Okay, to bring us up to speed, opening Wednesday night went very smoothly. And by very smoothly, what I mean is we managed to get through the entire Nutcracker without stopping (harpist playing the opening of the Pas in half-time notwithstanding) with only a 25-minute intermission and without anyone sustaining bodily injury. This is not to say that anything about it was good except the dancing. The theatre was too small for our black masking legs (as in there was no room in the lineset schedule to hang them), so sightlines for everything except the party scene were atrocious. I gave up for Act II—there’s nowhere for my props crew to stand that they’re not in complete view of 1/3 of the audience, not to mention the dancers waiting to enter. In addition, as there is no room backstage, when the stair unit comes off (in the wrong direction, mind you), it has to go out the big bay doors to the loading dock and the audience can see right into the hallway. The choir for snow was very bad. The children’s ballet mistress is a very nervous woman and in her haste, she tried to put tree angels in a taped off area where a set piece was going after battle. But, we opened and the company is awesome and they looked great out there.
After the show, I had a couple drinks in Andrea’s room, and then we met half the company at Tangerine, the gay bar across the street from the hotel. They were having karaoke in the basement, so I signed up and dedicated a song to my friend Matthew. “Dancing Queen.” The company was on the dance floor in no time! I did a couple duets and a couple more songs, but none were quite as crowd-pleasing as that first one. We left when they closed at 2 and I went back to the hotel and crashed, but apparently there was all sorts of mischief going on on the 12th floor (which is not my floor, thankfully). And then I found out this morning that Soule went to her room and went to bed but somehow wound up sleeping outside another room when the concierge woke her up at 5am and told her she had to go home. She then knocked on her door for 15 minutes, but Marianne was out cold and didn’t hear, so she got a new key from the front desk.
I woke up at 9 just long enough to silence my ringer on my phone and woke up for good at 11. I realized then that the black coat I carried back from the club was not mine but recognized it as Marianne’s so I called to see if she had mine and ended up bringing her crackers and hanging out for an hour. Thanksgiving Dinner was at 2pm in the 2nd floor restaurant, and it was lovely: We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, Caesar salad, rolls, and pumpkin and chocolate pecan pie. The pina coladas were sorely missed. Halfway through the meal, our sound guy made a toast and the artistic staff made a toast. We also all yelled, “Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. A!” when Mark called him from the dinner. A little later, I stood up to make an announcement about the trip to the movies I was sort of spear-heading but before I could say anything, one of the dancers called out, “Sing Dancing Queen!” which made me smile.
So, after dinner, I made a few calls and went to the movies. I saw Rent which was wonderful, though I'm not so sure about the tango scene. (Can I just say that I love Mark's scarf. It's such a powerful Rent image for me.) Only one of the 20 of us who went didn’t like it and he was also the only one who’d never seen the musical. Much like the HP movie, once I got over the fact that it was going to be different than the show, I was fine. But luckily, it has been 9 years since I saw the musical, so it wasn’t fresh in my memory at all. I sat a few rows behind the rest of the group with Marianne & Soule and the assistant co. mgr Alexis and I was very good about not talking or singing through it. I think the only thing I said during the entire movie was when they were setting up the tables in the Life Café and I said, “I’m so excited!” After the movie, we all sort of stumbled out of the theatre wiping tears from our eyes and hugging each other. Have I mentioned how much I adore this company?
And then I went with Soule back to the movie theatre because she left her coat there with her wallet in the pocket.
Overheard in the hotel bar tonight: “Ice cream is the meaning of life.”
Things for which I am thankful:
My family, not being alone on Thanksgiving, Julie, Greg, Neil, Marianne, Soule, that I don’t have to call Act I until Detroit, Days Off, my 1:00 call tomorrow, Chicago, finally being able to check my email.
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