One Night At The Coronado

After our weekend in Orange, Texas, we flew up to Chicago and then drove over to Rockford, Illinois. Thus began what was, mostly, one of the worst weeks of this leg of Beauty and the Beast. I say mostly because there were a few bright lights in what was otherwise a dismal week of one-nighters scheduled by a person who had never before looked at a map. One of those bright lights was the theatre in Rockford. The Coronado is a very cool old theatre with some great design elements that remind me of the Oriental in Chicago and the Majestic in San Antonio. Otherwise, Rockford was cold, snowy, and not worth the flight and bus ride up from Texas.

Get Out The Elastic Band Pants

I did not exactly eat well in Orange, Texas.

Orange Again

What is there to say about Orange, Texas that I did not say in the post from my Wizard of Oz visit? Nothing has changed.

A Houston Detour

After playing Colorado Springs, we then flew to Houston to drive over to Orange, TX. Well Gregg had done a little research and discovered that the tour of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was playing at the Hobby Center in Houston. Since we had friends who were part of the show, a group of us deviated from the bus ride over to Orange and stayed in Houston.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas was cute though nothing groundbreaking. If nothing else, it was fun to see and hear anything other than Beauty and the Beast! Plus is was a bit surreal being in the audience of a show at the Hobby Center having only ever played in the pit there.

Of course a trip to Houston would not be complete without a beer and pretzels at The Flying Saucer!

This is one of the urinals at The Flying Saucer. Now I know it is not the most pleasant subject to photograph, but surely this is some kind of sick joke. I mean what idiot designed and installed a urinal to be completely off center like this in what is essentially a glorified bar?!

Pikes Peak Center For The Performing Arts

The Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts is perfectly fine as modern performing arts centers go. It was spacious backstage. The auditorium was interesting with the highly angled drapes making it almost feel like a tent. The one memory that will stay with me is that this is one of the venues where the musician's union pamphleted our show. When was the last time that a national tour playing Colorado Springs used 25 musicians like the union is claiming we should be using?! Just ridiculous!

I wanted a nighttime picture of the sign with our show's logo. I had to settle for the above.