Time is flying by. The calendar in our office has long been dominated by the two big blocks labeled San Francisco and Los Angeles. Suddenly, we reached the end of those 16 weeks and there was not so much Spamalot left ahead of us...
The last weeks of the LA engagement were a busy time of comings and goings. Tim Connell left and was replaced by Steven Wenslawski. Erik Hayden's track was taken over by Andrew Fitch. Nigel stayed in LA as we moved on and his swing position was filled by Billy Sprague. Fortunately, all three of the guys coming in had been with the tour before, at one time or another, and didn't need a tremendous amount of rehearsal. Our final performance in LA also marked the beginning of our break from John O'Hurley. John will not be playing the King in San Diego, San Jose or Tucson, but will rejoin us for the final engagement in Costa Mesa. In the interim, Christopher Gurr will be wearing the crown. Ch-cha-changes...
Before he left, Nigel presented the company with a gift. He has a bit of a tradition of making backstage music videos for shows he's been a part of (search for nigel1492 on Youtube and you'll find many, many of his short videos) and we had long looked forward to his creation for our show. In his final weeks, Nigel and his video camera popped up everywhere. In truth, it was getting a little annoying - but, at his final shot night, Nigel debuted the video and it was SPECTACULAR. I must have watched it a couple of dozen times now and it impresses me more every time.
Word of warning, the video has its risque moments...
If you can't get enough Spamalot backstage video fun, check out Rick Holmes' video blog on BroadwayWorld.com: here's a link to the first installment.
During our last two weeks in LA, a huge wildfire burned in the San Gabriel mountains outside of the city. Dubbed the "Station Fire" (as it originated near a Forest Service Ranger Station) it began on August 25th and is still burning nearly a month later. Thus far, the fire has consumed more than 160,000 acres, destroyed 78 homes and cost two firefighters their lives. Huge clouds of smoke (known as pyrocumulus clouds) could be seen from all over the city with flames occasionally visible from downtown as well. As the winds shifted, we could often smell smoke and were sometimes dusted with ash from the fire some 18 miles away.
The smoke cloud as seen from the stage door at the Ahmanson
The smoke in the air colored the sunlight, often to beautiful result
Disney Hall appeared aflame with the extra intense colors of the smoky setting sun
Nate, one of our carpenters, drove out a bit closer to the mountains and snapped this dramatic night photo of the flames.
While people in the hillside communities of Los Angeles had to evacuate their homes, life for much of LA was unaffected. It felt strange to be able to see a giant fire burning on the horizon, but to just go about life as usual.
A small of group of Spamily visited the Warner Brothers Studio before we bade farewell to movie-land. Having just visited Paramount Studios, I'm not sure I need another studio tour quite so soon, but I enjoyed the afternoon. The Warner Brothers tour included a few different behind the scenes glimpses including a peek into their prop warehouse and scene shop. They also have an on-site museum featuring costumes, props and script pages from all kinds of Warner Brothers productions.
Though I kept a close eye on the water tower, the Animaniacs never emerged...
The New York backlot was mid-transformation - the green cart held all manner of lighting fixtures that the prop people were installing to change the look of the facades.
Spamily (Billy, Karl, Nikki, Nigel, Ryan, Ben & Francesca) w/ Bugs Bunny
My last day off in La-la Land was spent with Shey. We visited the train collection at Travel Town in Griffith Park, had breakfast for lunch at the Original Pantry and drove out to Pasadena before stopping in Studio City for coffee with a group of MSU Theatre Department alumni. Joanne Brooks, Katie Von Till and Lisa Lenox all graduated ahead of me from State and I hadn't seen any of them since they left East Lansing. We were also joined by Michael Merritt, who graduated with Sheila Marie, and I had seen once or twice in Chicago - but it was fun to catch up with people I hadn't seen in so long!
Shey, Lisa, Joanne, Katie and Michael after our coffee date
One of Travel Town's steam engines, this one's from the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe
Shey's pancakes at the Original Pantry were as big as her head!
Where no Spartan fan has been in too long
For the first time in two months, I drug out the suitcases again. With the two long sit-downs, I had acquired too much stuff to easily travel. I packed a BIG box and sent it off to New York (thank you, Wife, for dealing with the seemingly endless stream of stuff I keep sending home), but still my suitcases were bulging for the trip to San Diego. I've got to get down to plane weight again...
For our final week, Spamalot played a mid-week matinee and closed the engagement with a Sunday matinee. With our free evening, the Maestro, Karl, Roy and I headed to the Hollywood Bowl! The program featured selections from Rogers and Hammerstein film sores played by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with clips from the various films. Robert Osborne, of Turner Classic Movies fame, hosted the evening. The Hollywood Bowl is an amazing place. The arched bandshell is situated amongst the Hollywood Hills and the expansive seating area on the hillside facing the shell has seating for 17,376.
En route to the concert, we stopped off for this photo of Roy, Ben & Karl w/ the Hollywood Sign
At the Hollywood Bowl
The concert ended with a sing-a-long!
Our night at the Hollywood Bowl was a classy end to a really enjoyable 9 weeks in Los Angeles. Leaving San Francisco, I was not looking forward to LA. I wasn't looking forward to driving everyday and everywhere. I dreaded the hot weather. I was sure that I wouldn't want to seek out things to do, see and eat in such a giant, spread out town. All of my worries proved unfounded. I came to (mostly) enjoy my time in the car - the weather was more pleasant than I anticipated - and I had no trouble entertaining or feeding myself in many neighborhoods. I even went to the beach several times! I quite enjoyed LA!
Aside from having to pack up my luggage, I was ready to move on, though. For the last month and a half of Spamalot, we were going back on tour!
JV
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