After rehearsing in Ontario for 3 weeks in August/September we are back again to take Canada by Storm. About an hour from Kitchener (Where we rehearsed) we're setting up Shop in London, Ontario. The city is beautiful and ironically enough looks a little like a miniature London.

The hotel is beautiful. The gym is fantastic. And tonight's show was, well interesting. It was sort of the evening of sound issues. An RFX box (I think that's what it's called) wasn't working at sound check which meant for of the wireless mics weren't patching into the sound board. Luckily our sound guys fixed the issue before the show. Then during 'Keep it Gay' the sound board crashed for about a minute and a half losing all mics, key boards, monitors, basically every sound thing that plugs in. And let me tell you, vamps sound very unique when played on two flutes and drum kit.

To add insult to injury, the theatre is an ice-skating arena. That's not the strange part, we've played those before on occasion. But for some reason the ice under the plywood we were sitting on was particularly cold. All of the brass and reed instruments were freezing, as were most of the musicians. I think I might be coming down with a cold from it for which I'm popping vitamin C like it's my full time job.

Despite the technical difficulties the show was fun. The cast is great at just going with the flow which helps immensly. The boarder crossing was fairly uneventful.

In Huntsville about two weeks ago we had our first 'walk-on' role. To publicise the show they will occasionally have a 'Producers' radio contest and the winner wins a walk on role in the show. Below is a letter 'Walk-on John' sent to his acting liason in the company.

Hey Alison,

I had a great time last night and thanks for being my
“leading” lady. The cast and crew of “The Producers”
were absolutely great and truly made my weekend
memorable. It was amazing to see the production from
the backstage and to watch all the “goings on”. You
and Chris were particularly kind to make sure that I
made it safely across stage. After the show, my wife,
friends and family (a.k.a. adoring fans) were waiting
at the stage door and presented me with a dozen roses
to commemorate my stage debut. We all went back to
the hotel to celebrate and party.

My wife’s included a blog on her professional website
(the Writers’ Playground) that I thought you and the
other cast members might enjoy. The link is
http://writingplayground.blogspot.com/ and the entries
are January 13 and 14th. The pix from last night are
posted too.

Again, tell everyone I said thanks much for being so
warm and welcoming and “break a leg” on the rest of
the tour!

John

Split-weeks

We're now in the throws of split-weeks for January and the beginning of February. Fun Fun Fun. And in a few days we should have our first cast replacement. One of our 'Character Women' is leaving the show. We'll rehearse her out her and have her in the show in a few weeks.

Sittting in Huntsville, AL for the weekend. There's beautiful lake between the hotel and theatre so it makes the walk amazing. It's also about 70 degrees which is nice too. Our Ulla cover went on today for the first time. She did a great job. It's always nerve-wracking when a principle cover goes on for the first time and sometimes I'm sure I'm more nervous than they are. 1/2 of it is just being nervous for them and the other half is having to concentrate harder because 'their show' is usually slightly different than the principles so you have to stay on your toes.

I joined NETflicks and I love it! I have a ton of great old movies and HBO series on my queue.

All right, heading out for a cast member's birthday party.

A New Year

By my calculations I have exactly six months of Producers left. The week in Montreal looks like it's not happening and I'm not sure if I will do the Atlantic City engagement or not so I think my involvement with the show will come to a close on July 1st. Just in time to head home for my sister's wedding.

We just wrapped up our week in Virginia and I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a massively delayed flight to Fayetteville, AK, birthplace of the first Wal-mart.

Our director made a surprised visit out this week to see and note show. He seemed very pleased with the shape the show was in and spent a fun New Years with the cast and crew last night. It was fairly tame as most of the company had to leave the hotel at 4AM for a 6AM flight.

We start a few difficult months of split weeks next week. January and February are rough touring months anyway. Once we get to the Candian dates everything should fly by.