I'm Bringing the Pompadour Back

All my glorious plans of blogging more frequently ended in sleeping instead. Hey, it was a looooooong tech.

The show looks BEAUTIFUL, and we've settled into our run. We were talking backstage last night about how NINE is a really fun show to run, and actually less fun to rehearse. Rehearsals can often be the most exciting part of the process - let's try this, okay, now this, what if I do THIS instead - but NINE is a bit of a beast. It's difficult to get a firm grasp on, and difficult to tell the story well (I know from having seen it several times before). Anyway, now that we're open, we've all just kind of relaxed and started to have fun. Below is a photo of me in full Stephanie Necrophorus regalia, singing about why I loathe our leading man:


I look ridiculous walking about the streets of Boston with poofy hair, but I got over that really quickly. If anything, most people are a little deferential when I have the pompadour happening, I suppose because it makes me look really intense. Yep. I frighten people. This is what I have discovered.

Okay, people, PIMP YOUR FRIENDS time! My lovely marvelous wonderful BATS are all involved in this amazing new project called #serialsattheflea. Late night episodic theatre. I'm grumpy about not being able to see them because I'm in Boston, so I'm trying to send everyone else to see them so that I can live vicariously, stage-mom style. Basically, there are five plays, and every week, the audience votes for what they want to see the next installment of. Only three make it. They'll return the next week with the next "episode" of their play, if you will, and the other two teams have to completely regroup and devise an entirely new premise for the following week. I freaking love The Flea. Two of the Bats, Stephen Stout & Dominic Spillaine, are the evil geniuses behind this whole thing. Go!

With regards to BE CREATIVE EVERY DAY, I have actually been succeeding, and not just because I'm in a run. I've been doing a lot of writing, as well as working on new material for a class I'll be taking soon. It's interesting challenging yourself to something like this, but not being a visual artist - I know I have something to show for it, but I can't just take a photograph of it and post it.

However, I CAN post videos, and I have done so for A MARGINALLY CHRISTMAS CABARET! There are four of them, and they all came out really well - my friend Alesia's brother David Lawson and a couple of his friends did all the video and editing for us.
Here is Colored Lights, from THE RINK. I call it the Liza Minnelli Special.
Next, we have River in the Rain, from BIG RIVER, featuring my marvelous brother Aaron! A few of his improv friends have watched and been impressed, as he only really sings when I force him to.
Then, there's the ridiculous Diamonds Are Forever.
And finally, the video that has unsurprisingly turned out to be everyone's favorite, I Will Never Leave You, from SIDE SHOW, featuring my friend Hernando Umana. He was my Riff Raff in ROCKY HORROR, and he sings like a beautiful woman. Seriously. It's actually not my favorite video for how I sound, but it's so preposterous that I can't help loving it.

Snow Day

During the snopocalyspe of December 2010, I spent two and a half days sitting in Denver International Airport, attempting to get to Boston by way of Newark. Today's snowsanity is a lot easier for me, seeing as the T is running, if slowly. I'm gonna admit it - I'm sitting atop my cozy bed in Brookline, wearing pajamas at 2pm. I slept in, watched the two-part Season 5 Finale of MURDER, SHE WROTE, and had a chard omelet with waffles. I was going to attempt to get things done outside of the house today, but quite sensibly decided that, if I had to brave the snow later to get to rehearsal, I might as well not deal with it for the rest of the day. The MFA will still be there later this week!

We began working through Act One last night, and let me tell you - this show is a massive BEAST! I mean that in the best possible sense - simply that there is SO MUCH to it, for absolutely everyone, from Guido on down. We're all pretty much on stage the entire time, and are all very involved in just about every number, so tracking yourself ("tracking" is the term used for where you are at any particular moment in a show. It's not just blocking, it's "Enter downstage left, but hang by the door till Actor A crosses, then be sure to shut it and turn the handle, because the door wont' close otherwise," it's what costume pieces you need to underdress in order to make a quick change in time, it's any props or set pieces you might be responsible for - basically anything that someone who was coming in to replace or understudy you would need to know in order to perform your "track" in a show) becomes difficult. It's gonna be great, we're just in the throes of the messiest stage of rehearsal (tech is a totally different kind of messy), which is exciting. So interesting to be part of a large-cast musical that is truly ensemble based.


On a different note, I just discovered and joined the "Creative Every Day" challenge. I'm thinking of trying to do weekly check-ins with it, and also trying to see how I can incorporate my blog into the creativity I already use every day (in rehearsal, in class, etc). January's (optional) theme is "Cosmos," which I think I'll play with a bit, once I figure out how best to bring myself to this challenge. I also began a Photoblog for 2011. This project is not an attempt to take gorgeous photos, but to truly blog about my days - the images, the experiences, the minutia that makes up a person's day to day life - through photos. It's been fun thus far, seeing people's responses, and challenging myself to find different types of things to photograph.

I am extremely cold right now, so I think I'm going to jump in a (hopefully, hopefully) ridiculously hot shower, then read some MOBY DICK, review my blocking and choreography, and head into rehearsal. I think it's also time to bust out my epic winter hat. I like to think of it as Doctor Zhivago meets Trudy Campbell.

Beauty in Black

A quickie post to exclaim that my NINE castmates are GORGEOUS! If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself!



If you want to buy tickets, click here for more information! Cast bios are also up, so feel free to stalk any and all of these beautiful women. Oh, and Tim.

I'm not very good at summing up with a grand, sweeping statement

I did it last year, and I'll do it again! A summing up of my year in the way that most makes sense to me - in shows! I'm including whatever workshops and readings I remember as well.

2010
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (workshop)
Dash Dexter (reading at MTC)
Don't Tell Mama's Cabaret
What Would Woody Do? (reading at The Flea with Tony Shalhoub)
A Tipsy Cabaret (at The Sonnet Theatre/The Producer's Club)
Stop the World - I Want to Get Off (with Musicals Tonight!)
Romeo & Hamlet (with GayfestNYC at The June Havoc/Abingdon)
Una, La Whore Del Mundo (reading at The Flea)
Office Hours (reading at The Flea with AR Gurney)
Scam (reading at Random House)
Unlawful Gatherings (at TAI, with my Sunday Playtime crew)
As Bees in Honey Drown (with Twin Tiers Theater Festival)
Boeing Boeing (with Twin Tiers)
Into the Woods (with Twin Tiers)
The Rocky Horror Show (with ReVision Theatre)
Scam (reading at New York Theatre Workshop)
Looking at Christmas (dialect coach - The Flea)
All Our Best for the Holidays (with Cape Rep)
A Marginally Christmas Cabaret (at the Royal Theatre/The Producer's Club)

And, as I began rehearsals for it in 2010...
Nine (with SpeakEasy Stage)

I'm missing a couple of readings in there from February. Can't remember project titles. Old age. It comes so quickly.

Wow, looking back on that, I was really fortunate this year. I met some crazy awesome people, and got to play two bucket list roles within the space of a month (Gretchen in BOEING and The Baker's Wife in WOODS).

Dialects I was hired to use in performance this year: Russian (2x), RP, Cockney, German, and Faux-Russian (hello, Magenta).

Favorite piece of theatre I saw is probably JERUSALEM in London with Mark Rylance - and it's coming to Broadway, folks!!! I also loved BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON at The Public and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES on the BroadWAY.

Other marvelousness with regards to my friends includes my brother performing regularly and hilariously with his Harold team Sandino at UCB, Hannah performing at The National Theatre in London with THE WHITE GUARD, Nick Adams booking a big ol' Broadway lead in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, and Nikka Lanzarone making her Broadway debut in WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN!

Ten points to anyone who knows what the title of this post references.

I'm starting the new year by seeing a show at SpeakEasy, then coming home to do some work on NINE on my own. We've worked through all of the music in the past few days, and have our first read through/sing through tomorrow! Huzzah! Onward.

Mele Kalikimaka

I have been grossly negligent of late with regards to posting. This can be readily explained in three words: I'm in Hawaii.

Before I go on to anything else, I want to do a PIMP YOUR FRIENDS segment. The pimping, in this case, is of Croft and Pearce, a British comedy duo. They are gorgeous, hilarious, and also happen to be dear friends of mine. They've been gigging around London, and have just released their first YouTube video, which I think you should watch. It's the first in a series regarding Prince William's engagement. I think it gets even funnier with every repeated viewing.

I want to do a fairly epic blog post a'la Krakow (see Feb or March if you don't know what I'm talking about and care to read about my all-too brief travels to Poland), so I'll save that for a few days from now, when I'm in Boston, freezing and unwilling to do much aside from rehearse and hibernate. Oh, that's right, kids. Starting December 27th, I will be in snowy, slushy Boston, in rehearsals for NINE. I've been reading the script, and I'm SO excited!!! Not for the brutal weather, obviously, but singing this incredible music will more than make up for it.

The Marginally Christmas Cabaret went smashingly well! Thanks to all who came out to see us! Videos are currently being edited, and will hopefully be posted to my YouTube channel within the next few weeks.

So, tomorrow, I'll wake up in Honolulu for the last time. We'll see Pearl Harbor, my parents will go to the Baylor basketball game, and then we'll fly to Breckenridge, Colorado, for a family Christmas. December 26th, I catch a flight that puts me into Newark at midnight. I'll get home, unpack, REPACK, and catch a bus to Boston first thing in the morning for a 5pm rehearsal. Mercifully, I can sleep the entire next day. Then I'm in Boston through February 27th! Trident Booksellers & Cafe, here I come!

Some pics of The Big Island posted below!

A Holiday Cabaret, You Say?

Is it a shameless plug if it's on your own blog? I didn't think so.

Next Wednesday night, the 15th of December in the year of 2010, I'm singing in a cabaret show I put together with my dear friends Alesia Lawson and Sarah Randall Hunt. If you're in the area and free that night, I suggest you check us out, because it's gonna be a grand old time.

A MARGINALLY CHRISTMAS CABARET!
We know what you boys and girls want this holiday season - SINGIN'! LOTS OF IT! Well, Santa ain't gonna let you down, kiddies. He's sending a magnificent triumvirate of funny ladies (and a couple of funny lads!) your way this December 15th! We will occasionally be embracing the fact that this cabaret show is mid-December, and throwing something Christmasy your way. However, as we really can't be bothered to Fa La La La La our way through an entire 90 minutes, the majority of the evening will be free of elves, trees, dreidels, reindeer, nativities, and references to the Claus family.

Vaguely holiday-related. Absolutely hilarious.

Suggested donation of $10. Anything we make over the first $200 is going to The New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

Featuring the glorious talents of:
Sarah Randall Hunt
Amy Jackson
Alesia Lawson

With guest performers:
Aaron Jackson
Hernando Umana
Kenneth Kyle Senn

Aaaaand the marvelous Michael Hopewell on piano!

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 @ 7:00pm
The Producers Club - Royale Theatre
358 W. 44th St, just off 9th Avenue

The Les Incompetents Edition

My favorite relatively new Thanksgiving tradition that my bro and friends and I have implemented over the past few years is to eat the Thanksgiving feast at real dinner time (approx 7:30 or 8:00pm - none of us care about football, which I can only assume affects the timing of everyone else's meals), and then watch HOME ALONE before we eat dessert. Watching HOME ALONE has now become our way of officially ushering in the holiday season, and this year, I decided to mark it in an even more official fashion: I tweeted it.

Live tweeting during particular events (The Academy Awards and the Tonys, if we're getting down to MY specifics, but it also works for shows like MAD MEN, various political speeches/debates, breaking news stories, etc) has really changed the way that said events are experienced. The feed for the #tonys this year was better than the actual Tonys themselves. ANYWAY, on Thanksgiving, I live tweeted all of the best parts of HOME ALONE, and, as there are many iconic moments, it got a bit epic.

For those of you who aren't regular users of Twitter, it may behoove you to know what a hashtag is. Basically, it serves a simple search function, so that anything I wrote with a (#) preceding it would show up in the general Twitter feed for those exact words. However, many people also use it to make jokes or somewhat sarcastic asides with. I love an aside. I use it every which way possible.

Anyway, here they are - THE 2010 #HOMEALONE TWEETS!


And now...my favorite part of Thanksgiving...#homealone!!!

Mac Culkin is TINY!!! #homealone

Kevin, you are what the French call "Les Incompetents."#homealone #freakingclassic

When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone! #homealone #freakingclassic

First pizza delivery to the McAlister house. #homealone #freakingclassic

This pizza boy is gay. #homealone #freakingclassic

Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi! #homealone #freakingclassic

Look what you did, ya little jerk!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

Goodnight, Kevin! #homealone #freakingclassic

WE SLEPT IN!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

Run, Run, Rudolph playing in the airport sequence....Let's face it. It's #freakingclassic. #homealone

This entire house is completely red & green, even though the family is in Paris for Christmas. #logical #homealone #freakingclassic

Even the creepy furnace is green! #spooky #homealone #freakingclassic

Jumping on the bed/trashing the house sequence. Undeniably, a #freakingclassic moment in cinema. #homealone

Buzz, your girlfriend! Woof! #homealone #freakingclassic

Keep tha change, ya filthy animal. #angelswithfilthysouls#homealone #freakingclassic

KEVIN!!! #homealone #freakingclassic #whoops

Sledding down the stairs, inspiring millions of kids to injure themselves at home! #homealone #freakingclassic

Daniel Stern, there you are!!! Welcome! #homealone

Hope Davis with a magnificent French accent and long blonde hair.#homealone

Shaving cream. Enough said. #homealone #freakingclassic

Escaped Tarantula! Noooooooooooo! #homealone #freakingclassic #majorplotpointlaterinthemovie

I'm a criminal. #homealone #freakingclassic

The best part of the movie!!! Mac Culkin screaming, his face inches from the van the bandits are driving. #homealone #freakingclassic

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree large-scale subterfuge!!! #homealone #freakingclassic

The gay pizza boy returns! #angelswithfilthysouls #homealone #freakingclassic

Bing Crosby lip-synching in a towel and shaving cream part two!#homealone #freakingclassic

Simultaneous grocery bag breakdown. #homealone #freakingclassic

Wet Bandit attempted smackdown! #convenientlyplacedfireworks #homealone #freakingclassic

I think we're gettin scammed by a kindegahdnuh! #homealone #freakingclassic

Moments of learning and growth for dear young Kevin McAlister!#homealone #freakingclassic #talkswithacreepyoldman

Oh, child! It's time for some serious #carolofthebells here on #homealone! This movie is getting INTENSE!!! #freakingclassic

This is MY house. I have to defend it! #homealone #freakingclassic #whereismybattleplan?

Oh. It. Is. ON! #wetbanditsandkevinhowdown #homealone #freakingclassic

Iron to the faaaaace!!! #iwouldthinkthatwouldknockyououtbutthatisjustme #homealone#freakingclassic

Singed head! #morepainfulthanfunnyreally #homealone #freakingclassic

Covered in feathers! #morefunnythanpainfulreally #homealone #freakingclassic

You guys give up, or you thirsty for more? #howaretheynotdeadyet #homealone #freakingclassic

You burglars are morons. #homealone

Brick wall to the face. IT IS TIME TO GIVE UP, WET BANDITS!!!#homealone

All I'm doing is sitting here, thinking about how long Daniel Stern had to be in makeup every morning to get that iron imprint. #homealone

Wet Bandit Crackdown! HaHA! Thwarted for THIS Christmas, Marv & Harry! #homealone #freakingclassic

John Candy, you are a symbol of the early 90s. This may be poor consolation, but there it is. #homealone

That bed looks so cozy, I'm contemplating buying myself bright red sheets. #homealone #suggestiveselling

A beautiful Christmas family reunion!!! #homealone #catherineoharaissogood #freakingclassic

I went shopping yesterday! I got the milk, eggs, and fabric softener!#homealone #freakingclassic

A grandfather/granddaughter reunion! Beauteous! #homealone

Kevin!!! What did you do to my room??? #homealone #freakingclassic

Now that #homealone is over, it's time for PIE!



Hope those were at least moderately enjoyable to someone. By the way, the title of this post refers to the fact that certain movies (I'm lookin' at you, PRINCESS BRIDE) have different special editions available for purchase. I'm pretty sure most of them are identical in content, it's just a matter of whether you'd rather have Buttercup, Humperdinck, or Westley immortalized on the DVD cover. In keeping with this theme, we were rather disappointed to discover (a few years ago now) that HOME ALONE only offered the "Family Fun" edition. We thought this was a load of crap. The special features are great, sure, but we wanted a little more flair. Who wouldn't rather get to choose between the "Les Incompetents," "You Little Jerk," and "Keep the Change, Ya Filthy Animal" editions? Or even between the versions entitled "The Wet Bandits," "Hyper on Two," and "The Polka King of Chicago"??? AM I RIGHT? "Family Fun," huh? LAAAAME!