Spamalot arrived in Los Angeles with a bang: our director, Mike Nichols, paid a surprise visit to the company! Mike, Eric Idle and assorted others watched our first (and only) preview performance at the Ahmanson Theater and gave notes after the show in anticipation of our official opening night the following day. Mercifully, Mike and Eric's notes were generally positive and the company was spared a rehearsal the next afternoon. It's always a pleasure to listen to Mike gives notes; he's both a very smart director and a genuinely funny man.
Our home for the 9 weeks of our LA engagement is the Ahmanson Theater at the Los Angeles Music Center. Much like the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York, the Music Center is home to several performance venues and resident companies. The complex is composed of the Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Ahmanson is named for Philanthropist Robert H. Ahmanson and opened in 1967. It's a modern, multi-purpose performing arts facility with ample room and facilities for Spamalot.
The Ahmanson Theater
The Mark Taper Forum is a circular building designed by Welton Becket (as were the other two buildings in the original Music Center) and clad in a concrete relief designed by Jacques Overhoff.
The spectacular Disney Concert Hall sits across the street from the rest of the Music Center. Frank Gehry designed the new home of the LA Philharmonic and the LA Master Chorale. It is a beautiful building and I absolutely love that I pass it each day on the way to work!
Our opening night in the City of Angels was the biggest event of the tour since I joined 2 and a half years ago. The performance and the opening night party were attended by celebrities of varying fields and star-power. Among the invited guests were: Billy Crystal, Scott Hamilton, Kevin Nealon, Anthony LaPaglia, Laurence Fishburne, Bobcat Goldthwait, Lori Anderson and Bob Saget. (Several of us were excited to see Betty White on the guest list but were disappointed when she was a no-show.) The party was a pretty grand affair on the roof of the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Gurr snapped this great picture of the party's setting
Richard Chamberlain joined us at the opening night - everyone was thrilled to see him again.
Richard, Paula, Joanne Worley & Jamie Karen (Jamie is another Spam-Tour Allum we were all happy to see again)
Eric Idle takes Merle for a spin on the dance floor
In my favorite snap of the evening, Life and Art collide as John O'Hurley and Fred Willard (the real-life Co-Host of the Purina Dog Show and the fictional Co-Host of the Mayflower Kennel Club Show) converse.
My home base for the Los Angeles engagement is a bungalow in Hollywood's Clinton Manor. The apartment complex is just a few blocks from Paramount Studios and was built in the 1920's by Paramount to house their contract players and writers. I like to imagine that the apartment I'm renting was once home to Rudolph Valentino or maybe to Bing Crosby's starlet girlfriend!
My pink bungalow in Hollywood
JV
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