On the Banks of the Miami - Dayton, OH

Wednesday, April 30th

Downtown Dayton's Skyline (as see from the Miami River)

TVFMHRW - Looking east from the Doubletree

Let me begin by saying that I really enjoyed being back in the Midwest. It is the land of my people. I know these folks and enjoy them. That said, Dayton is not a great city. It's a rust belt city that's trying to revitalize its downtown, but doesn't have the necessary critical mass yet. They've built a beautiful new performing arts center and a nice ballpark. They have a convention center with associated hotels. There's life on the street during the daytime - there are even food tents on the square at lunch time. There are a smattering of restaurants around, but everyone seems to drive in for the event and drive out after. Lots of the Spamily spent the week complaining about the town, but it didn't seem terrible to me.

The Schuster Center. The building opened in 2003 and is the modern counterpart to the Victoria Theatre (a 1919 opera house) that also hosts the performing arts in downtown Dayton.

The ceiling in the theatre features a view of the night sky as it appeared the night of the Wright Brothers first flight.

I arrived Monday and went straight to the ballpark. Fifth Third field is home to the Dayton Dragons (A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds). The second place dragons (behind the Lansing Lugnuts) faced Midwest League rivals the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the first of a three game set. Fifth Third Field (not be confused with the park of the same name that is home to the Toledo Mudhens just up I-75) opened in 2000 and has hosted 8 consecutive sold-out seasons. Sports Illustrated listed Dragons tickets as one of the top ten hottest tickets in professional sports. The park was full on Monday night with an announced attendance well in excess of the 7,230 fixed seats (there is plenty of lawn seating as well as a party deck). I'm happy to say that many of the fans around me were devoted Dragons enthusiasts who knew about the team as well as the individual players and who were genuinely interested in the game.

Fifth Third Field as seen from the rightfield corner.

That is not to say that there wasn't plenty of between innings fun. Nearly every inning had some sort of game or give away along with antics from the team's two mascots: Heater and Gem (Dayton's nickname, inexplicably, is "The Gem City"). The couple who sat next to me was selected to play the "Fast Food Game". They were each given a giant pair of chopsticks and they had to transport various oversize food items to giant takeout containers. Hilarity ensued. I even caught a soft baseball thrown by a character known as "Roof Man" who scampered along the stadium roof in a cape (I gave it to the boy sitting next to me in full Dragon's gear).

Heater

The game itself was fun, if a bit sloppy. The Dragons fell behind early as they allowed a run to score on a wild pitch, but they blew the game open with a couple of big innings late. A lot of the scoring was fueled by wild pitches, errors and other exciting baseball, but it was an enjoyable evening. The home team won 10-3.

There was more rehearsal to be attended to in Dayton. We welcomed the last new cast member for a while: Sarah Lin Johnson. Sarah Lin will replace Piper when Piper leaves us at the end of the week in Milwaukee. Sarah Lin marks the end of the great long line of replacements we've been working on since Providence. Barring disaster, we now have the Spamily we will be living with for a while.

Thursday I took a group south to see the Reds take on the Astros at Great American Ballpark. We met up with Ken's Mom, Barb - who's a big Reds fan, at the game. Great American Ballpark is a cool place to see a game. Situated right on the Ohio River, we could watch the riverboats with their paddlewheels as they plied the river. Our seats in the upperdeck behind homeplate had a great view of the flied and it was a gorgeous day to sit outside. The Reds couldn't get it done, losing 5-3. Ken Griffey, Jr. hit career homerun number 597 the night before, but didn't light up the centerfield power stacks. (A pair of riverboat inspired smoke stacks in centerfield smoke and fire off fireworks with every Reds homerun.) Aside from the Reds losing the game, it was a perfect afternoon at the ballpark.

A sternwheeler on the Ohio past the right-center seats.


Spamily at Great American Ballpark:

Cuz, Angela, Barb, Patrick, Piper, Berg, Brad, JV, Roy, Scott & Jeff


Great American Ballpark. The naming rights are held by the Great American Insurance Group. The side of the park that faces the freeway (the third base line) is inscribed with the sign-off line of the Reds' legendary player and broadcaster, Joe Nuxhall: "rounding third and headed for home..." I'm not a Reds fan and I never heard the man deliver the line, but that really struck the baseball nostalgia chord in me. The Reds did a great job incorporating all kinds of things like that (bits of their old ballparks, a Reds hall of fame and all kinds of Cincinnati-ania) into their new home.

On the way back to Dayton, I talked my carload into stopping for Skyline Chili. Neither Roy nor Patrick had ever tried this southern Ohio specialty. We all enjoyed a plate of the sweet chili over spaghetti.

There was precisely one roadfood establishment in Dayton. I couldn't let that one get away. Friday, after understudy rehearsal, Graham drove Karl, David and I out to the Pine Club. The Pine Club is an old school Midwestern supper club. The interior transported us back to about 1957. The specialty of the house is steak. We all ordered various cuts of beef that made us grunt happily as we dug in. We also had great salads, veggies and a creation known as Lyonnaise Potatoes: a hash brown cake with sauteed onions inside - delightful. I think we all would have rather napped than gone back to work, but we powered through!

Flyover by David Evans Black. This sculpture sits in the middle of Main Street and tracks the flight of the Wright Brothers' first powered flight on the 17th of December, 1903. It's 120' long and arches ten feet from end to end.

As always, the weekend went by in a flash; four shows and a load-out. Wayne and Ben hosted shot night in Dayton. We all enjoyed soju, a Korean vodka (Ben's wife, Annie, is Korean). The soju came with various condiments: cucumber, strawberries, etc. and took on the flavor of whichever condiment you put in it. I tried the soju with cucumber - it was tasty but VERY strong. Shot night went international!

I left Dayton on Sunday night on a baseball inspired road trip. I drove as far as Lebanon, IN on Sunday night and awoke under sunny skies on Monday morning. Shortly after I passed Lafayette, IN the sky began to darken and before I reached I-90 rain began to come down in sheets. I reached US Cellular Field on the southside of Chicago around 11:30 hoping for a break in the weather so I could see the White Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles. It was clear, though, that they day was going to be cold, wet and miserable so I pressed on toward Wisconsin. As I passed the Loop, it was raining so hard that I could barely make out downtown Chicago and the top of the Sears Tower was enshrouded.

US Cellular Field through my rainy windshield. They ended up playing 11 innings of the game, after a rain delay of more than 2 hours, before the field became absolutely unplayable and the game had to be suspended (to pick up with the top of the 12th inning in August).

The trip wasn't a total washout - just over the Illinois/Wisconsin border I made a stop at Mars' Cheese Castle! I enjoyed a lunch of summer sausage, swiss and mustard on rye along with a ginger ale and piece of homemade apple pie with cheddar cheese melted on top. It was the perfect meal for a cold and rainy day. I also picked up some cheese curds for Francesca to try. I finished the drive across the Nation's Dairyland and was ensconced in my room at the Milwaukee Hyatt by three in the afternoon (the White Sox game had just gotten underway in the rain and snow - I'm glad I skipped it).

JV outside the Cheese Castle

I enjoyed my week in Dayton. I found plenty to do there - I wish I'd gotten out to see some of the Wright Brothers sights - and would be interested to check back in five years or so and see how their downtown is coming along.

An album of photos can be found here.

JV

And the Winner Is...

Wednesday, April 30th

The Spamily voted and chose a victor in the Battle of the Beards.
And the winner is: Tony Pittsley!

Congratulations, my friend. Your fabulous prize will arrive shortly.

JV

Battle of the Beards - Judgement Day

Sunday, April 27th

7 men remain in the Battle. Their photos have been placed on the call board and ballots made available to the company. It's judgement day.

Mike Berg:

Cuz:

Ryan DeQuaine:

Keith Martin:

Tony Pittsley:

JV:

Mark Vlahos:

There they are. Form your own opinion. The victor will be announced this evening.

JV

Exciting Realization!

Saturday, April 26th

It occurs to me that in my journey from Dayton to Milwaukee I will be passing right by the world famous Mars' Cheese Castle! (Anyone who might want to read more about this temple to all things Wisconsin and cultured dairy could look here http://www.marscheese.com/ .)

I am now accepting orders.

JV

Raleigh - Performance #500

April 25th

The week in Raleigh was a relatively quiet one. We put-in our newest ensemble member, Richard Costa, so there was a fair amount of rehearsal to be attended to.

Karl and I drove from Greenville to Raleigh on Monday morning. The 270 mile trip took us past the "Gaffney Peach":

The peach is a one million gallon water tower built by the city of Gaffney, SC. Gaffney is home to the South Carolina Peach Festival each year and wants to remind all the motorists along I-85 that South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia. Fun facts: the "stem" of the peach is 12 feet tall and the "leaf" is 60' long and weighs more than 7 tons.

I picked out a roadfood destination for our afternoon meal. We stopped at the A&M Grill in Mebane, NC for some Carolina Barbecue. We both ordered chopped barbecue plates and were very happy with the tangy vinegar barbecue. Roadfood scored again!

In Raleigh, I stayed at the Candlewood Suites. I love the Candlewood chain. All the rooms are like efficiency apartments - they come equipped with a full size fridge, microwave and a two burner stove. The Candlewood chain also provides a grill in the outdoor gazebo. The chance to cook for myself comes all too rarely, so I like to Candlewood very much. There are other little things that I dig about the chain: each room has a cork board where I can tack up pictures, postcards and the weekly schedule, the "Candlewood Cupboard" is a tiny convenience store in the lobby that's open 24 hours, and there's always a comfy easy chair and DVD player in each room. It's also true that the chain is a chain and every Candlewood looks exactly like every other Candlewood and the hotels are often far from the city center, but it's a safe bet that if there's a Candlewood on offer, I'm going to stay in it. Staying in a Candlewood also often means a quieter week for me: there's no hotel bar (the socializing happens around the grill and in the outdoor gazebo) and the drive home after the show often means that I just go home.

TVFMHRW - Raleigh

This one's not very glamorous...

After the long day at the theatre, loading in and teaching the show on opening night, I decided to get out and enjoy the outdoors on the beautiful day that was Wednesday. We've been following the outbreak of spring northward since we left Florida. Everything was still brilliant spring green in North Carolina and the early flowers were still around. The daffodils were fading, but the tulips were still in bloom and the flowering trees were beautiful. I went for a walk in Umstead State Park. Located near the Raleigh Durham Airport, the park is a 5,500 acres oasis of calm. The sounds of I-40 and US-70, which border the park, fade away among the lakes, streams and woodlands. I hiked for 2 1/2 hours mostly following a stream that connected Big Lake to Sycamore Lake. The dogwoods were in bloom throughout the woods, their big white blossoms were beautiful. There were fish of all sizes in the stream and a few turtles as well, while butterflies floated along overhead.

Wild Dogwoods

The stream I hiked along goes over this tiny waterfall. It was so peaceful, I wanted to lay down for a nap beside the stream.

Thursday morning Roy, Gurr, Suzanne and I made another roadfood pilgrimage. We drove a half an hour over toward Chapel Hill to the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen. It's a little drive through joint that serves nothing but its namesake biscuits. Plain, with gravy, with honey or made into sandwiches, these biscuits were delightful. I ordered one with a pork chop and one with country ham, cheese and an egg. I was not disappointed. The four of us sat on the curb next to our cars and raved about these biscuits. We walked back up to the window to get some more to take home with us. I wish I had remembered my camera...

This photo of the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen is stolen from roadfood.com. A steady stream of cars kept passing through the drive through while we sat in the parking lot.

There was some more good dining in Raleigh. Our traditional load-in lunch convened at the Mecca Restaurant: a 1930's classic that served a great meat 'n three. Karl and I had a big country breakfast at Big Ed's in the City Market, the former site of Raleigh's farmers' market has be repurposed as home to galleries, restaurants and shopping. Erik recommended the pulled pork sandwich at Cookout, another drive through, and I made a dash for this piece of Carolina-style barbecue with Roy between shows on Sunday. The locals all recommended Cooper's BBQ; Wayne and I stopped in before a show and while the pork was tender and tasty, Cooper's serves their pulled pork without sauce and I missed the tang. Roy, Angela and I shared a meal at Yancy's where I finally got to taste Shrimp and Grits - I finally know what all the fuss is about! The local Fire Marshall took Berg I out to the Mayflower Seafood restaurant between shows on Saturday where we ordered up 20 oysters for $9.99!

I didn't get to explore too much of Raleigh. I spent Thursday and Friday in rehearsal and then the two show days ate up the weekend. I did like the theatre, though. The Raleigh Memorial Auditorium has a great deal of character. While it wasn't the easiest venue to play, I much prefer the theatres that have some history to the newer, more cookie cutter, venues. The Memorial Auditorium opened in 1932. The facade of the building was constructed in the Greek Revival style with enormous columns. The current facade is actually a duplicate of the older one. When the building was renovated in 1990, what was the front of the building was enclosed in glass to create a large, airy lobby and a copy of the facade was added on outside the glass. A concert hall, smaller opera theatre and black-box space were added on and the whole complex was renamed The Progress Energy Center for the Arts. The interior of the Auditorium was left alone, and it might be the most striking feature of the building. The seats are arranged in the very old fashioned auditorium style. A great bank of seats faces the stage without a balcony. The first third has small slope, the second third a more dramatic angle and the final third has a steep rake. On either side are a section of seats that face the center of the auditorium. I suspect that the first two sections of seats were originally removable so the room could play host to banquets and dancing. It reminded me very much of MSU's Auditorium. Looking out at the room from the stage was a little startling as a good portion of the 2,200 seats (all of which were sold) weren't facing you!

Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

The view out into the auditorium. Many in the cast likened it to the mega-churches you sometimes see televangelists preaching in.

Sunday marked my 500th performance of Spamalot. That's 63 weeks on tour and 40 cities. I've lost count of the number of planes, trains and automobiles I've employed along the journey. Lately I'm involved in the rehearsing and putting-in of people taking over for people that I helped rehearse and put-in. We bid farewell to Jonathan Brody in Raleigh. He was one of the first ensemble members I helped put-in (in Atlanta). His replacement, Richard Costa, came to us from the Vegas company (which just posted their closing notice for June - meaning the tour can finally book dates in California and Arizona, though I'd have to hold on until late 2009 or 2010 before those dates are likely to appear on the itinerary), so his put-in was quite painless.

The weekend was a bit dramatic. There was an on-stage mishap resulting from an actor's mistake on Saturday afternoon. Though no one was injured and the show was not noticeably affected, there were some heated words exchanged backstage and things were quite tense for the rest of the day. On Sunday, our automation fouled during the Find Your Grail number leaving the mountain and the grail lift stuck on stage. In the effort to get the heavy pieces (the grail lift alone weighs more than a ton) off-stage, Justin (our head carpenter) injured his ankle. As we struggled to get the equipment repaired during the intermission, it became clear that Justin was too badly hurt to continue working on the deck during the second act and we had to finish the show down a man. Of course, load-out immediately follows the Sunday evening show and Justin's injury also meant that he couldn't head-up the load-out as usual. He took the early bus to Dayton (a ten hour ride) in an effort to rest his ankle and be ready to load-in on the other end. It was a stressful weekend and I was glad to put it behind me.

We did find time for some Spamily socializing amidst the weekend's excitement. Terry hosted shot night with a concoction called a "Duck Fart". Consisting of Kaluha, Bailey's and Crown Royal, it's a tasty shot that packs an unexpected punch. As always, we were all glad for the chance to hoist a shot and be reminded that we enjoy one another's company.

TJT prepares "Duck Farts" on the loading dock.

While the crew rode sleeper busses to Dayton, I opted to fly with the cast. Monday morning I was up early to return my rental car and board the first of two flights that would finally carry me away from the land of country ham, biscuits and barbecue and back into the land of my people. For the next several weeks I'll be reporting from the Midwest! I may even see a Meijer again. There's some baseball on the horizon, too...

JV

Battle of the Beards - End of Week #3 Update

Tuesday, April 22nd

We're in the home stretch now - one week left in the Battle of the Beards! Only the truly serious combattants remain:

Battle Master Terry


Some have accused Jason of doping as he comes to look more and more like Captain Cave Man


Cuz



Berg


Mark


Tony

JV

Keith

Ryan

Next week, the battle comes to its exciting conclusion. Who will be crowned the victor?

JV

Seriously

Friday, April 18th

There is a guy on the rail called "Fruit Cup".
The Stage Left Local Propman is "Cheddar".

I couldn't make those up.

JV

Southern Charm-ing

Wednesday, April 16th

Greenville was great. In fact, I had only one complaint during my stay in Greenville (and it was a small one), so let's get that out the way first thing:

TVFMHRW - Greenville. Atrium view; nice if you want to see who's eating what at the breakfast buffet or who's still at the lobby bar, but not so good for sunlight or determining how to dress in the morning.

That's it, everything else I have to say about last week is positive. Greenville is certainly my favorite of the recent cities and makes the list of best tour stops. The Peace Center (named for the the Peace family who donated the seed money) is a nice facility. It was built on the banks of the Reedy River on the former site of several milling operations. In fact, the dressing rooms and executive offices are located in the shell of a former textile mill. While that did make for some weird dressing rooms, it did mean that our corner office had lots of windows with views of the river!

The Peace Center


TVFOOW - The Reedy River


Sunset on the Reedy as seen from our office window


The cherry trees behind the theatre were in full bloom!

Behind the theatre, the Reedy River encounters a series of waterfalls (hence the development of all manner of mills). Just downstream from the Peace Center is the largest of the falls, home to Falls Park on the Reedy. The park sits on both banks of the river and contains an amphitheatre, terraced gardens, gliders, lawns and a striking suspension bridge. Liberty Bridge is a 300' single suspension span that curves around the dramatic falls. It's towers are tilted away from the falls and the single suspension cable runs along the side opposite the falls, leaving the view unobstructed. It's a really cool structure and centerpiece to the beautiful park. Spring was in full swing last week with all kinds of trees in bloom along with the pansies and tulips in the garden. The lawns were bright green and inviting. People were everywhere in the park; picnicking, wading in the river and just relaxing in the gliders and swings.

Liberty Bridge at Falls Park as seen from below near the river's edge


JV and the falls

I ate in a different restaurant for every meal in Greenville and still left a large part of the selection untried! We had sushi for our load-in lunch. I ate ribs with Team Wardrobe and Indian with our Company Managers. I also enjoyed a fancy dinner with Karl and David at the restaurant in the Wyndham as well as a "new Southern" brunch at Soby's. I never made it into the Thai place or either of the Mexican restaurants and it says something that I didn't sample the wares of the "Hot Dog King" catty corner from the theatre! My stomach enjoyed Greenville very much!

After our opening night performance, Casbah (a local restaurant) hosted an opening night party for us. On my way home from the party, I stopped in to hang out with the crew boys as they thew darts and unwound from the load-in. We had a good time playing shuffleboard and hanging out at Barley's Taproom (more than 70 beers on tap). I was headed back up Main Street for the hotel when a bunch of the Spamily ambushed me from inside City Tavern and lured me inside for another night cap. The signature drink of City Tavern is an alcoholic slushie (forever known to me as hang-over-in-a-cup). Hilarity ensued.

Piper & Berg's belly

Paddy, JV & Bree

Greenville marked the final week of performances for another of our ensemble members: Brian O'Brien. We can't just let someone leave quietly around here, so Piper (our self-proclaimed "Cruise Director" - I wonder who will arrange her going away party in Milwaukee?) arranged a pub crawl to bi Brian farewell. It was a five stop affair with about a half an hour scheduled in each establishment. The five bars covered all the bases: Irish bar (his name is O'Brien after all), dive bar (complete with beer pong), brew pub, tap house and alcoholic slushies. I, of course, took photos:

Brian traveling between stops. Someone tied this "Happy 21st Birthday" baloon to his belt loop...


Piper lines up her Beer Pong shot

Just as the show came down on Friday night, the heavens opened in a massive spring time thunder storm. It was pouring buckets outside with plenty of thunder and lightening. Rather than make the trek up main street in the deluge, teams Company & Stage Management decided to watch the storm and hope it slowed down. Karl got a bottle of wine out of his roadbox, Brian O'Brien found a string of Christmas lights to string up and we turned off the office lights and watched it storm. About the time we all finished our glass of wine, the storm slowed down and we were able to get back to the hotel.

Brian in front of our rain-streaked office window

As his own farewell to the company, Brian hosted shot night. He didn't just make shots, however. He hosted a full on party in the rehearsal studio. Brian made pomegranate margaritas in an empty five gallon water jug, he sliced limes for Coronas, had music playing and set up a flip cup table in the center of the room! We played several rounds of flip cup and introduced the game to a bunch of new players.

Ken pours himself a margarita


Angelina had a hard time downing her shot of beer


Ryan anchors his team to a win, while Graham feels the agony of defeat

After shot night, many of us progressed up the street to the Marble Slab Creamery for an ice cream social.

Tim brought along a "to go cup" to the ice cream social


Tera-Lee and her sundae

Greenville has been working on revitalizing their downtown since the 60's (when they narrowed Main Street and landscaped it). The effort has taken many forms, but one of the most fun is the "Mice on Main" installation. A local high school senior came up with the idea and raised the necessary funds to install 9 small bronze mice along the length of Main Street. The idea is based on the children's book Goodnight, Moon. There are clues as to where to find the mice and it becomes a fun hunt to find all nine!

Mice on Main - this is Mouse #1 with a bronze copy of Goodnight, Moon

The revitalization has spread to the other side of the Reedy River as well. The West End - another former warehouse and milling district - is continuing the Main Street shopping, dining and strolling. The anchor for this part of the development is Fluor Field at the West End, home of the Greenville Drive. The Drive are the single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and their new home is a mini-Fenway. West End Stadium has the same dimensions of the storied Boston ballpark complete with "Pesky's Pole" along the rightfield line and a 30' "green monster" in left field with a hand operated scoreboard in the wall. Though the drive were out of town all week, I took a walk to the park and peered through the fence. It looks like quite a place to see a game. I'm told that the Drive sell quite well despite the fact that they sing Sweet Caroline - which is oddly more appropriate in South Carolina than Massachusetts...

It was a fun week in Greenville, I was sad to leave this great town. On Monday, Karl and I split a rental car for the 4 hour drive to Raleigh, NC. The Spamalot tour of state capitols continues!

The week in photos can be found here.

JV

Battle of the Beards - End of Week #2 Update

Sunday, April 13th

Our Battlemaster:

Terry shaved off most of his iconic beard this week, but he remains our inspiration and Battlemaster.

Mitchell wants to point out that he was WAY ahead before he trimmed his beard back.


Jason just emerged from a cave...


Mark is back in the game. This is one week's growth, people.


Cuz


Ryan is looking more and more like his old self.

Tony

Keith is keeping his trimmed

Berg

David


Graham is back in the game -he had to appear in the show last week - but has rejoined the battle.


Nigel hasn't been on since Tuesday, so he, too, has joined the battle.


Ken shaved right after last week's photo, but knowing that today was photo day, he let a two-day growth come in.

I'm undecided about my beard. Suzanne has an idea for how to make it more presentable.

We'll see.

More next Sunday!

JV

The Manlift

Friday, April 11th

Of all the blogs I've posted, few have generated as much interest as the few lines I devoted last week to Ken on the manlift. So, I give you, fair reader, a gift:

While I don't have video of Ken's travels up the lift, I did get some video of his reappearance after his rescue.

Enjoy -

JV

The Way A Travel Day Should Be

Wednesday, April 9th

Birmingham, AL to Greenville, SC - a trip of only 400 miles, but we may as well have crossed an ocean it made such a difference.

10AM - some 20 Spamily members assemble and board the "Alabama Limo" outside the Sheraton. We drag suitcases, duffels and assorted other containers with us to the bus. We're on I-20 heading east by 10:30 after picking up at the other hotel.

We ran into some traffic around the Alabama/Georgia state line. They're mowing the median and we're stuck behind the mowing crew; cruising along at 20 MPH. I don't care: Karl and I are watching The Aristocrats on DVD and laughing our butts off. We're laughing so much that I'm pretty sure we were distracting the bus driver (good thing we're going 20 MPH).

The rest of the Spamily is passing the time as we often do on the bus:

Chris checks his email


David sleeps


I don't know what Tim is doing


T.L. watches a movie

With the time change, we passes downtown Atlanta around 2 PM. We cruised right by Turner Field, Peachtree Sheet, the State Capitol and Mary Mac's Tearoom. My heart grieved for the Flying Biscuit and all the other goodies I enjoyed just a bit more than a year ago. I settled back down into my seat and tried to put these thoughts out of my mind.

Just after we passed through to the other side of Atlanta, the bus slowed and pulled off the freeway. I was surveying my food options: a Taco Bell, a sit-down Mexican place and a Pizza Hut passed by my window before I heard someone ask: "What's the Varsity?" My heart leapt! This appeared out the window:

The Varsity! Earlier in the week, I had teased Karl that the bus should stop at the Varsity for lunch - but had been only kidding. Obviously, it wasn't a great idea to try and negotiate downtown in a tour bus and then to drop everyone without anything very healthful to eat. I continued to tease Karl, but never dared to dream... Turns out, Karl google-searched the Varsity and found this location that was right along our route. Karl and David had known for two days that this was the plan and had kept it as a surprise for me. I hugged Karl and danced off the bus and into chili-dog & fried pie bliss (with a cup of frozen orange).

Hooray!!!


David, JV & Karl


The Spamily outside the Varsity with our paper hats


Even Missy got in on the act!

After the pig-out, it was back on the bus for a couple more hours of travel. The country-side passing outside our window was pretty. Everything was bright, spring green. The redbud, dogwoods and other trees had bright blossoms.

Still and all, I was glad to see the "Welcome to South Carolina" sign:

We arrived in Greenville around 5 PM. I checked in and unpacked at the Hyatt before I made a brief venture outside to find the theatre and a wine shop. I bought a couple of bottles of wine and took in Greenville's Main Street. It's adorable: lined with restaurants, shops, art, fountains and general cuteness. As Ken succinctly put it: "After Birmingham, this place it Paris."

I was back in my hotel room in time for the bottom half of the first inning of the Yankee's game. I ordered up some room service, opened a bottle of wine ("7 Deadly Zins" - tasty) and settled in to watch the Yankees destroy the Rays. A great way to wrap up a great travel day!

JV

A Week in the Magic City

Monday, April 7th

It is safe to say that Birmingham was not one of my favorite cities. However, a week to sleep in and take it easy was welcome. That said, there were still highlights to be found.

The travel day from Orlando to Birmingham SUCKED. We were booked on a 7 AM Southwest flight from Orlando International. I left the hotel at 4:45 AM - this is when the suckiness began. I was at the airport slightly after 5 AM. I had a Hertz rental car to return; after I circled the airport the second time, it became apparent that the Hertz "airport" location was not, actually, at the airport. I followed a sign pointing to the airport exit and began to get a little concerned. Once I found the Hertz location, things went well but took time. It was quarter 'til six when the shuttle bus dropped me off at the terminal. The line at the Southwest counter was, literally, out the door. I checked in around 6:15 and dropped my bags at the bomb sniffing machine. When I reached the security screening, my heart sank - the line was enormous. It was nearly seven by the time I made it through security and boarded the tram for my gate. I finally boarded the plane right around the time it was scheduled to take off. I was not the last person to board, nearly a dozen came after me - we held at the gate for more than 15 minutes after the scheduled take-off time, but my heart didn't recover until we were on the ground in Birmingham. After we landed, I relaxed at breakfast with Karl and Wayne - all this before 9 AM (with the change to central time).

I spent Monday afternoon playing tourist with Wayne and Roy. For weeks before we arrived in Birmingham, Wayne had been talking about Vulcan, the giant statue that sits on Red Mountain above town. Created for the 1904 for World's Fair, Vulcan is the largest cast-iron statue in the world. He's 56 feet tall and sits atop a 126' tower built of local sandstone by the WPA. Vulcan was created to advertise Birmingham's thriving iron industry and growing industrial might. Around the turn of the century, Birmingham became a major production center for iron; the coal, limestone and iron ore in the mountains of the region came together with the newly constructed railroads to make the city grow "as if by magic" and gave the city it's nickname: "The Magic City". We rode the elevator to Vulcan's observation deck and took in the view of Birmingham before we visited the adjacent museum that detailed the history of both the monument and the city.

Vulcan

Roy looks out at Birmingham from atop Vulcan

Vulcan used to hold this torch - it normally glowed green, but turned red whenever there was a traffic fatality. The torch was replaced with a replica of his original spear when he was restored in the 90's.

After our visit to Vulcan, we cast about a bit for something else to do. We happened upon the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. The Furnaces are the ruins of the Sloss Iron Factory and are open to the public as a self-guided walking tour. The industrial ruins are magnificent and gigantic in scale. The signs took us through the process of smelting iron into pigs that could then be shipped off and turned into finished products. We climbed around on the steam shovels, looked at the air turbines that fed the furnace and peered into the furnace. The place was truly fascinating.

The Sloss Furnaces

JV on a Steam shovel

Tuesday was, of course, devoted to load-in. We played the Concert Hall of the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center. The Concert Hall is one part of the a complex that also includes two Convention Center Exhibit Halls, a smaller Theater, 19,000 seat Arena, Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, meeting rooms and the Birmingham Municipal Auditorium. It turns out that the Concert Hall is undergoing front of house renovations. The lobby was a construction zone complete with scaffolding, a trench in the floor, plastic sheeting over sections of the seating area and a pile of broken concrete. This also meant that the elevators in the building were out of service. Of course, this made load-in a challenge. Things were further complicated by the theatre's inept manager. He failed to secure the proper permits for the show's pyrotechnics, meaning that all the pyro had to be cut. Just before show time, the manager showed up in our office with the Fire Marshall. He introduced the Marshall to me and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Nice to meet you."
Marshall: "I just wanted to make sure y'all weren't planning to use any pyro effects tonight."
Me: "No, sir. I don't believe we even have any pyro in the building."
Marshall: "If any pyro gets fired in here tonight, somebody's going to jail."
(Looks meaningfully at me.)
Me: "OK."
Marshall: "I'm going to a concert on the other side of town and I don't want to have to come back here."
Me: "I don't either, sir."
Marshall: "My office takes these things very seriously."

Seriously?!?!

The rest of the night was uneventful. The show went well: there was no pyro or jail-going. Of course, there was a language barrier that had to be overcome backstage: the stagehands were speaking Southern and I was speaking Yankee. Often we could barely communicate. It was a mutual misunderstanding - they couldn't understand me any better than I could them, but we muddled through.

The Concert Hall at BJCC

While we were there, the Convention Center and our hotel (the Sheraton across the street) played host to the Regional Metalform Convention, a sporting goods store regional meeting, a country music concert and the Birmingham Boat Show. As busy as the BJCC was, there were few places to eat nearby. The Subway across the street had lines out the door at lunch time and the hotel restaurant was the only other option. Yikes.

TVFMHRW - Birmingham

Sunrise VFMHRW - The time difference meant that Sheila and I were often having our morning conversation at dawn.

Wednesday I met up with some of the boys and we headed up to Birmingham's "cool neighborhood": Five Points. It's a historic neighborhood with a five pointed intersection, a record shop, a Starbucks and several restaurants and bars. While it was cooler than the other parts of Birmingham available to us, Greenwich Village it was not. We enjoyed a meal at Jim 'n Nicks BBQ. The barbecue was tasty and the company was great.

Berg eats his masterpiece: an onion ring covered in queso with jalapenos

I resumed the roadfood tour on Thursday with a trip to Niki's West with Gurr and Suzanne - Gurr was nice enough to drive. Niki's is a cafeteria across the street from the Birmingham Produce Market (sort of like Hunt's Point Terminal in the Bronx) that is justifiably famous for it's vegetable sides. The choice of sides seemed endless and choosing just four was a challenge. Eventually, I settled on stewed okra, candied beets, piccalilli and turnip greens to go with my meatloaf - delicious. We all left in a food coma (thanks, in no small part to three kinds of pie).

Gurr and Suzanne with our bounty

The rest of the week was uneventful until Sunday. The BJCC is home to the last operating man lift in the country. A man lift is a vertical conveyor belt with hand-holds and platforms for a person to stand on. The lift at the BJCC carries one from the stage floor up to the fly rail, then on to the loading platform and the grid (more than 100' straight up without any safety railing). I took a ride on the lift - giggling all the way to the fly rail. Then, we convinced Ken to take a ride. He took off up the lift, as he reached the fly floor we heard: "Make it stop! Make it stop! Help!" Ken missed the fly floor and was headed up to the grid and into the darkness. We got the thing stopped, but Ken was stuck between levels clinging to the belt. Nate went up the lift and helped Ken to safety.

That's it folks - my boss nearly dying was one of the highlights of the week. Bree Branker made her debut in the ensemble. David Havasi joined the company (he'll replace Brian O'Brien). Casey Nicholaw (our Choreographer) visited, saw two shows and gave notes. We packed up the circus.

The album of photos is here.

JV

Battle of the Beards - End of Week #1 Update

Sunday, April 6th

Battle Master Terry

It's been a week since a good portion of the off-stage men of Spamalot have put a razor to their face. Six guys wimped out and gave up before the competition even got going, but many of us are left:

JV

David

Ken

Jason - Obviously, that's not all Jason (he does work in the hair department)

Mitchell

Ryan

Keith

Berg

Cuz

Tony

Jeff

Roy

And Special Guest: Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot's Choreographer - in town to see the show)

The six drop-outs: Karl, Scott, Wayne, Mark, Justin and Nate - SHAME!!!

JV

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