Reaching 100 Performances
Mar. 14th, 2005 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrdreamjeansThe tour has been out for five months, and on Saturday night we reached our 100th performance of the “Evita” Tour. It seems like yesterday that we were in New York and rehearsing, but time does go by very quickly when you are constantly traveling. There are still 7 of us out of 29 who haven’t missed a performance (Did I mention I like stats:).
Despite the revolving door for the cast during the Los Angeles run, we gave excellent performances. Our swings were on most of the time due to the crud passing through the company, but most everyone is recovering (or should be once we get out of this pollution). Due to the illness of the actor playing Magaldi mid-week, Andrew Ragone made his debut in the role during this final week at the Pantages and was superb!
Our cast mate Michael spent the week in St Louis at his father’s bedside. His Dad made an unexpected decision to forgo surgery for the aortic aneurysm and go home for whatever time he has left. Michael is one of ten children and all of them were present for this family crisis. Michael is expected to return to the show tomorrow in San Francisco. We missed him! As Michael told me in a voice message a couple of day ago, the situation has turned from “frightening to a peaceful watch” where his father is in his own bed surrounded by loving family members. It makes me think that we all should appreciate “quality of death” as much as we speak of “quality of life”.
The weekend was very busy with five shows from Friday night through Sunday night. On Friday, I toured the Page Museum at the La Brea Tarpits with my friend Joel from the cast and we had lunch at the Farmers Market adjacent to The Grove. Later in the afternoon, sflonestar (Jim) arrived to attend a concert. Turns out he stays at the same hotel as we are staying in, when he visits Los Angeles. The concert he had tickets for turned out to be a bust, but our visit was terrific. We managed to have a few meals together and Jim got a last minute ticket to see “Evita”. It was hard to miss him as he was sitting on the second row and most of the cast had met him by the time we saw him in the audience. It was really nice to get to know Jim a bit better!
Sadly, San Francisco will be the last city in which the original cast will be together. Kevin Burrows and Tony Falcon have given notice and will be leaving the show at the end of our run on April 10. Replacements have already been hired and will join us toward the end of the time in SF. I’m sure we’ll have a few extra rehearsals to incorporate the new dancers into the mix. Kevin is returning home to be near his partner who is one of the stars of “Spamelot” and Tony begins rehearsals for a new show “Mambo Kings” in mid-April. I wish them well!
Finally, our fund-raising for Broadway Cares/Equity FIghts AIDS in Los Angeles was very successful. We collected donations following 13 of the 16 shows and raised $27,700! The audiences here were very generous and we were fortunate to play to big houses the entire two weeks. Our total for three weeks (LA and Spokane) is almost $34,000. The money is greatly appreciated and will help those people it is intended for in many positive ways.
It’s time to sign off from the Ramada Plaza in West Hollywood and head to the bus. We fly into SFO in a couple of hours. I should arrive at my housing about 6:00pm for the month-long run at the Golden Gate Theater. I am looking forward to visiting with live journal friends and several people I’ve known for many years. San Francsico open your golden gates!! Here I come!
Despite the revolving door for the cast during the Los Angeles run, we gave excellent performances. Our swings were on most of the time due to the crud passing through the company, but most everyone is recovering (or should be once we get out of this pollution). Due to the illness of the actor playing Magaldi mid-week, Andrew Ragone made his debut in the role during this final week at the Pantages and was superb!
Our cast mate Michael spent the week in St Louis at his father’s bedside. His Dad made an unexpected decision to forgo surgery for the aortic aneurysm and go home for whatever time he has left. Michael is one of ten children and all of them were present for this family crisis. Michael is expected to return to the show tomorrow in San Francisco. We missed him! As Michael told me in a voice message a couple of day ago, the situation has turned from “frightening to a peaceful watch” where his father is in his own bed surrounded by loving family members. It makes me think that we all should appreciate “quality of death” as much as we speak of “quality of life”.
The weekend was very busy with five shows from Friday night through Sunday night. On Friday, I toured the Page Museum at the La Brea Tarpits with my friend Joel from the cast and we had lunch at the Farmers Market adjacent to The Grove. Later in the afternoon, sflonestar (Jim) arrived to attend a concert. Turns out he stays at the same hotel as we are staying in, when he visits Los Angeles. The concert he had tickets for turned out to be a bust, but our visit was terrific. We managed to have a few meals together and Jim got a last minute ticket to see “Evita”. It was hard to miss him as he was sitting on the second row and most of the cast had met him by the time we saw him in the audience. It was really nice to get to know Jim a bit better!
Sadly, San Francisco will be the last city in which the original cast will be together. Kevin Burrows and Tony Falcon have given notice and will be leaving the show at the end of our run on April 10. Replacements have already been hired and will join us toward the end of the time in SF. I’m sure we’ll have a few extra rehearsals to incorporate the new dancers into the mix. Kevin is returning home to be near his partner who is one of the stars of “Spamelot” and Tony begins rehearsals for a new show “Mambo Kings” in mid-April. I wish them well!
Finally, our fund-raising for Broadway Cares/Equity FIghts AIDS in Los Angeles was very successful. We collected donations following 13 of the 16 shows and raised $27,700! The audiences here were very generous and we were fortunate to play to big houses the entire two weeks. Our total for three weeks (LA and Spokane) is almost $34,000. The money is greatly appreciated and will help those people it is intended for in many positive ways.
It’s time to sign off from the Ramada Plaza in West Hollywood and head to the bus. We fly into SFO in a couple of hours. I should arrive at my housing about 6:00pm for the month-long run at the Golden Gate Theater. I am looking forward to visiting with live journal friends and several people I’ve known for many years. San Francsico open your golden gates!! Here I come!
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