Boston (Again)

I took the, earlier, crew flight to Boston and dashed to the cab stand at Logan airport.  I dropped my bags at the Holiday Inn, jumped on the T and was having lunch with some of my best friends just about an hour after my plane touched down in Beantown.  The arrival in every new city should be as much fun as a meal at Jacob Wirth with Shannon, Spencer, Erin & Cody!  Shannon, of course, is a student at Emerson University and the others were in town to celebrate Shannon's 21st birthday with her.  Shannon's birthday was Tuesday, so we took her out for dinner and then went bowling on Monday night to countdown the hours until she was of legal drinking age.  At midnight, we celebrated with a round of shots.

Shannon takes aim at a birthday strike

Shannon's legal!  A round of celebratory kamikazes

Monday night was just the start of the week's celebrations.  I went out every night in Boston.  Having good friends around in one of my favorite cities made for a really great week. 

I detailed my affection for the Colonial Theatre in a previous post, but it bears repeating.  The building is beautiful and the crew is one of the best in the business.  The whole experience at the Colonial was great.  I can't think of a better place to celebrate my 700th performance of Spamalot. In fact, the same night that I marked my personal milestone, we welcomed Spamlot's director, Mike Nichols.  Mike made the trip up to see the show and give notes to the assembled company for the first time since Philadelphia  in the spring of last year.  I think it was great for the company to hear from one of the show's original creators.  In general, he seemed pleased with the performance.  Most of his notes were about shaking off entrenched habits, keeping things fresh and remembering that the words of the Pythons are funny even without the little filigrees and additions of our individual performers. 

We welcomed another new company member in Boston.  Alexa Glover joined us and started rehearsal to replace Jen Rias.  Alexa rehearsed at the Jeanette Neil Studios (coincidentally, the same studio where we rehearsed Jen Rias in the first place!) near the Boston Garden.  Spamalot has rehearsed at the Jeanette Neil Studio in each of its three engagements in Boston - it's become almost as much of a second home as the Colonial!

The view from the studio window

For reasons that are unclear to me, the studio has a series of squirrel figurines in one of their closets - we used one of them to mark center the day I was in rehearsal

Sheila Marie arrived in Boston on Thursday night for a weekend long visit.  Her visits certainly brighten up the tour for me, but they are also anticipated with affection by some other members of the company.  On Friday night, a bunch of us crossed Tremont Street to Intermission Tavern for some socializing.  Intermission is the unofficial gathering place of the crew in Boston as it is owned by the Colonial's House Prop Man, Mike.  Mike's got one of the best gigs in showbiz:  he's got an office just off-stage left at the Colonial and another at the end of the bar across the street from the stage door!

Mike holds court at Intermission Tavern

Saturday night, we took Shannon to the Oak Bar at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel for one last round of celebratory birthday drinks.  The Oak Bar is a very nice hotel bar.  There was a four piece jazz combo playing in front of the windows overlooking Copley Square.  I've really come to like fancy hotel bars - they feel so civilized!  We had an absolutely marvelous evening, until it was time to leave.  The public transit system in Boston closes around midnight, meaning that everyone is trying to get a cab to take them home when the bars start to close.  It was anarchy in the streets!  It took us almost 40 minutes to get a cab (after several were poached by people running up the street) and then people were literally jumping out into the street trying to get our cab to stop for them.  I've never seen anything like that before...

Shannon and SME at the Oak Bar

As I find myself writing on this blog so often: Sunday came too quickly.  I arrived at the Colonial to find that the crew had unloaded many of the empty dollies, boxes and hampers into Allen's Alley for the load-out to follow the second show.  Sheila Marie bought me some breakfast and I had to say good-bye to her in the Dunkin' Donuts (we'll see each other quite soon, Spamalot has another lay-off coming up in two weeks).  I shared the between-shows-meal with Shannon and Spencer before I had to say good-bye to them as well.   After the show, there was the usual packing up and loading-out.  It was especially hard to leave the Colonial; after all the work of cramming us in there, it's a shame we couldn't stay longer.

The alley was full of all manner of things Spamalot - I secretly enjoy when we have this sort of box call, who (but our crew) can tell what's Spamalot and what's garbage piled next to the dumpster?

A few extra photos before I wrap up this entry:

The traditional VFMHRW - I stayed in Somerville (just across the Charles from Boston).  While the neighborhood was no great shakes, I enjoyed riding the T to work every day.  The view was cool (past the Bunker Hill Monument) and a few minutes of time to listen to the IPod and just zone out was refreshing.

TVFMHRW (Alternate Take)

Shannon and Spencer made cookies!  The sugar cookies were intricately frosted in all manner of designs.  Shannon sent me back to the Holiday Inn with a travel bag of, much appreciated, goodies.

My desk as it appeared on Saturday.  Scott bought the flag for me in Norfolk; a sports fan store was going out of business and he picked up all manner of Spartan gear for me!  I didn't get to see the football game (and I might be glad about that, the way it turned out), but I cheered the Spartans on in my heart.  I'm excited that they've earned themselves a bowl berth, nonetheless.

From Boston, it was on to Pittsburgh for the Thanksgiving week!

JV