Live at Dead Bob's

Tuesday, April 1st (No foolin')

The Bob Carr PAC is affectionately known to the local crew as "Dead Bob's". They have stickers, t-shirts and all sorts of other swag with a pair of skulls (comedy and tragedy, of course) and the phrase "Live at Dead Bob's" written out in bones. Funny stuff. You see the swag everywhere on the road - eventually, every tour will pass through Orlando. The travelling crews pass out swag to our locals (our T-shirts say "It's not the sort of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian.") and the locals often trade some of their swag (most of our crew has an entire wardrobe of black t-shirts with local IATSE logos). So, I've been seeing the "Live at Dead Bob's" stuff for more than a year and, finally, my trunk is adorned with a dancing skulls sticker!

The theatre is built around the bones of the old Orlando Municipal Auditorium. The facade of the older building is preserved inside the lobby of the Bob Carr. The current auditorium was built in the 70's and has a very 70's feel. The stage house had some modernization done in the 90's (I'm sure it was done to allow Phantom to play Orlando) and the result is sort of a mish-moshy feeling backstage. The people of Orlando ate up their Spamalot - the whole run was sold out and we were greeted with enthusiastic ovations every night.

The Bob Carr PAC

The big event of the week, for me, was the arrival on the scene of Sheila Marie! Her visit capped a two month run (since Boston) since we'd seen each other. Of course, between work and family visits we were quite busy. She arrived late on Wednesday night after an eventful plane trip (the flight was delayed, a passenger got ill before they left the ground, the plane returned to the gate and then had to wait to be resupplied before she could leave Newark).

Thursday we drove down to Haines City to have breakfast with the Westfalls. Barb made us pancakes and eggs as well as some of her home grown oranges and grapefruit in a citrus salad. After breakfast Sheila Marie, Donn, Rhoda and I headed west to Lakeland, the home of Tigertown. We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the Florida sunshine as the Tigers punished the Phillies 14-5. The Motor City Kitties looked awesome; their multi-million dollar off-season moves certainly looked, on Thursday, to have paid off. They have a name at nearly every position and have plenty of offense. I'm glad they play in a different division than my Yankees... It was fun to see former Yankee Gary Sheffield staring down the pitcher and murderously waggling his bat again!

JV, SM, Rhoda & Donn at the ballgame.

Joker Marchant Stadium

Joker Marchant Stadium is a cool little facility. With seating for 8,500 folks, it's a big Spring Training park (it's also home to the Flying Tigers - Detroit's A Florida League affiliate). The Tigers and Lakeland have had a long relationship (since 1934) and the park is much more customized to them than any of the other parks I got to visit this spring. The place was packed (with LOTS of Michiganders in attendance) and the home team got an appropriately wild reception.

The gates to Tigertown

SM & JV outside the Stadium

The visit to Tigertown wrapped up my Spring Training Tour - Thursday's game also wrapped up the spring for the Tigers, who were headed north after the game. I packed 7 games into 5 weeks and saw ten of the 18 teams that have their camps in Florida. Not too shabby! All the games were fun and I was fortunate enough not have bad weather for a single game. I got to see the first game of the spring in Fort Myers and one of the last in Lakeland. I saw the defending World Series Champs (and their trophy) as well as the two teams likely to face one another for the American League Pennant (The Yanks and the Tigers). The excitement in all the crowds was cool; in March every team could be the next World Champion and the slate is clean. I also dug how relaxed the players appeared and how human they appear when you're close to the them. When you're watching from the top of the Tier at the Stadium, the players are so far away and small, you can't help but see them as a little more than just guys playing a game, but in the spring they are obviously just that. I look forward to another spring spent chasing ballgames around Florida.

Friday afternoon we had an understudy rehearsal and put Bree Branker into the show, so my time with the Westfalls was limited to breakfast and dinner. All four of them came to see the show Friday night and claimed to enjoy it. After the show, Sheila Marie and I went to Julie Barnes' going away party. We bid Julie farewell at a Tiki bar on Wall Street. Wall Street appears to be Orlando's answer to Bourbon Street; you paid one cover for all the bars and could drink and dance outside. While there wasn't much tiki to be had at the bar, we had a great time hanging out. Things got crazier as the evening progressed and as Tony bought several rounds of shots for the party! As a parting gift to the company, Julie bought us all stickers that read "Julie Bailed on us in Orlando!" with a sunset and palm tree. It was a great gift and they're already on nearly everyone's trunks. Julie will be sorely missed.

To Julie!

Tony passing out some of the 40 shots he bought for the party.

Piper, Patrick, Nigel, Graham, Julie & Brian

Saturday morning we had another family breakfast before I headed to the theatre for a two show day. Once again, the family came to meet me for the between shows meal. Sunday morning we all had one last breakfast together and said our goodbyes as Sheila Marie prepared to fly away. It was great to see her and to see the Westfalls and I feel like we had a really nice visit. As always, the time went by much too fast.

We celebrated Angela's birthday in Orlando with an assortment of cheesecakes. Her daughter was also in town to celebrate her own birthday - on the same day!

I spent the whole week in a hotel on Disney property and never made it to any of the theme parks. We did stroll around Downtown Disney for a hot second on Saturday morning after breakfast and Goofy and Pluto wandered through our breakfast at the hotel that morning - but that's as close to the magic as I got. There was never any doubt about where, exactly, I was, though. All around the hotel it was mob scene: parents and their kids were everywhere. Even after I came home from the show, there would be lines at all the restaurants and you could hear those same families gearing up to go out in the morning. The minivans and suburbans bottled up the freeway everyday and at nearly all hours. Driving in Florida was a challenge in very city, but Orlando might have been the worst. I-4 is the only freeway through town and it's jammed all the time both with the growing local population and the tourists driving too slow while looking for the exit to Universal. That part of Orlando was maddening! As much as I loved my awesome rental car, I'll be happy to be in a hotel across the street from the theatre in Birmingham.

TVFMHRW - Orlando

At the crack of dawn on Monday, I was headed to the airport to return my beloved rental car and board a 7 AM flight to Birmingham. The longed-for six weeks in Florida were over so quickly!

An album of photos is here. We took some more photos with Sheila Marie's camera, I'll add those (and any from Donn & Rhoda) to the snapfish album when I get them.

JV