Thursday, March 13, 2008

CRASH and BOOM!

So my laptop is dead. Following a drunken night with Chardonnay (the wine, not the local hooker!), Jon Lee's incredible hit recording entitled 'Soul Sensor', and being offered a ride home by a bleach blonde guy in a black pick-up truck ("thats when I realised..."), my laptop decided to freak out on me, presenting me with only a blue screen error. Done my research - theres no hope! Ofcourse my windows xp cd would be all the way back in England wouldnt it! Why would I do such a stupid thing like bring it with me to America on the off-chance that my system needed re-booting? Crazy! Since this lack of computering has occured, I hav found time for more fruitful things in life, such as reading, even more of it! Gone through 3 Steven Berkoff play, 'East', 'West, and 'Greek', Jeff Daniel's beautiful piece 'Apartment 3A' - a must for everone to read, and now half way through 'Glass Menagerie'.

Our director threw us a "cast" party the other night with a few! of his friends - never been in a room with so many Gay Miami Men in my life! Fantastic home on the river view, complete with yauchts, swimming pool and heated jacuzzi, great food (best shrimp ever!), personal bartender (and free bar!), and to top it all off we had a lovely little sing-song around the piano, featuring a personal rendition of 'On The Street Where You Live'! Then we decided that we should make our night even more 'gay', so off we went to the hottest gay club in town, entitled quite appropriately, 'Boom'! I mean, it was karaoke night, so why not... right? Had a real blast, hanging on closely to the bar, and we all took a turn at grabbing the mike. Jon Lee seduced us all with his incredible vocal stylings of 'Open Arms',followed by Jessica Davis's rendition of 'Before He Cheats', and not forgetting my enthusiastic performance of 'Hot Fudge' - I was asking for trouble wasnt I! I'm pretty sure we rolled back into cast housing at around 2.45am, fell asleep for 30 mins, then woke back up to munch on some 'Denny's' egg's and hash browns - I swore I never would again, thats what alcohol does to you!
Woke up that afternoon at 1.30pm, dragged myself into the shower to try and regain some consciousness - defiantely wasnt going to be a beach day! Sat infront of the box, trying to resusitate my Dell, whilst watching a mini-marathon of 'A Haunting'! Hit the gym. Back to normality.

Awesome news yesterday, Julia got cast in an Off-Off-Broadway long running play, 'The Best Party Ever' - YAY! More news to follow.

Love
xx

Saturday, March 8, 2008

More Pics!

As promised, more pics, including 'Millie in the Moment', 'The Asians' and my personal favorite, a picture of the Stageand from 'Baby', Tiffany, playing the role of the Stagehand...cat! And finally, the dress rehearsal of 'Speed Test'. Excuse the ladder in the way of Tim Dolan's speed tapping. Enjoy!
Love from Florida - which is cold at the moment by the way!








Singin' in the Rain?

Well my dream nearly came true the other day when severe rain storms caused a lovely little leak on stage during our Thursday performances - never thought I'd get to play Don Lockwood for a good couple of years yet! It really added a new dimension and reality to the fact that I am meant to be singing a song whilst dancing out on the window ledge of a high rise building, so a little rain probably didn't look that odd - you think?
Finally finished 'The Other Boleyn' - thank God! Great read though, I would seriously recommend it to anyone. Then went on yesterday and read the entire play, 'Cat on Hot Tin Roof', in homage to the new african-american Broadway cast opening. Beautiful play - having read and studied 'A Streetcar Named Desire', I have been a fan of Tennessee Williams's work for a while now, and this one also blew me away with such poetry. I particularly love the way that he describes the mood of the scene or character in his stage directions, "A speech of this kind would be antipathetic from almost anyone but Margaret; she makes it oddly funny because her eyes constantly twinkle and her voice shakes with laughter which is basically indulgent", (very similar sounding to Blanche DuBois!). His characters have so many layers and complexes that even when, as Maggie does, a character gets a long winded 2-3 page monologue, a good actor will be able to hold the audience with it. From the get go of the play the conflict/tension is already in place and never lets up till after the curtain falls. His attention to detail between relationships, which is what his plays focus on, as well as the downfall of the Southern Aristocracy, is moving to read - I cant wait to see it in the flesh. As a playwrite, I feel he gives a lot of direction already in the script. I find this helpful as an actor to get a more defined picture of how to honor the playwrite and, of course, the play. A new role I would someday like to play, Brick. And my new aim for the Summer; to read all of his plays. I think I'll start next with 'Glass Menegarie'.
Had my old director from England, Matthew Chandler, fly over last night to see the show. Was great to see him again - taught me a lot about the business. Talked with him for about an hour after the show, then managed to get myself locked out of the theater with my keys, wallet and phone in my bag still in my dressing room - which was fun!
Introduced the movie 'Singin' in the Rain' last night to some cast members who hadn't seen it before - still blows me away every single time I watch it! Oh, and youtubing some other great inspirational dance numbers, below is another legend defying gravity - if you haven't seen Bob Fosse battle it out with Tommy Rall, its a must!
Right, off to work I go! Saturday Matinee here I come

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The 3 S's!

So, my babes gone back home now, but we had a lovely little break. Just did absolutely nothing, except sleep, sunbathe, and swim. Oh, and walked for an hour and a half in search of soft serve ice-cream, didn't we Julia? Awesome!
Hope all you guys in the cold aren't too jealous!
Just saw Christian win 'Project: Runway' (of course!), now watching 'My Fair Lady' on TMC - the actor who plays Freddy is meh! 'On The Street Where You Live' is soooooo boring!Actually got out of bed at 8am today and hit the gym at 9am for a Kwando class (Box-ercise!). Many old ladies flirting, very embaressing! Had a great show today; Wednesday matinee, best audience yet I would say!
Right, so 'The Other Boleyn' is beginning to get a little too much - got another third to go yet and all the drama is starting to get bit much. I know Anne gets the throne (hope I didn't ruin the end for anyone!), just hurry up and have a happy ever after!
Okay, better go bed. Love from Florida

Pics!

Finally, a few pics from our production of Thoroughly Modern Millie (more to come, I promise!)

*Directly below is my star dressing station - note the cute pic. of me and Julia! Myself with Dom, Jess and Alice, in that order. *Dom is a very talented song and dance guy. *Jess, who plays Pearl Lady, is the new Cyd Charisse. *And Alice has the most amazing house and jacuzzi ever - plus shes talented! *The girl herself, our Millie, a.k.a Kirtsin Riegler, on-stage during the opening number, "Not for the Life Of Me"- second time in the role and blowing everyone away! *No boys allowed! The girls dressing room, properly presented with a winning smile from Emily!*Jimmy and Millie * The Boys! From Left, John Hensley (The Letch), Dom Benevento (The Cop), Tim Dolan (George Gershwin), Jon Lee (Ching Ho) and Ryan Lingle (Rodney) - our fighting force. A great male ensemble we have.








Coming soon - a sneek peek at our first dress rehearsal of 'Speed Test', plus more backstage pics!


Sunday, March 2, 2008

Chillin' in the Florida Sun!

So, Julia and the folks arrived the other night. After a dramatic couple of hours for my Mum and Kevin, which included missing their flight to Florida, getting lost in Miami, having no hotel reservation, then, of course, Kevin having his wallet stolen - great start! But, bless em' they picked Julia up from the airport then drove straight to the theater to meet me after my show!

Awesome to see my girl again. Much hugging and kissing ensued! Went out for food after my show then headed back to Fort Lauderdale to my Mums apartment - which is amazing! Right off the river where all the boats and yauchts are stowed, private pool, barbecue, peace and quiet! Defiantely coming back here!
Spent the next day sunning ourselves by the pool, reading 'The Other Boleyn' (which, by the way, is the most awesome, addictive book I have ever read. I hope the film does the novel credit!), had lunch then travelled over to the theater. They saw the show Friday night - loved it, despite the audience without a pulse! Me and Julia headed to the LaQuinta hotel, ate pizza and breadsticks, drank Corona, and watched 'The Breed' (which by the way is one of the most awful, addictive movies I have ever watched! An island ihabited by killer genetically modified... dogs! Great premise!). Also saw a preview for the 'Sex and the City' movie, which actually kinda looks pretty good - then again it always a pleasure to watch Cynthia Nixon, onscreen or onstage! Interesting fact: one of my
cast members is actually in the 'Sex and the City' movie/long episode as an extra! Then got to finish our classy night at the hotel by having breakfast at... 'Dennys'! (Which, by the way, is the grossest restaurant I have ever the disfortune to dine at! I felt guilty afterwards, just kept thinking, "What have I done to myself?") Never Again!
Now I'm about to hit up the Sunday Matinee - the busiest audience we get in the week! They've just called places, so I best go!


Cheerz!













Lovebirds in the Sun!