Generally when speaking to touring veterans, they always have horror stories of playing in certain towns. It seems like Lowell, MA is towards the top of that list (actually Waco, Texas seems to be the very bottom of the barrel!). "It is not really the town itself, but the venue", they generally say. Now that I have played the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, I know what they mean!
We might as well have been playing in a high school gym. The LMA has no fly house so not only could no one fly, we could not use most of the drops. The show had to be drastically cut to just about nothing. No back wall projections, no Emerald City Gate, no house, nothing. It left me wondering, "why are we even here?"
Amazingly people actually came to the show. I guess that it speaks to the power of theatre that audiences can overlook the obvious deficiencies in the physical production at a venue like the LMA, and still enjoy the show. Ours cannot be the only touring show that has played there that has looked that awkward!
Maybe the trick is to do what we did, and get on the bus and leave as soon as the show is over! Lowell is the second in and out city that we had on the tour. After the show (and a small opening night party?!) we packed up and headed to Providence!
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