasibly see two of the other shows during the layoff.

I had already seen the Sweeney Todd tour in Bloomington before I left in October for Wizard so that left Annie and The Drowsy Chaperone. The first of the two tours that I was able to see was Annie. Now anyone who knows me would know that I do not like children, and touring with Annie would be my personal Hell. But I knew the assistant conductor on Annie, and since it was in Wisconsin Joel, our company manager, was also up for seeing it.

The picture is from Miami not Whitewater

-

Well what could I say about Annie that you couldn't guess? I still am not a fan of the show. Anything that relentlessly optimistic is just irritating to me. The orchestra sounded fine, but there were several noticeable clams. I did get to talk to a couple of musicians, and I got to say hi to a couple of friends from The Wedding Singer. The show was in Whitewater, Wisconsin which just for the record is in the middle of nowhere! I had to spend the night up by Milwaukee.

In fact it took me so long to drive up to my hotel and then down to Whitewater that I just barely made it on time. Alas I had no time for picture taking in the daylight. The is my attempt at a picture of the Young Auditorium where Annie played.

For my second crazy road trip to see a NETworks show, I drove out to Erie, Pennsylvania to see The Drowsy Chaperone. For what it is worth, Erie is an 8 hour drive from Cedar Lake, Indiana, but it was totally worth it. I got to meet and hang out with a couple of the reed players on Drowsy. I had met one of them before when he came to see Wizard, and the other I had heard about from our Reed II player. So I feel like making the drive was totally worth it.

As for the show itself, I had seen Drowsy on Broadway, but it is such a fun show that I would see it again and again. The plot is very simple. It starts with a single man alone in his apartment talking to the audience. This man turns out to be a huge fan of classic old musicals, and he decides to play his favorite cast album for everyone in the audience. The record is for a show called The Drowsy Chaperone. As the record plays, the show comes to life in his apartment. That makes it sound not very interesting, but it is very charming and witty. The score is also very fun, and I have to admit that I was a bit envious of the music they get to play night after night. I mean how many times can you play 'We're Off To See The Wizard" before they take you away in a straight jacket?!?!

There were two other NETwork's tours which I was not able to see. The first was Rent which was actually a union tour and is a show I could never play anyway since it has no woodwind part. The second was Hairspray. This is a show which I could play, but probably should not ever play. I love Hairspray, but the woodwind books are mostly saxophone and there is too much improvisation in the show that I would not be able to do. Plus I have great memories of seeing the original Broadway cast. Sometimes I don't like to tamper with those!