Little Women Show Blog

All Good Things...

We knew this time would come and this shall be my last post for Little Women.
There are too many people to thank and too many good memories to possibly remember them all so I'm going to leave some pix of the final performance and the closing party.

ATTN:  I UPDATED WITH SOME NEW PHOTOS

This is the trio that gathered stage left before every performance.  Nuthin but trouble, I promise you.

Maureen, Doug Kinsley (Company Manager, and a great guy BTW) and myself.

Tony Garcia (automation) and Matty Rocha (sound).  About 50 tattoos between them.

Minarick and Varian (carpenter) finally not holding back their feelings.

Patty, Susan, Me, and Minarik.  If you look between Susan and myself, you can see the incredible jealousy on Varian's face.

The angelic Brenda Anderson (wardrobe) whom Susan found as delightful as she found her indispensable.  If you were playing Jo, she was your best friend.  She gave you "a pretty bow".

Coolin'.

No one can coax sweet, sweet music out of Mr. Laurence's piano like Stephen Patterson.

The last Days of Plenty.  I am not kidding when I say the wings were full of people weeping.

The Final Company Bow.

The final tableau had Cary Michelle bring Oscar to me.

As soon as the curtain came in we all posed for a casual cast photo.  What a mixture of sadness and exhilaration it was.  Glad we made it, but sad that it was over.

Afterwards, we gathered in the stage management office and had a champagne toast and a small goodbye song from Maureen that left everyone with tears in their eyes.

Thanks to all of you that stayed with me here on the blog, you all are the reason that I felt I had to keep this going.  Your "gentle prodding" made me realize that this show touched many people and that fact is nothing to take for granted.

Thanks for clicking in.  Be well.

Andrew

More pix

Alright, I'm back at the theater for more pix postings.

As all of you already know, Jo chops down Mr. Laurence's tree and, when Marmee objects, offers Laurie's services to take the tree to the Hummels.  Maureen arranged to have the company "adopt" a family hit by Hurricane Katrina and provide them with a better Christmas than they would've had otherwise.

The looks on the kids faces when they saw everything was priceless.

This is at the Christmas Party.  Maureen bracketed by Varela's.  I lost that hat in the Mall of America.  If anyone's found it, give it back to me.

Katie and Susan.

Me and Katie.  Look at the heat.

Patty, Susan and Me.

The story behind this one is that a rehearsal was held in a nearby dance studio and James Darrah found this alluring garb in a closet.
That's the story and nothing more need be said.

Here's me in the Winchester, VA, hospital with a staph infection in my foot.  Oscar is in the background fretting over my condition. (not)

San Jose.  Autumn is stuck in a glass enclosed kitchen.

Autumn, Renee, and Susan practicing for their Pussycat Dolls audition.

Me and O at Orchard House, where LMA wrote Little Women.

Minarik has a high school friend who is a pilot of the B-2 bomber and, when we were in St. Louis, we drove to the base and got the most amazing tour.

Minarik and his friend.  We got to have a look inside the cockpit and everything.  Strangely enough: all the instrumentation is in Spanish.

When we were in Ft. Lauderdale, the ladies of the cast had tea together. Gwen, Susan and Autumn in their Victorian best.

Billy Kimbley and Autumn enjoying the parks of Baltimore.

Me, O, and Minarik enjoying the bounty that is the Cheesecake Factory.

We were sitting in Denny's and, without warning, Oscar attacked!  We were able to pull him off, but it was touch and go for Patty.

James found another dress...

A game of hackey sack became a tradition in Dallas.  Matt Witten, Patty, Me and Oscar hacked from half hour to the 15 minute call.  We were allowed to use O as a racket, as Patty is doing here.  Matt Witten is awesome.

Alright, and now the pictures from the White Trash Party:

Gwen, Cary, and Renee.  Sassy.

This is backstage at The Maury Povich Show. Tatoos provided by Susan Varela
I will never wear that shirt again.   Chubbo...

The Ladies of Little Women.

Squatch and fiancee Janet (wardrobe super) showing us what they'll be wearing for the ceremony.  Its non-traditional.

Maureen arrives to great fanfare.

Suzy, and Anne.

Renee and Kevin Duda showing us what love really looks like.

Maureen and Anne on a man hunt.  Julie Foldesi is in the back there.

Billy and Autumn in their Dog the Bounty Hunter garb.

James found some pants...

Susan, maureen, and Peggy Taphorn.

Susan and Peggy.

Cary and Susan.

Ok, I gotta go.

Sadness in the Home Stretch

Here we are in Portland.  The final week.  WOW.  Seriously, we're all kinda freaked out that we made it and are looking back at this lifetime that we've spent on the road.

Sadly, Katie Fisher has suffered an injury and will be unable to complete the tour.  We hope she has a speedy recovery.  Katiekoo is a survivor, and there is no doubt that she will return to work stronger than ever.  Get well soon!

I'm going to share pix now:

This is us meeting Lynne Cheney and her granddaughters.  It was my first VIP meeting and the way the Secret Service scanned the room before she came in was a sight.

Me and Lynne. Note my inablility to look like a normal person.

Katie and Lynne.

Me and Chris Matthews from his eponymous Harball.  Tall guy.  I don't watch his show, too many interruptions.

Me and Jeffrey Ross.  This guy is a comedian and holds the record for the funniest joke I've ever heard.  I will not share it (its offcolor) but he was really cool.

I got the impression that Chris Matthews had a crush on Renee.  Who wouldn't?

Me giving Maureen the "Mrs. Varela treatment".
She digs me.

Susan and I.  I love my coat.  I shall miss it.  I'm keeping the pocketwatch tho, I bought it.  Its Thomas The Tank Engine.

Renee, Autumn and Patty at the Christmas Party.  Autumn had some knee probs during the run but she pulled through.

Susan with Squatch (flyman).  Yes, he is wearing a leather kilt.

I'll post more later.  Sorry for the hodgepodge, but internet here is spotty and you gotta get what you can.

Los Angeles

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I don't care for excuses so I will offer none.  D.C. was a great city to hang out in, although it is, I am sure, a single mile from the Sun.  We didn't get much walking done because it was incredibly hot for almost the entire month we were there.  I'm a big politics junkie so getting to the monuments and all that was a "must do" for me.
Cary Michelle Miller, using her Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO), got us into the Capitol for a great tour.  We even got to sit in the House chamber when it was full of our reps.  I had a good time picking out the ones that I knew.  Our guides said that if you could name 5 member of the House, then you know more than most Americans.

This is Me at the Capitol.  Man, it was so incredibly hot that we could only stay out here for a few moments before we all ran back in for the AC.   It was really busy and there were all kinds of press conferences taking place with SWAT teams all over.  There was a copy of the Magna Carta there as well as statues from every state representing important folk from across America.  There is also a mini subway tram that goes from the Capitol to the huge Congressional offices across the street. It looks like the highest in late '60's technology.  I half expected to see Sean Connery's 007 shooting it out with a bad guy as it started moving.

I managed to get us hooked up with a tour of the White House!  Thas right, I said it.  Deb Fiddelke, who is a Legislative liason, offered to take some of us on an after hours tour of the West Wing.
Lets see, who do we got here from left to right: Brenda, Katie, Renee, Susan, Me, Robin, Autumn, Cary, James, Gwen, with Kevin Duda down in front.  Again it was hot and security was considerable.

Here is Me and the Missus by the Rose Garden.  The Prez makes lots of announcements and ceremonial hoohahs from the stairs just behind us on the right and the Oval Office is right behind that with the glass doors.

Here's a closer shot of the Oval Office doors.  And us.  The President was in Russia so he was unable to say hello.
Did I mention that I'm totally psyched that I figured out how to post pix?

The gang at the door where the muckety-mucks get into the White House.  FYI: if the President is here, there would be a Marine at this door.

Stephen and Robin Patterson.

When we got to the Press Room, I was asked to give an impromptu press conference about the situation in Latin America.  I didn't have my slides but I think I laid out a compelling case for saving the Puffin.

Stephen Patterson hates the Puffin.  Passionately.

As I mentioned before, I'm a political junkie and thus I am a regular watcher of Special Report with Brit Hume.  I figured that I should at least try to invite Brit to the show but I had no illusions that he would actually come.  Well, not only did he come, he came backstage, met my family and then invited me to come sit in on a taping of his show the following week.  I was flabbergashted.  and delighted.

Man, I am smiling like I've been kicked by a horse.  Really, I think he thinks I'm a complete dork.

Susan and Oscar were there that night so we all got in the pic.  The woman with him is his wife, Kim Hume, who is a biggie at the division.  I am still smiling like I've got no sense at all.

I took this photo. Oscar chased this duck for a half an hour.

Susan and Kim Hume during our visit to Fox News.

Flora Balog is Brit's assistant and she is the one who arranged for the Hume's to come to the show as well as for my subsequent visit to their offices.  She gave us out tour and is a complete sweetheart.  Thank you, Flora.  It was the experience that made my time in DC.

She even let me sit at Brit's desk.  I touched nothing.

Me and Brit.  He asked me to read some news but I couldn't.  I'm still smiling like a dweeb.

I'm also a big fan of Fox News Sunday.  They let me sit in on the Panel when we discussed Puffins.  Left to right: Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal, Maura Liasson of NPR, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, Juan Williams of NPR and, of course, The Brit Master.

I gotta go, I'll post some more later.