An Unexpected Trip to New York (Part II)

Photo by RightMoon Photography (ie Melissa's Left Hand)

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In the previous post about my unexpected election night in New York, I did not explain how it was that I was able to be there. So here is the story. After our week in Miami we were supposed to go to Statesboro, Georgia for one night. Then we were going to continue making the trip up to Waterbury, Connecticut for a five show weekend. Well since the loading in and out of the set was taking so long, it became obvious that we were not going to be able to do a one nighter. So the powers that be postponed Statesboro until the Spring, and flew us up to New York on Tuesday after our Miami week. Then we had 3 free days until Friday when we needed to be in Waterbury. That is how I came to have my unexpected, but greatly appreciated, trip to New York.

I have been to New York many times, for many different reasons, and at most times of year. The big exception to that is Christmas time. I have always wanted to be in New York during the holidays. The Christmas decorations, the cheesy holiday shows, the shopping, walking in the city when it snows. I try my best to experience these every year in Chicago, but never New York until now.

So we were in New York during the first week of November, which is not technically part of the holiday season, but it was close. Some places such as Radio City Music Hall had their decorations up. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular had not started yet, but one of the other big holiday shows had. Starting last year, Cirque du Soleil created an annual winter themed show called Wintuk that plays at the Wamu Theatre in Madison Square Garden. I have seen two other Cirque shows, O and La Nouba, and loved both of them. Wintuk is about a boy who lives in a city with no snow, so he goes on a quest to the land of snow to find some. It sounded like my life story.

So Brian shared his discount code for Wintuk, and we went to see it on Wednesday night. Sadly the show was a bit disappointing. The first half of the show is not so great. I know that they are trying to make the show kid friendly, but skateboarding tricks and jump roping do not really seem like they belong in a Cirque du Soleil show. Bring on the winter contortionists! The second half was much better and the acts were much more spectacular especially the Russian bars act. And speaking of spectacular, the show ends with the most crazy "snow" effect ever. They blow so many little tissue snow flakes on the audience that it really feels like a white out blizzard. I pity the poor front of house staff that then has to sweep up all the paper snow (especially on a day that it rains like the day I was there!)





Of course I did not see only one show. That would just be silly! Because of the terrible economy, several shows have posted their closing notices for January. So I decided to catch the shows that I wanted to see before they close. I ended up seeing Forbidden Broadway and Spring Awakening. Forbidden Broadway was funny as ever, and it is sad to see the show go away. Spring Awakening was an unexpected surprise to me the first time that I saw it. I never imagined that I would enjoy the show as much as I did. They just recently brought on Hunter Parrish to play Melchior, the male lead, and since I saw the two previous Melchiors I thought it would be fun to see Hunter also. He was very good although Jonathon Groff, the original, was still probably my favorite. Incidentally Kyle Riabko by far had the best butt of the three so all three brought something worthwile to the role. I also saw an Off-Broadway show called Illyria because Max from The Wedding Singer was playing reeds for the show.

On Thursday, Melissa was free (due to a beautiful thing called day care!) so Brian and I met up with her for lunch. After all of these years, it still feels like an event when I get to New York and see my college friends, and I hope that it always stays that way! Oh and speaking of events, since there are so many Wedding Singer alums on the Wizard tour, we planned a reunion for Wednesday night with those Wedding Singer folk who are currently in NYC. All things considered, there were quite a few of us there (at least 14), and even without our tight rolled pants and wrist bands we were still able to have a good time!

Needless to say after cramming all of that into just three days, I was ready to get back to touring so that I could relax!

The Sun Will Come Out...

Never!

Bienvenidos a Miami

Our week in Miami was my second time visiting Miami. My first time was a short day trip from Glenn's house in Wellington to see Rags at the Coconut Grove Playhouse several years ago. I really only had time to see the show and then drive back. So this actually felt like my first time in Miami. (Especially since the Playhouse went under a couple of years ago)

So after spending a week there, I can say that with a few exceptions I did not really enjoy Miami. It goes without saying that the weather did not agree with me. I am not a person who enjoys going to the beach so I did not even make it to South Beach. Downtown Miami is mostly uninteresting office towers and condo buildings. Also I knew going in that Spanish was really common there, but it really seemed like there was more Spanish spoken than English. Not that that is a problem. It just reminded me of the fact that I took 3 and 1/2 years of Spanish and remember almost nothing!

Our hotel was terrible. We were not in walking distance to the theatre so we had to bus to and from the theatre every day. The hotel itself was an Extended Stay that had obviously outstayed its welcome. It began when they screwed up our reservations and I ended up waiting an hour just to get a room. My floor smelled like feet. One of our cast members woke up with bites from bed bugs. Another hotel guest left his room key in the door at night and woke up to find that his truck had been stolen. They also expected payment up front, but did not tell any of us that. They started charging every one's card without our knowledge!

On the positive side of my week, the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center is pretty amazing. The building is only 3 or 4 years old. The main stage theatre is really beautiful and state of the art.

Miami has a decent public transportation system, and I was able to get a good mall and Target. On our day off, I made the 4 mile trek out to the Seaquarium on Key Biscayne from our hotel. It was a fantastic walk that involved crossing the Rickenbacker Causeway over the water. The walk provided a great view of Downtown Miami. The Seaquarium was an outdoor complex of several buildings. I got there later in the day so I missed most of the shows. I did get to see the Sea Lion Show though. Actually I spent the most time though in front of the jawfish tank. I really wanted to get a good picture of the jawfish spitting pebbles. The second picture below was my best effort.

On Sunday, I had what was by far my best meal on tour so far at the original Joe's Stone Crab with Glenn. Glenn decided to make the trip down to see the show on Sunday night with Johnny and Barbara. It just so happened that the theatre was about 15 minutes from Joe's, and it was the second week of stone crab season. I mean come on we are only human after all. So we indulged in all of Glenn's favorites at Joe's, and afterwards he introduced me to the maitre d'. I apparently now have an in at Joe's. Now if I could only get on a union tour, I would be able to afford to eat there!

Once again I am the bad son

The thing about touring is that one loses all concept of time. All that I ever know is the day of the week, and what time I have to be at the theatre. So remembering things like birthdays has become even more difficult than they were previously. Sadly I even have most birthdays entered into my phone's calander. So on Saturday when I saw that it was Mom's birthday, I thought to myself, "I need to call and wish Mom a Happy Birthday". Guess what I forgot to do! I don't know what else to do to help me remember. Oh well, I think that people are probably accustomed to me forgetting birthdays by this time.

Now hopefully I can remember to buy some birdseed when I get home in December!

Finishing up in Orlando: Disney World!

Due to some strategic planning of our travel days, we had two free days in Orlando. Of course for most people that meant visiting Disney World. I will not go into the detail that I did for my last Disneyland trip. You all know that I am crazy, and especially so in a Disney theme park. I will let my pictures do the talking.

Day 1- I started with Caitlyn and Nate in Magic Kingdom and then ended up at EPCOT with the group for the Food and Wine Festival

Nate just found out that it is Snow White's "Scary" Adventure

The happy couple

We wanted Nate to conduct the show wearing this hat

My what a "charming" butt you have

Awkward turtle!

It was a most successful Food and Wine Festival (for some more than others!)

Day 2- I took Joey and Sara to Animal Kingdom and then met my family at Hollywood Studios

Joey and Sara met two friends that day. I do not remember the friend in the middle of the picture's name. The other was Nemo in Finding Nemo the musical. By the way, Joey hates this picture so shh.

I have been having this recurring dream...

"Look at the size of those birds. Those aren't birds. They're monkeys. Flying monkeys!"

So as I was 5 people away from riding the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride, it broke down. Damnation!


Day 3- I started the day with Joel and Nate in Hollywood Studios, then went to Animal Kingdom, and then met the group at EPCOT for day two of Food and Wine Festival.

My first day in EPCOT was wine day. This was beer day.

Thanks to Heather for the Gorilla Pod. I highly recommend them!

Going back to the bus :(

I had a fantastic time in Disney with everyone, and it was just the right amount of time to do the things that I like and not grow tired of it. Amazingly of the three days I was in Disney, I only had to use my pass for 1 of them. Joey's friend got me in on day 2, and Joel's friend did the same on day 3! Many thanks to them (even if I don't remember names). Now I can have Disney time in April during my Florida layoff!

After 8 Long Years...

I am actually proud to be an American again. As fate would have it, I was in New York during the historic day, and here are some pictures.

This is how things were shaping up after I got out of the show.

I then met Brian in Rockefeller Plaza. I am about to enjoy my blue election cupcake from Magnolia Bakery.

When I got there Obama had 207 electoral votes. There wasn't much happening except the occasion cheer when people were on camera. Then all of a sudden there was a huge uproar, but I couldn't tell what was going on. All I knew was that the Obama counter was going up and ended up surpassing 270. Brian filled me in that the west coast states had just posted results, and that pushed Obama over the top. There was much cheering and celebrating, and suddenly everywhere you looked there were TV cameras. It was truly exciting to be in the crowd for such an amazing event.

After we left Rockefeller Plaza we went over to the Fox News Studio to take pictures of the news ticker and laugh at all of the bastards. It did not disappoint. By the time we walked the two blocks to Fox, they were already tearing the outdoor stage and camera equipment down. Ha Ha!

When we were done gloating, we walked back to Times Square. On the way, we ran into Max from Wedding Singer and Jason who toured with Brian on Miss Saigon. That was our second "small world" encounter that day! They were out celebrating also. The above picture is the CNN setup in Times Square right by the new TKTS booth.

Times Square was a mob scene, but Brian and I decided we wanted to watch Obama's acceptance speech on one of the CNN jumbo monitors. So as you can tell from the progression of pictures, everyone was waiting for him to take the stage. Then as it neared midnight, he actually made an appearance.

And then literally as he was just about to start his speech, all of the monitors went to the test pattern. Needless to say there were many unhappy people. We are still not sure what happened, but they did not ever come back on with the speech. So before a riot began, we decided to get a bite to eat and head back to Brian's apartment. The subway ride home was an amazing experience. Everyone was cheering, dancing, singing, and talking to each other. There was such an amazing atmosphere of joy and relief that I have never experience in New York before. Again it still amazes me that I just happened to be there at the time. Thank goodness for our large unwieldy set for The Wizard of Oz!

Hey I Know Him!

Orlando (The Show)

-As it currently stands, Orlando is the only city in which I have had people come see the show. Obviously it is still early in the tour, and hopefully I can get more people out to see Wizard in Chicago. So aside from Jim and Jeremy, Wednesday night was also family night at Wizard. Mom and Dad timed their drive down to arrive in Orlando on Wednesday, and Jamie and the kids flew in on Wednesday afternoon. In order to optimize their Disney time, they decided to come see the show on Wednesday instead of wasting a partial day on their Disney passes.

-As I hinted before we had a bit of an incident at the show that night. During rehearsals in Gainsville the decision was made to record the music to the Cyclone. The staging of that number involves projections to which the music has to be very precisely timed. Unfortunately the woodwind parts to the Cyclone are very difficult, and the necessary tempos to time the music properly are pretty brisk. This would normally be fine, but we found all of this out in the afternoon on the day we were recording. I did not even have a chance to go back to the hotel and spend some time practicing the part. So after a very stressful evening of recording and re-recording, we ended up with a pretty decent soundtrack for the Cyclone.

-Since that day of rehearsal we in the orchestra have jokingly commented about how terrible it would be if we had to actually play the Cyclone live. Not only because we haven't been practicing our parts individually, but also because we never actually practiced timing the music to the projections live. Have you already guessed what happened that night when I had 7 people watching the show? You are right. The Cyclone projections began, but there was no audio. This includes the music and all of the sound effects. We knew something was wrong when the red cue lights came on signaling Nate to get on the phone to the stage manager. Even before he could put the phone down, our stand lights came on, and we all knew the horror that was facing us. So the Sudoku books went flying as everyone grabbed for their instruments and flipped the music back to the beginning of the Cyclone. Unfortunately the projections were well underway at this point, and there was no possible way for us to know where to start in the music to match what was happening on stage. So we started at the beginning. And well the best that I can say for myself is that I wagged my fingers in as valiant a manner as possible. We only made it about 2/3 of the way through before we had to stop. After that stressful scene, it is safe to say that the rest of the show was not my best effort.

-If one needs to look for the silver lining from this sad story, I guess it could be that my friends and family got to hear us play a number that we will hopefully never have to play again! (I cross the fingers every night!) Thankfully everyone there that night (with the exception of Jeremy) will have the chance to see the show again and see the Cyclone as it was intended.

-Also making an appearance at the show on Friday night were my cousin Cathy and her husband Keith. They have lived in Orlando for years and this is the first time that they have actually gotten to hear me play outside of a wedding or funeral setting. I always enjoy seeing them and thankfully Friday night's show was much better than Wednesday's debacle! Sadly Cathy had a cold so we did not get to go out for drinks or anything, but I may be back in Orlando in April so we decided to meet up then.

-The one person who I did not get to meet up with in Orlando though is Uncle Glenn. He had a produce convention in town that weekend, but he did not really have time to come see the show. There were a couple of other chances to meet up with Glenn and the family, but I had already turned in my rental car. The logistics of trying to have someone come get me from my hotel, go where ever everyone was meeting, then making it back to the theatre on time were just to crazy. As it turns out, he is bring a couple to come see the show here in Miami tomorrow night. And we are going to Joe's Stone Crab before the show. It promises to be fun!

Hurray!