Atlanta Wrap-Up

Atlanta Wrap-Up
Tuesday, March 6th

I really enjoyed Atlanta. It turned out to be much more walking friendly than it originally appeared and the longer we were there, the more stuff I discovered in the near-by neighborhoods.

I took a walk to Piedmont Park one morning before rehearsal. It was the site of the Cotton States Exhibition – a sort of world’s fair – around the turn of the century that was converted into a Central Park-ish city park. It was landscaped by the Olmsteads; the same folks who originally designed Central Park. It also shares many of the same kinds of features: a central lake, a formal conservancy garden and lots of walking paths. Atlanta is so far ahead of New York, weather-wise, that the daffodils were in bloom! On the way home, I walked through some lovely, quiet neighborhoods full of pretty older homes.

The mid-town Atlanta skyline over Piedmont Park

The eating adventure continued; went for Thai food with Callie between shows on Saturday. (We were headed to MF Sushi, one of Zagats’ Atlanta picks, but they weren’t open for the evening yet.) The green curry was delicious as was the spicy shrimp salad. Ken, Francesca and Karl were at the next table and enjoyed purple rice (a dessert once reserved for kings!). Also had some very tasty and simple Italian at the place across the street from the hotel: Baronda. Went with several of the chorus girls, Patrick and his folks. I had a pizza with goat cheese and a very yummy beef carpaccio. Both of my olive skinned chorus friends loved the place (and ate there, literally, every night).

It was also great to have family around while in Atlanta. Sheila’s Aunt, Uncle and Cousins (the McCools) entertained me on several occasions. Hadn’t seen the McCools since our wedding (more than 2 years ago!!!!). They all came to the matinee the first Sunday and took me out to dinner. They also came down to eat with me between shows on the last day in Atlanta. So much fun to see them and to get caught up! Wednesday night after the show, Tim took me out to “the Atlanta neighborhood bar”: Manuel’s Tavern. It was a great, casual place & we had a nice night.

Saturday’s matinee performance was interpreted for the deaf. It’s always interesting to watch the interpreters work. For Spamalot, there were three interpreters; one would “play” a character in each scene, signing their lines. I learned a couple of new signs:
Holy Grail: hold your fore-arms parallel to one another a couple of inches apart and cup your hands. It sort of makes the shape of a grail.
Applause: is indicated put putting your hands at ear level on either side of head and sort of making “jazz hands”. I like this one!
One of our ensemble boys, Darryl Semira, is fluent in ASL, so he spoke with the signers (and presumably any deaf people in the audience as well) in sign language. He got a nice hand.

We had a going away party for Justin (ensemble) on Saturday night combined with our shot night. Paula and Matt hosted shot night (Margarita shots w/ chips and salsa) in the rehearsal studio on the sixth floor. The shots were followed by a special performance by some of our ensemble that involved girls dressed as ears of corn, who then stripped out of their “husks” and smeared creamed corn on Justin. Quite a send-off – I’ll try and scam some photos off someone else in the company. Afterwards we headed across the street to the Savoy Bar (in the Georgian Terrace Hotel) for drinks and a concert by Justin. He sang a couple of really nice songs accompanied by Adam and Rick, our keyboard players, on the grand piano in the ballroom. (The night manager of the hotel tried to derail Piper’s carefully laid plans, but the bar’s manager – and our substantial bar tab, I suspect – got him to reconsider.) It was a really nice night & the whole company was sad to see Justin go.

Yesterday was our day off/travel day. We left the hotel at 7:30 AM and arrived in Baltimore around 11:30. We couldn’t check in the hotel until 3 PM, so we had some forced exploration time. I went to lunch with Francesca and most of the wardrobe and hair teams. The concierge at the hotel recommended Mo’s Crab and Pasta Factory for their seafood. The service was a little sketchy, but the food was delicious. I had the first of what I expect to be many crab cakes. It was as big as my fist and served with a mustard sauce. I’ve never had anything like it. Yum, yum, yum. I wasn’t sure I’d need to go on a crab cake tasting tour, but clearly I do. Everyone enjoyed their meal from the sea. After lunch, I had several more hours to kill, so I took a random walk around town. The inner harbor is beautiful. It was a sunny but cool and windy day, so the water looked great, but the wind off the ocean was fierce. Sort of got the lay of downtown Baltimore and found some places to revisit in a more orderly fashion. Near the top of my list is Lexington Market: a sort of cross between farmers’ market and food court. The place was heaven; butchers, candy-makers, oyster bars and Malaysian food all mashed together.

Lexington Market

Today is the long day at the theatre. The crew is mostly finished with the load-in and we’re wrapping up our to-do list. As evidenced by the fact that I’m working on my blog, things are less hectic than the load-in in Atlanta. We’ve plenty of room here at the Hippodrome. It’s also an old vaudeville and movie house, but its backstage areas have been recently enlarged and renovated. It’s now part of a larger performing arts complex called the France-Merrick PAC, but the interior of the Hippodrome looks as it did in the 19-teens. It’s the theatre where Frank Sinatra made his debut as a big band singer (with the Henry James Orchestra) in 1939!

The interior of the Hippodrome

I’m looking forward to exploring Baltimore – there seems to be plenty to do here – and to seeing Sheila Marie this weekend. She’s coming down on the train Friday night!!! I’m also looking forward to going home for the day off. I’ll leave after the show on Sunday night (it’s an early 6:30 curtain) and spend all day Monday in NYC before I take the train back to Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon for the evening show. We're also welcoming another new company member this week: Nigel Columbus starts rehearsal as a swing. A busy week ahead!

JV