Denver is a great town. I was especially pleased that the itinerary brought us back to the Mile High City, but was a little sad that it was for such a short visit. The week seemed especially short with the late afternoon flight in on Monday and the day spent hiking on Tuesday. By the time we loaded the show into the Buell Theatre and opened on Wednesday night, the week was more than half over!
This time around, I rented an apartment with Jeff Dumas in a high-rise just around the corner from the theatre. The apartment was actually owned by the Performing Arts Center as a home away from home for performers and staff in their resident companies. Since they weren't using all the apartments, we were offered the chance to rent them! Some extra income for the Denver Center and some cheap digs for us - a win, win.
The view from my apartment's balcony.
The Daniels & Fisher Tower is all that remains of the Daniels & Fisher Department Store. Built in 1910, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at 325'.
Just as we did last time (all the way back in September of 2007), Spamalot played the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre. It's a beautiful space and has enormous support spaces backstage. The crew loaded-in and out of the Buell in record time. (Denver marked my 33rd and 34th weeks on the tour the first time and my 119th week some 600 performances later.)
The exterior of the Buell - the theatre opens up onto the covered courtyard of the Denver Performing Arts Center which is home to 10 other performance spaces.
I got to see many old friends in Denver. On the way back from my hike on Tuesday, I stopped in Boulder and had dinner with Diana Giattino. Diana was one of my assistants at Gateway Playhouse and I absolutely adore her. She's finishing up a Master's Degree in Education at the University of Colorado while also teaching. I'm so glad I got a chance to catch up with her! It seems like she's really found herself and is doing great.
I also got to catch up with two alumni of the tour: Piper Arpan and Elaine Jarzabski. Piper (our former swing and Social Director) fell in love with a Denverite while we were there the first time and has since gotten engaged! She was in town to celebrate her birthday with her beloved and invited the Spamily to come share in the fun at her intended's bar. I miss Piper a lot - she was my main Roadfood Buddy (in fact, the man she's marrying, Dino, runs a Roadfood-approved joint) and just a fun kid to have around. Elaine, late of the hair and make-up department, lives in the mountains outside Denver and came down to say hello over the weekend. I was fortunate to share a between shows meal with Elaine and catch up!
As we had an understudy rehearsal on Thursday afternoon, Friday was my only in-town touristy day. I woke up early and took a tour of the Denver Mint. The Denver Mint is the largest producer of coins in the world. Their production has slowed a bit, due to the slowdown in the economy as a whole, but they hold the record for the most coins struck in a single day. They mint circulating coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollar coins) as well as commemorative sets.
Friday afternoon, I met DVZ at the Brown Palace Hotel for afternoon tea. The Brown Palace opened in 1892 and is a magnificent hotel. Tea is served in the hotel's atrium 8 stories below a beautiful stained glass window. Neither David or I had ever been for formal tea, and we both enjoyed it immensely. Along with our caffeine, we were served a tower of scones, tea sandwiches and pastries. What a delightful way to pass the afternoon!
Looking down into the Atrium of the Brown Palace Hotel
One lump, or two?
Denver marked the last city of our Wardrobe Supervisor, and my good friend, Wayne Spellman. Wayne turned over the reigns of the wardrobe department to Linda Lee, who held that position for the Broadway company and returned to the tour of Mama Mia. To celebrate his tenure and to wish him well, the Wardrobe Department hosted shot night after the shows on Saturday. The night had a Hawaiian theme, as Wayne's first stop with Mama Mia will be Honolulu. The room was decorated with palm trees, hula girls and lots of photos of Wayne. Nearly the whole company turned out to raise a glass.
Angela greeted everyone with a lei
Roy and Wayne
The party continued across the street in the hotel's bar - Carissa, Alexa, Sarah-Lin and Matthew turned up in hula garb!
For Sunday night's show, the whole crew (and many others as well) donned ties in Wayne's honor. (Wayne ALWAYS wore a tie to work on opening night.) At intermission, we gathered so Francesca could snap a group photo (even the French cow put on a neck tie).
People come and go, that's the nature of the business, but I'm going to miss Wayne a lot. Not only was he quite good at his job, he was one of my favorite people to hang out with. I could always count on him for a hug and a kind word. The two of us shared an awful lot of road trips and adventures. I will certainly think of him the next time I'm planning an excursion. I wish him well and look forward to our paths crossing again.
As the week ended, I could feel the excitement building in the company. The long-awaited California leg of the tour was, suddenly, upon us. For months, we'd been talking about the long sit-downs in San Francisco and Los Angeles; on Monday, it was time to go!
JV
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