put a little mustache in your soul

Two things that make wouldn’t happen if I was a stockbroker:

1. Last night John Flansburg of THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS joined us all at the bar (Freddie’s) and officially judged the mustache competition – it was a no-brainer – the winner was puppet design Dan Kerr-Hobert who John called to congratulate – he described his mustache as “fire-man ready”. Also in a stunning move, he disqualified Callahan, Lillenthal and Raiford – claiming that they did not have mustaches – apparently he is a fan of the “justache”. He then ordered a manhattan and a cosmo – both of which the Freddie’s bartenders were confused by.

2. Tonight a woman who travels the globe to see productions of HEDWIG is coming – god help us all.

Our first review

They love us - they really do

What I have been putting off....

Oh shit - I have to start think about Santaland and Christmas Carol now. Production Meetings for them both in the morning. Oh no.

One other fun thought to remember before I go back into planning. Last night Spurney and Scott sat at the piano at Intermezzo, and as though we all thought we were starring in ALMOST FAMOUS - we all sang "Tiny Dancer" at the top of our lungs. Then David and Spurn played some songs from JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR - all part of my plan to have everyone humming that show as we move into season planning.

Everything is going exactly as i have forseen....

all about the love

There are many beautiful stories about last night – but this is my favorite.

7 Years ago David Hanbury saw Kevin Cahoon play Hedwig in Boston. He claims that night as a life-changing experience. He took home the poster with him that night, and has moved it from apartment to apartment ever since. He also talks about dancing in the street that night – transformed by Kevin’s performance.

Jon Spurney, our music director, produced an album of Kevin’s and is actually great friends with him.

So, last night, right before David went on for opening, Spurney called Kevin and then put him on the phone with David to wish him a good opening. It brought tears to the eyes of our boy to hear from his idol just moments before walking on stage.

Gotta love that.

Last Night Louisville Showed Up

So, I don’t want to talk about it too much – for fear of jinxing it from ever happening again – but last night was pretty amazing. No one walked – and we got a full standing ovation at the end. The audience was about 90 percent older subscribers and 10 percent young tattooed girls – who by the way, one of them asked our guitar player if he would autograph her chest before the show – BEFORE the show. Let’s see if Masterson can pull off a chest signing before his first preview of TEMPEST. I kid, I kid – she may have been insane. Either way we gave her Lillienthal’s ticket for opening night. She knew every word of the show and danced in the aisles – you can always use more of that.

And the older people? They loved it – they totally showed up and rocked out – one gentleman was tapping his cane to the music, and another group was weeping openly at the end. It made me realize that perhaps I’m a bit of an ageist about who this show is for – or perhaps I’m just ignoring the fact that if you’re an apprentice – I look like one of the older people! Oh crap.

(There was a betting pool in the Apprentice about how old all the “older cast members” were – somehow they thought I was 29 – ah, flattery children).

Though there was one minor injury – as anyone who has been in a bar or rehearsal with me – you know that I am a terrible chewer – I chew whenever I’m nervous – and last night something went askew in the show, and I bit right into my tongue. Hard. Hard enough for blood to begin coming out of my mouth. I held it together till after the show and then Lorraine got me an ice pack. Now that’s quick costume design for you.

Attached is a picture of the mustache brigade – this Friday, John Flansburg of THEY MIGHT BE GIANT will be declaring the winner – I think everyone has money on Dan – but we’ll see. Bing’s small man big mustache look may be a dark horse.

Now, one more rehearsal, and then opening – hopefully I don’t bite my arm or anything.

Jose - can you see?

Last night Hedwig sang the National Anthem at the Louisville roller derby girls championship match (team motto: Hot Chicks. Hard Wood). In exchange for him doing this, they’re going to come usher in roller skates and hula skirts on opening – my god, what have we done.

My favorite part was that they announced Hedwig as though she was a local celebrity “and now to sing the national anthem – Hedwig!” Also, as we can in, some nice straight couple had this conversation:

Wife:“Hey, I think Hedwig’s here”
Husband: “Oh, that’s perfect:.

It made all of our tired hearts happy.

Brilliant

Also today, while most of us rest on our day off, Jon Spurney is off writing music for “Ugly Betty”. I have no real reason to mention that except to name drop Ugly Betty.

So, first preview tomorrow – Spurney says in all his years of doing the show, they never had a show where someone didn’t walk out on it – the show tests the audience at the beginning and then turns into a love story – so if you can make it thru the opening monologue you’re golden – we’ll see how the audiences respond – somehow this show, and it’s raunchy humor feels very dangerous to be doing for the ATL subscribers. I’m hoping they will impress me. We’ll see.

Either way, on Sunday we wrote jokes for Hedwig to say when subscribers walk out. Maybe they won’t though – maybe the Victor Jory will really be the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Burlybear.com

We did our 3rd promotional gig last night at the G3 Soiree - our smallest crowd, but great in the sense that at the beginning many of them were looking at us like "what the hell is this" and by the end of it they were all clapping and screaming.

Also - and this is totally true - our adopted cast member Apprentice Chris - wore a burly bear.com shirt to this gay party - apparently unaware that the term "burlybear" would have any special meaning with the gentlemen at the party. Ah, youth and their lack of understanding code words.

Also - I noticed on the Actors Theater website that they are asking for people to tell their worst break-up story. So, I'll tell part of mine. In 1999 I was dumped for Weird Al Yankovic - yep, I heard the words "Al called and I'm going to visit him", to which I had to reply "wait, are you dumping me for Weird Al Yankovic". Next time we're out for drinks, I'll tell you the rest. Sadly he was one the first concerts I saw - and now that image is soiled. Ah, Weird Al.

Tomorrow - we start tech.

What goes around

Right now David Hanbury is being waxed. This is what directors go to hell for.

On The Road

End of week two – we moved into the space, and took the show on Tour.

The Hedwig tour was pretty amazing – at Earxtacy – it was packed and people lined up afterwards to buy tickets – Hedwig even spent time helping people shop before and after and then spent some time harassing passer-bys. Comedy gold.

Even though the load-in to the Connection was painful, the show was spot on. The band and David were truly impressive. Brian J. Lillienthal filled in on drums – and to make the evening truly special, Callahan gave him a Mohawk before hand. Looking good fellas, looking good.

Big shout outs to Matt Callahan – who worked all day long as our tour manager – and to Apprentices Dav, Bing, Jessica and Chris who put in a 12 hour day to make it happen (after having done their morning classes). Thank you children.

Pics of the week are below (the good ones are by Gary Quick)– after a week full of work, and pretending like we’re a touring rock band (Spurney named be the Rubin Kincaid of the band), we retired to Freddie’s to celebrate the birthday of Paul Doyle. The nice about Freddie’s is that you can always take a large group of people there – because there isn’t anyone else there – that’s good, right?

Also, our puppet designer Dan showed up from Chicago, and has taken a shocking lead in the mustache competition. I'm worried that it's a blow-out now, but we'll all continue to grow in hopes of a late game upset.