Where Have I Been?

Now that I've finally achieved my Broadway goals, I should rename this blog the "I'll Update It When I Get Around To It" blog. Sorry all 3 of you faithful readers, but turns out putting on a Broadway musical takes up a lot of my time. Time I would normally be drinking wine and blogging, and obviously, neither of these things are happening enough.

I'm sitting here in the back row of the Brooks Atkinson watching the company tech "The Final Countdown." I hope ya'll have bought your tickets already. It's looking amazingly fierce. And speaking as someone who has sent THREE shows to Broadway, I obviously have really great taste in what looks great on the Great White Way!

Seriously though, every night that I sit here, I'm completely amazed that this entire thing is happening. For my non-theatrical readers, I wish I could explain just how many people it takes to open a show. There are a good 30 people in the theatre now, with 15 on stage, and countless others backstage. Or upstairs in the mezz, where our amazing makeup designer has set up her shop. Incredible. Let's pause for strobe lights, shall we. Amazing!

Let me take you on a journey of who's rockin' out at the Brooks tonight. To my right is one of our kick-ass producers Jen (see that beer in your hand...she helped arrange it!), to my left is our fearless leader, Leslie, go ahead, try to see that she had a baby SEVEN WEEKS ago. It's her Broadway debut as well. Big dreams people, big dreams. Next to her is our amazing press agent Leslie. She just sent us a possible opening night invite list with Bob Saget on it. Insane. Next to her is our Assoc Director/SM Adam. Try that double duty sometime!

In front of me are Phil, Mike, and Mike some of our production crew (sound, props, elex). And a house guy I don't know. (I should go introduce myself!)

In front of them Gregory, Karl, Julia our fearless (and sleep deprived costume designers - check out the lycra they had to find from all over the place), in the center section of the orch are Claudia and Justin - stage mgmt team extraordinaire. Kristin, Kelly, and Robert. Director, choreographer, and associate choreographer. They spend a lot of time up to the stage, down stage, in the house, in the mezz, oh, and also putting together this amazing show!! Behind them, Jason, Dricoll, and Barbara our 100% kickass lighting team are making magic happen. It's all pretty amazing.


*It should be mentioned I wrote this a million years ago. I'm posting it now because, well, because I need to get back into posting SOMETHING!

A Pattern

I'm noticing my blogging comes much more frequently when wine is involved? I wonder why that is? I am so exhausted from today. No day can be good when it starts with me heading out the door at 8:15am. I know, I know, to those "normal" 9-to-5ers of my blog readers, this is late, and you - like my sister - are probably cursing my name right now, but hear me out... I worked last night until about 9pm (I know this because 9pm is the latest FedEx pickup near my office is at 9pm, and I distinctly remember running down 50th Street to make it in time). Today, I worked until 7pm. I'm not sure what the point was that I was trying to make, but most important, nothing good happens before 11am. Ugh, I didn't even have time for my Starbucks addiction until almost 12:30pm BRUTAL!

Anyway, lots happened today. We announced our fancy ROA Broadway cast today. I'm hoping upon hopes that tomorrow when I walk into rehearsal and meet Amy Spanger, I'm able to refrain myself from sharing the story that my short-lived acting career (count 4 shows before slinking into management) all begin with an audition onstage at the Theatre Company of Bryan/College Station singing along to the cd of her singing "Why Can't You Behave?" That's right, we could sing along to the cds. It's community theatre, y'all, and let's face it, without it, I highly douby I would have made it to this Broadway adventure. So, thanks Amy Spanger! You're awesome, and I haven't even met you yet!

The most excting/stressful/ridiculous part of putting this show up on Broadway are the number of "crises" I deal with on a daily basis. (*Disclaimer, when I say "I" I mean, our management team of 5, but since this isn't their blog, let's just use I to mean the collective I...). Here's a short list of what we dealt with today:

• the already lamented 9am production meeting (attended by at least 20 people, including 5 via conference call)
• assembling, signing, sending out 18 AEA contracts
• rental agreements, furniture distrbution, insurance certificate getting
• royalty correction from the OFF-Broadway show (isn't this over yet?)
• pay the rehearsal studio
• pay the dry cleaners
• set up new Amex cards
• set up new accounts for the wardrobe department
• add actors, crew, musicians, agents, lighting shops, sound shops, designers, marketing teams, lawyers, stage managers, PAs, production supervisiors, creative team per diems, and a partridge in a pear tree to the payroll
• prepare SSDC statements to finish our paperwork to get the return of our Off-Broadway bond
• update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet
• get W-4 and I-9s ready for rehearsal tomorrow
• put off making the house seat book AGAIN
• update wrap reports and step charts
• attempt to prepare a group package for 500 friends of my producer
• solve Quickbooks mysteries (once again, in the Off-Broadway books)
• plan our rehearsal game plan
  
• answer 7 million emails
• ignore 15 million emails
• flag 40 million emails for follow up

Well, you get the idea, the ROA corner of the Frankel Green office is hopping. I'm coping by coming home to my aforementioned wine and Wii Fit. Yes, i understand that inherently those do not go togther, but we all deal with stress in our own ways. Plus, Em, Nick, AND I have agreed to give up drinking for Lent. I'm already excepting my birthday, St. Patrick's Day/ROA 1st performance day, and any day where we ahve avoided a near disaster on this show. It's brutal. Ash Wednesday is a week from today. I'm not sure I can survive what I have committed to, but it will probably make my evening on the Wi fit a little easier to handle.

On that note, I'm off to watch Whoose Line is It Anyway and paint my toenails, which have been brutally neglected since I opened Rock of Ages 1.0. Hope y'all had a wonderful Wednesday night.

ROA Cast Announcement

Here it is everyone!

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/126430.html

Exciting Day!!!

How about this blogfans!! The marquis for ROCK OF AGES went up today at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. It somehow made this crazy journey so very real for me. I'm actually here!! On Broadway! Can you handle it? And that truck you see in the front of the theatre is loading in our FOH rigging. That's right, the lighting and sound packages are on the way!! Exciting!!

We have an excruciatingly early production meeting tomorrow and then Thursday is our first day of rehearsal for the new cast members. (Stay tuned for the announcement soon!!). This crazy Broadway machine is getting underway. Have you bought your tickets yet!!! What are you waiting for?!


if you'd like to see 900 more picture of this marquis, take a look here.

Negletctful

It's true, it's true. I've been neglecting you dear blog. I have no reason, but here I am, back to tell the masses what I've been up to lately. This wonder cough/cold that I've been suffering through since Thanksgiving seems to FINALLY be running itself out. Thanks to Dr. Mendoza for the drugs. I have no idea what it was, but for the love, it's about time it's over. I'm still taking the meds lest the virus think it still has time to win out. Suck it virus!!

In better news, I am indeed on my way to the Great White Way!! I've officially been hired by Rock of Ages to bring my house seat/travel planning/debit credit skills to the Broadway. I still don't think this has set in yet. I've been working in New York for almost 7 years to make it to this very goal, and now that it's here, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I will say that everytime I've walked through the stage door of the Brooks Atkinson, I've gone a little insane on the inside. They have all the show posters up on the wall, and I see all these amazing shows (She Loves Me, anyone?) When the marquis goes up, it will make it finally real, I think. We have a marketing meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where we'll get our first glimpses at the new art. Also, keep your eyes posted on Times Square. Rumor has it, Rock of Ages will be gracing it's own billboard. Can you handle it? It's all pretty exciting!!

Apart from that, life continues on as normal, I suppose. I attempted to start my running again this morning. My aforementioned cough almost got me to quit early, but I persevered. Yay for me. I mean, I do have to be in a strapless bridesmaid dress this summer. Not to mention my impeding 30th birthday and first Broadway opening night. I've got to kick it into gear.

I do have one heartbreaking loss to post. My beloved TiVo has indeed died on me. It tried to hang on for me, but after a few days, it is apparent that it is indeed dead. Thankfully, I start on the Broadway contract tomorrow, so in addition to health insurance (thank the LORD), I will hopefully be making a slightly fancier Broadway ACM salary and will be able to replace it soon. I honestly don't know how I've gone so long without it. I suppose I've just been planning to be home on the nights my favorite shows are on. SO lame. I can't handle it. TiVo 2.0 and I will soon be introduced. I'm looking forward to the day.

Ok, I'm off to bed. The upside of my TiVo being dead is that I actually just go to sleep at night instead of trying to watch all the shows I've recorded. I seriously can't continue on like that. Night all.

Am I Still Awake?

sooooo tired. It's hard to rock as hard as I rocked at the show last night and keep that energy going through a 3 hour marketing meeting the next day. I am SO tired. Thankfully, though I was suffering the second performance blues, ROA did NOT. It continued to rock in its new and improved 2 hour 24 min run time. Of course, starting on time and not having a 30 min intermission for producers and marketing people to schmooze helps.

I skipped out on most of the performance today, but made it back in time for the finale and the production meeting that followed. It was nice to get a little break. Now, I'm off to bed for real; looonnnngg day tomorrow.

PS Much love to Dennis who let me bail on him for dinner for the second week in a row. I hope this blog shout out shows that I still love you. :)

Rock-tober

Y'all, I'm not joking. Tonight was an awesome night. By some miracle of the theatrical gods, and with a little help from my friends (I like to call them, the theatre industry) we had a full house for our very first preview, and it was AWESOME. Yes, the show ran an 2 hours and 45 min long, but it's still a work in progress folks, that's why they are called previews!! It'll get cut and trimmed and the pacing will pick up and all will be totally ever MORE awesome.

To finally see this show take shape was really fun. I feel like it's important for me to get behind whatever project I'm working on; otherwise, what's the point, right? But, it's great when it's so much fun.

Seriously, y'all. Get a ticket, get your group of friends together, grab a few drinks (it helps you sing along better) and get down to New World. You'll find me in the back behind the light board dancing along to "Here I Am Again on my Own."

You want to know what else made my night tonight? I completely felt like the part of the team. I was able to talk to marketing teams, ad people, box office treasurers, theatre managers, potential investors, and a slew of producers without batting an eyelash. I was able to joke around and laugh and dance around like the sleep deprived girl I am, and it all just fit together. Any of you who are faithful readers of this blog (are you out there?) will know that I am always looking to to be "part of it all" as my dear [tos]sers have so well described it, and every experience I have that gives me the feelings I had tonight, make me feel so happy and fortunate to have a career that allow me to experience it over and over again.

I'm heading to bed now, for I'm home before 1 am for the first time in a week, and we've got a long week ahead of us. Keep posted to the blog for more updates. I've added a bonus pic of the set for you. Trust me. It rocks so much harder than this picture from tech can show! Good night Astoria!!

Live Action Blogging

What's up world? I'm coming at you live from the back row of New World Stages, Theatre #1, aka my home from the past week. We're an hour and 15 min short of wrapping day #4 of tech. We added wardrobe and wigs today, and I must say, the show looks fantastic! Don't you want to come on down to NWS and rock out this week?!

Em and I went on a cleaning whirl this weekend. In under 3 hours, we had our living room, kitchen, bathroom, and my bedroom closet sparkling clean! Who knew. My room has been rocking the "I've been on tour" motif for about 6 months too long. Slowly but surely it's starting to take some sort of shape. It's about time, right? Not much else going on outside of that. It's been sleep, eat, breathe theatre, and naturally, I love all of that. We're currently teching "I Hate Myself for Loving You." It's amazing, sans doute.

PS Bernadette Peters signed the petition to get [title of show] on ELLEN. Have you?!

Teching

So, my rocking show fully moves into the theatre today as we enter what is lovingly known in the industry as "hell week." My next 6 days will consist of paperwork in the office during the day, then to the theatre until 1am for hours of "is this light too blue? Shouldn't he be holding a beer, not a mixed drink? Are the sounds on the 4th beat of every word of the intro sharp enough?" All decisions which I couldn't make if you held a gun to my head (unless one of the questions happens to be, "for the love of God, can't SOMEONE get a marketing code around here!"), but I am finding this process amazing. It's helping me very much to see the collabrative nature of this field, and is another reminder of why I do what I do and love it so much.

Moving on from my dorky techy blogging, I sent out an email begging everyone on the planet to sign the petition to get [tos] on Ellen (you know, this petition), and I'm amazed at the response. Way to go friends and family. Extra bonus points if you actually clicked on the link to my blog. Welcome.

I'm off to shower and drag myself to work. Much love from Astoria!

Why isn't this MY reality tv?

Okay, I know that tv isn't real, but seriously, where is this man in my life? Can we discuss? I mean, I may have just watched four back-to-back episodes of The Office, every one in which I said outloud at least one, "Ahhh, I love him!!" Who's with me here?

In other, more realistic news (yawn), today I saw the Act 1 run through of ROCK OF AGES, and I can't lie, I loved it. It's gonna be a fun show people, have you bought your tickets yet? Starting Oct. 1, I'm always up for pre-show margaritas...

Also, I made a friend connection happen for my cousin Susan and my former co-worker Mary in Chicago. Sus lives just around the corner from the Briar Street Theatre, where Mary is serving as Business Manager for Blue Man Group-Chicago. I'm happy they are meeting, but so wish I could be there!! My social life of late has been reduced to hermitude. It is a choice I have concisously made, and I can't lie, I love it. I know that in three weeks, I head back to the late-night theatre world I've grown so accustomed to, but I have to say for now, I'm glad to have my evenings to myself. Have you been keeping an eye on the Nike meter on the right side of my page?! I've been keeping up with my running program, and although my farthest distance is only 2.15 miles, I'm feeling pretty good just getting out there and doing SOMETHING every night. It helps me unwind from the day, and I think I sleep better too. All good things.

I'm off to do some more organizing of my room. I mean, I've lived here over a year and nothing has really happened. Next year when I'm faced with living on my own, I'm very excited, but I'm also very nervous about putting everything together. Anyone have any ideas? Mostly, I'm planning on counting on my two interior designer cousins (that means you Sus and Maura). They both have amazing senses of style and I can't wait to see what they do to the place. :) Night all.

Have you Ever Thought About...

Readers. Have you ever thought about how many people it takes to make a musical? Oh. My. Lord. Today I was at a production meeting, and the following were in attendance:

• Director/Assistant Director
• Choreographer/Assistant Choreographer
• Production Stage Manager/Stage Manager/Production Assistant
• Scenic Designer/Assistant Scenic Designer
• Lighting Designer/Assistant Lighting Designer
• Props Master
• Wardrobe Assistant
• Assistant Sound Designer
  
• Production Manager/Assistant Production Manager
• Video Projectionist Designer
• Music Contractor/Orchestrator/Director
• General Manager (2)/Company Manager/Assistant Company Manager/Management Intern
• and finally two producers

Y'all, that's a lot of people. That's not taking in count the 17 actors that were on lunch break during our meeting or the people that were assembling the deck at New World Stages while we were in our meeting or my box office staff that were frantically processing codes for me. Tomorrow we meet with no fewer than 3 marketing firms, a press agent, a pr person, more producers and any other random people that I've missed off this list.

I can't even say how amazed I am at all that goes into getting a show to its opening night. I know, I know, I've been part of plenty show openings and what have you, but as I've mentioned before, this is the first time I've seen all of this "production" craziness, and it completely blows my mind. But as it's blowing my mind, its also sending chills up my spine. Every single one of those people will work their tails off come hell or high water to make the best production possible be on that stage come October 16, and they will fight for what they need to make that happen. Who says theatre is dead? It's an incredible thing to be in a room full of people so passionate about their jobs. I'm loving every crazy, ridiculous second of it.

In news outside my job (yes, I have a life). Wii Fit admonished my sister for telling it that she didn't think I looked in any better shape this week. It was amazing. That's news right? I'm not a total loser, am I? Whatever, I love that Wii Fit. TiVo is adjusting well to the newest addition. Also, I keep them in separate rooms, so that helps. Can you tell I've cut back on the social agenda lately? It seems that my bank account finally figured out that I spent many weeks this summer unemployed. It's finally recovering, but gave me quite a scare towards the end of August. Ugh. Can't I just win the lottery already? At least the health insurance lottery? Anyone? No one?

Last thought before I head to bed, I love the new iTunes. I love that Apple keeps making me want to upgrade my iPod even though I have absolutely NO reason to do it. I love that if I want to find twenty-five songs on my iPod that sound like Miley Cyrus' "7 Things" that I can do it, and my iPod won't judge me like all my friends do. Life is good. I'm out. Good night.

Oh - and Happy Birthday shout-outs to my cousin Mary, my college roommate Erica (who both turned 30 on Tuesday), my Pajama Gaming touring Thomas and my sole remaining swim team friend Eric. The first week of September is huge for me birthday wise! I hope all of you celebrated fully and will be blessed with the best year yet!

Sad the Summer is Over

Hope y'all had a happy Labor Day Weekend! I sure did! I headed back to beautiful, relaxing Sag Harbor thanks to my pal Gail (holla!) It was a wonderful way to wind up Summer '08. My sister was able to ditch the city as well and come out East for some poolside time, so that was fun!

Things I learned:

• I don't make enough money to even look at houses in the Hamptons.
• I want these Coach sunglasses (in burgandy)! But I didn't buy them, because I have to pay rent.
• Along those lines, being responsible is overrated.
• There are a lot of good places to sit and watch college football in East Hampton on a Saturday.
• There is no limit to how many fried shrimp I will eat.
• If given the opportunity, I can spend 3 days straight in my swimsuit cover-up.
• Fancy drinks taste fancier the farther east you travel! In Montauk, they even put cucumbers in the water. Amazing!
  

In other news. our Rock of Ages Meet and Greet is tomorrow morning! I love meet and greets! It's so fun to look around the room and see so many different types of people all working to get the show up. Cool. Last week, I walked through Stage 1 at New World with Jason, our SM, our Asst PM, and two of the NWS ops people for my first sightline conversation. It never ceases to amaze me how many things need to be thought about before opening! Of course we have to cut those three seats in the balcony, otherwise, someone will be sharing their lap with our spot op.

Ok, I'm off to bed now I think. Big day tomorrow, as our Rader Family Fantasy Football draft is in the morning. I love football season!