Christmas week in Des Moines was quiet and quite lovely. I had nice memories of Des Moines from our previous engagement there in the summer of ’07 and looked forward to our return.
Once again, Spamalot played the Des Moines Civic Center. The Civic Center was just as I remembered it. The sea of seats in stripes of primary colors was still there. The welcoming and enthusiastic audience was still there. It was a very pleasant place to return to – even our strange locker room of an office felt pleasantly familiar.
The Des Moines Civic Center
The auditorium at the Des Moines Civic Center
Most of the company was also booked into the same hotel as in our previous trip: the lovely Renaissance Savery. The hotel is still undergoing the renovations that were underway last time, but they were less intrusive than they were in ’07. The staff was just as nice as I remembered them being: gracious and accommodating. My room was spacious and quite nice. The hotel is also only a block away from the Civic Center – a welcome feature both in the summer’s heat and the winter’s cold.
TVFMHRW - that's the Civic Center just across the park!
Load-in was a snap. It’s always easier to put the big skit back into a theatre we’ve been in before… Tuesday’s opening night performance went off without a hitch. The Des Moines presenters welcomed us back with an opening night party at the Court Street Brewery. Most of the company turned out for our first opening night party in months – free beer and food are always welcome!
We had no show on Wednesday as it was Christmas Eve, giving us a rare mid-week day off. In the afternoon I went shopping with Karl for supplies for the Christmas Eve party he was to host in his suite that evening. Sheila Marie arrived later in the afternoon to begin a long holiday stay on the road with me. It is ALWAYS so good to see her, but to be able to spend nearly two weeks together at the holidays was heaven.
The company threw us quite a Christmas Eve party. It began with cocktails in one of the hotel’s ballrooms. Cocktails flowed right into dinner (free booze and food are always welcome). Many people had some of their loved ones join the Spamily for Christmas. Matthew Greer (Lancelot) was joined by his wife and two young children – to have kids about made it feel even more like Christmas. (I did miss spending Christmas Eve with Kari, Paul. William and Sydney as I have for the last several years – watching kids at Christmas is a lot of fun…)
Nigel and Graham enjoy a cocktail (Graham injured his knee at our final performance in Fayetteville)
Ken entertains Matthew's daughter before dinner begins
Francesca and Ken at dinner
After dinner, the party moved upstairs to Karl’s suite. As we were in Des Moines, the Presidential Suite really means something – we all imagined Barack celebrating his win in the Iowa Caucuses in the same room in which we welcomed Christmas. The suite was appropriately decorated complete with a Christmas tree about which we piled all out Secret Santa gifts. Mike Berg arrived costumed as Santa Claus to get the gift giving underway. Gifts were passed out, Secret Santas were revealed and even a few carols were sung. A good time was had by all.
Our Christmas tree heaped with gifts from our Secret Santas
Berg-y Claus with some of the boys
My Secret Santa, Scott, was very kind to me. I found a couple of nice cigars under the tree...
Michael and James at the keys as we gathered to sing some carols
The next morning, Sheila Marie and I celebrated Christmas in our room. We opened the gifts that had been shipped to me on the road and that she had squeezed into her suitcase. We called our loved ones and had a quiet day until we finally emerged from the room for some dinner in the hotel’s restaurant before I set out for the Christmas evening performance.
SME models her new Christmas hat as we unwrapped packages in our pajamas
The rest of the week was similarly quiet. Sheila Marie took ill and spent a lot of time recuperating in bed. We took full advantage of the Renaissance’s room service capabilities until she finally felt well enough to get out on Sunday. When she felt up to it, we had a nice German meal at the Hessen Haus with Karl, David, Cara and Graham.
It was cold all week in Des Moines - a small ice storm hit near the end of the week lending everything its particular kind of treacherous beauty.
It was a strange Christmas, but a nice one. I think Sheila Marie felt bad that she kept us in the hotel room so much, but I enjoyed the quiet time. Monday morning, we returned to the airport to pick up our rental car (the same one I drove up from Fayetteville, it turns out!) and headed for Cincinnati and a New Year’s celebration with the Westfalls in the Queen City of the West.
JV
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