Little Women Show Blog

Cleveland

The audiences in Cleveland have been pretty fantastic!  I'm in the first scene in the show and since there are a some laughs in the scene, when I come offstage Maureen asks me, "How are they?" Well, Cleveland has consistently been a great audience.  Always laughing and always a big, fat standing ovation at bows.
Backstage stuff: when I come offstage from that first scene, I see Maureen, who is waiting to go on, and she asks how the audience is, I tell her, and then I say to her, "Share your gifts" as I walk off to my dressing room.  This little exchange is one of those backstage traditions that makes our night complete.
Last night, during the scene where Amy comes back from Europe, the March home had no couch.  There was a tech problem so the sofa was unable to run onstage and they all had to do the scene standing.  Susan told me that she was worried that Stephen would do something to make her laugh so she tried to look at him as little as possible.  He's done it to me so she made the right choice.
We thought we had lost our camera.  We were frantically looking for 3 days and finally I found the house manager here who put me in touch with the head of security.  We left it in the house during sound check and someone had turned it in.  A big shoutout to Tom, head of security, and whoever turned our camera in: Thanks!

Collecting

Twice a year, an organization called Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids leads a fundraising drive to collect for people living with AIDS/HIV.  The fundraising culminates in The Easter Bonnet in the spring and Gypsy of the Year in the fall, where each show puts together a small production number (usually funny or moving) and the totals of each shows fundraising is announced.  Since 1987, over $100million has been raised.

In Little Women, James Darrah (assistant stage manager/Bhaer-Laurence standby) has been the pointman for the fundraising.  For those 6 weeks, after the company bow, Maureen announces that she's moving out to the lobby and introduces Luisa Flaningham as having a favor to ask.  Luisa explains to the audience what we're doing and that Maureen has recorded a new cd songcard called "Help is on the Way" (a very moving song, btw) which she will personalize for a minimum donation in the lobby.

Our show has collected, in the past 6 weeks,over $30,000.  A dollar at a time.  Every little bit helps.

Poker nite

Most Thursday nights our crew has a poker game in the company hotel.  For a $10 buy-in, we enjoy a friendly game of Texas hold-em, replete with tense moments and heaps of trash-talk.  Usually 12-15 people show up and the game begins at 11:30 pm and you play until one person wins all the chips on the table, usually about 3 am.  The winner receives the lion's share of the collective buy-in as well as a proud trophy, fashioned by our propman Will and edited by flyman Squatch.

Well, last Thursday, yours truly, for the first time, WON.

Oh, the glory. Oh, the majesty.  I really didn't expect it.  The guys on the crew are playing online poker constantly, I had no reason at all to expect I wouldn't be going home before midnite.  The cards kept coming and, lo and behold, I am in possession (sp?) of the Little Women Weekly Poker trophy.

Winning the game is a hoot but spending the time with the cast and crew is the real reason for staying up way too late.  We laugh so much and yell so loud that its a wonder the hotels even allow it.  The men and women on our crew are so diverse a bunch, who have been together over several tours, that sitting there and listening to them interact is really my reason for showing up.  Billy, Squeege, Fluff, Eyan, Squatch, Platt, John Mark, JT, McP: each provides a different character to this Star-Wars-cantina that we travel with.

By the way, Susan surprised us by sending a boat-load of Domino's pizza to the game room.
Who's luckier than me?

Katie-koo

Anyone who has seen the show knows how hard the actor playing Jo is working.  She carries the show on her back basically all the way through.  Having played Jean Valjean (finally got it on the page, Miniarik) I know how tiring a huge role can be. (ok I was the understudy, Patty) (we call Stephen Patterson "Patty")

Katie is on a medical leave.  She last played in St. Louis and was scheduled to rejoin the tour here in Baltimore, but she told us this week that she is going to be out longer.  She is now coming back in June, and Susan Spencer will continue as Jo with Julie Foldesi performing the role "at certain performances".

Layoff

This is the week we were to have spent performing in New Orleans, but with Katrina having hit, the week was cancelled and we were all free to roam.  Over the last weeks at the theater, everyone's been planning and sharing their plans for the layoff week.  Hawaii, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Ohio are some of the places people went.
When we get to Baltimore, I'll fill in the blanks.

Ft. Lauderdale

We leave FtL today and it had some memorable events:

Maureen hosted a tea party for the ladies of the tour.  Susan came back to me and described a lovely afternoon with the girls.  Oscar and myself, left to our own devices, cruised up and down Ocean Blvd taking in the beach.  Its Spring Break here so the place is loaded with college kids getting their freak on.  I have never felt so old.  Also, had I know how much coed attention a 3-year-old would get me, I'd've had one in college.

Cary, Renee, and Michael (Renee's man) were rear-ended in their car at a stoplight.  They had some soreness but, thankfully, avoided major injury.  The other driver was also alright, but totalled her car.  Oops.  Driving around here has a Grand Prix feel.  Scary.

Minarik had what, by all accounts, was an epic poker night at his apartment.  He's staying with some friends in a palace and offered it as the weekly poker venue.  John McP won with the delectible Peggy Taphorn coming in second.  Julie Foldesi came in 4th in her first poker outing.  She's a shark, that one...

For the Varela's, we went to visit my cousins in Miami and, not having been there ten minutes, my little buddy Oscar falls off a swing and breaks his wrist.  Many hours and two hospitals later, my little man has a big blue cast on his forearm.  It hasn't slowed him down a bit, but I do get "What did you do?" looks from other parents at the parks.

See you in GA.

Big Update

Lets do a fast catch-up:

Chicago- We loved chicago! Its got New York sophistication with midwestern friendliness.  It was great to see our show up in huge lights again.  We played on Chicago's Bway equivalent so it was a trip to walk to work though all the flashing lights of the different shows that were playing.  Kevin Duda hooked the Varela's up with a SWEET penthouse about a mile from the theater. Incredible views and a flat screen tv.  We had a hard time leaving that one.
The audiences were great, lots of autographs to sign after the show.

Appleton- Its starting to get cold out there and Appleton is the furthest north we go until Minneapolis.  Its a nice town with a good strip of lively shops and restaurants that serve a college crowd. The theater itself is state of the art (its a hard rule that the larger the city, the more decrepit the backstage area, Appleton was spotless). Susan Spencer is from Wisconsin so she had lots of family come in to see her perform.  On Grammy night, Katie Fisher had the honor of stepping forward during bows to inform the crowd that Maureen McGovern had won a Grammy award for her work on a collaborative children's album! Maureen was very moved and thanked everyone onstage and called us "the best cast ever".
Kevin Duda took over the role of Laurie while little Stevie Patterson went to NYC to take part in the workshop of the ABBA people's new musical "Christine". Our associate director, Darcy Evans, will join the company in the Laurie/John Brooke standby slot.

Minneapolis- Cold. 18 below 0. However, we do find the Mall of America and we spend alot of time in the amusement park there. Our producer, Randal Wreghitt, is from the Minneapolis area and his sister invited the cast to her house for a luncheon to celebrate Randal and to meet his family. 
Now, Randal is robust 6'2" and he's the runt of the bunch, because everyone there looked like they belonged at one of those Strongman contests. Uncle Fred was the epitome of the term "gentle giant". They were so loving and so proud of Randal (Randy, as they say) even old teachers of his were there.  They all came to see the show and, afterwards, had a gathering at a restaurant near the theater. They were a bunch of characters and I can completely understand how they made Randal the character he is.

St Louis- when you play StL, the first question you ask is "Are we playing the Fox?" Besides being one of the most beautiful theaters in the country, the backstage area of the Fox is covered with the graffitti of a thousand tours that have passed through, from the simple signatures of Ray Romano and Bill Cosby to entire walls of feathers that memorialize the tour of "La Cage".  When you're not onstage you can just walk around reading all the signatures of friends and legends and you'd never get through all of them.
Bob "I can't help my hard face" Stattel, an accomplished artist, is responsible for the Little Women painting and when I tell you it looks like a Monet, I really don't know what a Monet looks like.  Bob always paints a moment from the show, one that isn't onstage but is talked about.
After a matinee, we had a cast barbecue.  Squatch, our giant flyman, drags out his grill and we make burgers, dogs, and basically whatever else you want.  Its just another way we make the road seem a little more homey.  Someone stole my bratwurst, I'm still p.o.ed about that.
Katie Fisher left us on a medical leave, her knee requires a little surgery so she's going to be out for the next 5 weeks.  Susan Spencer will take over the role and Julie Foldesi will be the alternate Jo.  For those of you who followed the Bway run of the show, Julie was the Jo alternate in NYC.  Back on Bway, she and I used to play a rather cutthroat game of Monopoly in the standby room during the show.  She's a great energy and is going to fit perfectly with the family we have going out here.

Tampa- Florida FINALLY!  We are now out of the winter doldrums and can enjoy the outdoors again.  We spend as much time as we can soaking up the sun.  The audiences are fantastic.  They hootin and hollerin at all the jokes and jumping to their feet when the curtain comes down.  Nice weather=good audiences I guess. The Varela's stayed with some friends who had a pool so Tampa was a great pseudo-vacation.  Stephen Patterson came back to us.
Bob Stattel, who has played Mr. Laurence in every incarnation of the show and has never missed a performance, comes down with the flu and our own James Darrah goes on.  He, thoughtfully, walks around to everyone he has to work with and shows them the beard he has to wear.  After we have a laugh (and a couple of Amish jokes), James gives a wonderful performance.

Ft Lauderdale- so now we're relatively up-t0-date.  FtL is in the middle of spring break so the city is really busy but, again, great weather all the time.  In our first week we've had two barbecues and we're planning the next one already. 

I'm going to try to blog weekly henceforth, a gentle prod from fans of the show was well received.  Forgive me.

Boston

Very interesting things happening to yours truly as of late.
When we were in Detroit a few weeks ago (sorry I'm not keeping you up on stuff) I, as I often do, did yoga in my dressing room during my hour-and-a-half break in Act I.  Well, it would appear that I managed to find myself a little bacterium that lodged in my left foot and  proceeded to, over the next week, make it swell up like something out of a National Geographic piece.  I went to a doctor, got some antibiotics.  Didn't get better.  I went to the emergency room, got a shot.  Didn't get better.  Finally, when my Susan,myself and Oscar are driving from Charlotte to Boston, we stop for the night in Winchester, VA.  We get into the hotel room and I am almost in tears with pain.  I take the car and drive myself to the hospital where the doctor said, "You're not going home tonight."
He was almost right: I didn't go home for 3 days.  I was on iv antibiotics the entire time and, for a needlephobe like myself, had my blood drawn at least a bazillion times (it was 3x but I was traumatized nonetheless.)
So now we're in Boston and James Darrah, our Prof Standby and Assistant Stage Manager, is doing a brilliant job with the role and the show is getting beautiful reviews.
If you've learned nothing from me this post, learn this: flip flops.

Cast - Columbus

Hello from Columbus!  Had a great opening last night, great audience.  And by that I mean they loved me.
The word for the week is "tight".  This is a beautiful theater that is very "tight".  Matt Marholin told us at sound check that this is as "tight" as its ever going to get.  There is no crossover (those of you who don't know what that is, its the backstage way we get from stage left to stage right) so we hurriedly spent a few minutes reblocking the show so that no one needs a crossover.  A fun game for those who have seen the show several times would be to see where those changes occur.
Katie Fisher's room at this Doubletree we're staying at is off the hook.  Its a two-story deal that she promised me she would have a party in, and I am going to hold her to that.
We lose half the orchestra at the end of this week, they're going home for 3 months as the cities we're going into require the use of local musicians.  This is especially sad as we have a great bunch of people playing every night (and a few cuties as well) who've been a reliable source of fun these past months.  We shall miss them. Eleanor, Claudia, Jeff, Matt, Chris, Kevin, Orlando, see you next quarter.

Cast - New Haven

Happy Thanksgiving to all our LW devotees!  We're in New Haven and a slight dusting of snow is giving us exactly the right atmostphere for the beginning of the holidays.  Sitting in my hotel room, Susan and Oscar getting ready for the feast, watching the National Dog Show...yes, my friends, "Living the Dream".
Our esteemed producers have arranged for a Thanksgiving dinner here at the Omni Hotel.  Dani, Jason, Randall and Tom all came our opening night and had us all for drinks after in the same restaurant (which is really quite lovely).  I'm really looking forward to this meal, we received the menu some weeks ago and then entire cast was giggly reading it.  Its gonna be good.  I'll tell you all about it later.
The Schubert Theater here is tight but its the sort of space that we enjoy playing.  We're a small show and playing an intimate space is a real treat, you can bring all the subtleties back that don't work in a huge barn theater.  I, personally, sing "How I am" about three feet away from an audience member (must be a premium seat!).
See you in Columbus!