Another Closing of Another Show

The stage after the final bow.

Yesterday, we closed The Full Monty. I slept in today. I didn't work. I took the day off to rest and recuperate. This was another special show. I've been in many shows over the years and you get used to goodbyes. Its the life of an actor. You go from job to job. You get close, the show closes. You go your separate ways. When you're young its hard. But over the years, you get used to it. You don't take it so hard.

But every once in a while, you get cast in a show that is really special. This was one of them. I was a little emotional. Just as I was when I did another production of this show 10 years ago. There's something about this show.  But I won't get into that here because I did that in my previous blog.

What do I want to say here? I want to express how much I will miss doing this show. It is so much fun and so moving. I love playing Harold. It is one of my favorite roles in one of my favorite shows that I have ever done and just wish that more of my friends had seen me in it. I'm very thankful for the friends who did make the trip down to San Diego but I do wish more could have seen me. This role just fits me like no other. It plays to all my strengths as an actor.

The owners of San Diego Musical Theatre (SDMT) welcomed all of us who are new to their them into their family when we started in January. And yesterday, when we closed I realized that it is a family. Everyone who works in that theater treated me with kindness and love. ALL of them. The whole crew. Michelle, our lighting designer, Jessica and Brooke, our sound team, Heather, Jonathan and Sarah, backstage, Stephen our TD, and my rock, the women who were there for me every single night through all the crazy, insane costume changes, Keira and Lexi. I can be a rather quiet, conservative person in life. I tend to keep myself at a safe distance. And yesterday it hit me, how at home they made me feel. And that this really was like a family.

It comes from the top, producers Erin and Gary Lewis, who we didn't see much because of their moving to a new house, created this family atmosphere. Don, our music director, Paul David, our choreographer and the two to whom I am most grateful, our stage manager Marie and director Neil.

It was intimidating to me, playing Harold for a director who himself played Harold about five years ago. But he gave me nothing but support and encouragement from day one.

And now the cast...Damn! I'm welling up as I think of them. The six as we were called, Steve, Danny, Jon, Ron Jack and myself. I can't believe we don't get to do this again. Sharing the stage, a dressing room and our fears and anxieties about revealing all to the world is something I will never forget. You guys rule MY world! (sorry for the obvious pun). I'm going to miss you terribly.

The Six.

And now, my favorite moments of the show:
Karyn in Life With Harold. Specifically, her stuff with the boys and her big arm gestures as she went upstage.
Ron on his last exit laughing and strutting after he thanks God for putting the burden on "That Poor White Boy."
Oh, and his Big Black Man. Nuff said.
Luke's "I do this thing with a bull whip." Prompting me to run for the proscenium arch and hug it. Oh! and sticking out his big beautiful ass for "What do we think of that guy?" "I've seen better."
Paul''s hilarious audition as Reg.
Danny, breaking my heart every single night when he grabs Jerry and tells him not to ever call him a fat bastard again. I never told you this Danny, but I used that moment to help get me where I needed to be emotionally for my next scene.
Karyn, again, for bringing me up to your level in our final scene.
Jack, your physical comedy astounded me.  And the expression on your face when Jon took your hand in You Walk With Me. It caught my breath every night.
Jon, the way you did a little Fred Flinstone dance with your feet before running into Danny and Steve's arms for "C'mon, group hug.", your three act cross in Act Two. LOL "Teddy bought hockey tickets." You Walk With Me. Harold melted in that scene. Every. Single. Night.  You and Jack together holding each other. Wow.
The company in the hallway every night at the end of Act One waiting for the six of us to come upstairs and greeting us with high fives, low fives, videos, signs etc...
Alex as the ballroom dance instructor. OMG. My fave costume and wig in the entire show.
Stella as the old woman. Hard to keep a straight face listening to your ad libs. "It's already hot."
Amy, you make a great old Jewish mother. :)
Beth, "I don't think so pop-pops." and all your sass as Estelle in the break room scene. "When are you coming over?"
Joy and Danny. "Who wants to see this?" "Me, Dave. I do." So honest and raw. Every night.
Devlin's stumbling on Jeanette's lines: "Moxyoron" "...and a bad ta, a bad ta, ta, ta, ta...He had a bad wig."
Danny humping the piano and do an Irish jig to "get Harold"
Steve, the anti-wrinkle cream, and my favorite...how you laughed with joy every single night as we walked off stage "nekkid" after the finale.
Keira dressing me as I stripped down to nothing but my g-string before the final scene.
Jon, Jack, Danny and I bumping, grinding and dry humping one another behind the set during "The Goods"
Some of us boys mooning each other from either side of the stage during the bows.

On Stage War Stories (My most memorable onstage moment)

Not long ago on Facebook I posted picture of me in two different productions of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. In the comments section, there were references to the incident I am about to share with you.

There are many things that can go wrong in a live stage production. Props that aren't placed. Sound cues that don't happen. Lights going out. Actors forgetting lines or their entrance. I've experienced all of these things. But the single most memorable moment I ever had on stage was the time I threw up in the middle of a performance of Charlie Brown.

Picture it, New York City, December 1993. I was playing Charlie Brown in You're A good Man Charlie Brown. It was our closing performance, a Sunday matinee just a few days before Christmas. We had a cast party the night before at Brice Lloyd's house, (Bruce played Linus). The next morning I got up early to go downtown to pick up some crew gifts from the cast. As I arrived on the subway platform at 86th and Broadway, my stomach started to bother me. So I bought a pack of Tums from the newsstand and ate a few. My stomach still felt queasy.

I continued on my way. Went downtown to the South Street Seaport to a t-shirt shop and bought a couple of Peanuts themed t-shirts. Then up to the upper East Side to a Hallmark shop on Lex to buy some Peanuts cards and ornaments. Then to the theater at 54th and Lex. The Theatre at St. Peter's at Citicorp, which you enter y taking an elevator down from street level. I was early and the first one there. I went toy dressing room which was locked. I was not feeling well by this time. I curled up on the floor waiting to get in.

My friend Jane Southall showed up first. She was our light board operator. She got maintenance to unlock all the dressing rooms and the green room. I curled up not he couch in the green room as the cast crew began to arrive. I got sicker and sicker. I had someone get me ginger ale and saltines.

Me in my dressing room looking pale

Eventually, I went to the bathroom in my dressing room and threw up. I seemed to get it all out of my system. I still didn't feel great, but better. I went through vocal warmups with the cast. I was still really pale. We started the show. Everything seemed fine.

Me and Melissa during vocal warmups. She looks a little concerned.

I got through the Kite Song but I started felling a little woozy.  After the song, Patty (played by Melissa Broder) comes out on stage with her Valentines. We have an exchange where I mistakenly believe a card with CB on it is for me. My reaction is supposed to "I can't stand it." Through my dialog with Patty, I'm getting sicker and sicker. Finally, I realize I can't hold it any longer and right at the moment when I act to her last line, instead of saying I can't stand it, I run cover my mouth and run behind Snoopy's dog house and get down all fours and, well...spew.

Poor Melissa is standing there alone and ad libs something like Poor Charlie Brow. I hope you feel better and makes her exit. I get up from all fours and go offstage. (The piano player is playing through all of this). The cast is all back stage looking at me like what do we do? There is no crew backstage. We have no headset to the booth. They're all concerned I'm going to be sick again. I remember Jonathan Bennett (Schroeder) looking for something for me to puke in just i case. I leaned against the SR wall with me head down thinking about to blow again. And then the feeling passes.

I stand up straight. I look at the cast. I say, "Let's go on. I'm fine." We're about to go into the Doctor is In scene between me and Lucy (Lizzie Yawitz). So I walk out on stage from SL. I realize that the stage is not set for that scene. So I walk back off SR. (Steve has not stopped playing underscore music this entire time by the way).

Offstage, I instruct the cast what to do. We go onstage change the set pieces around for the next scene and go on. I mange to get through the rest of the first act without incident.

Lizzie an dme in the green room during intermission. Notice my skin color. 

During intermission, our ASM John Henderson as the unenviable task of having to clean up my mess behind the dog house on stage. Fortunately, I had gotten most of it out of my system an hour before the show. So not much came out of me and what did come out was very little, odorless and clear (I'm thinking it was the ginger ale and saltines. That's all that was left in my system.)

We go on to Act Two. I start getting sicker and sicker. Light headed. Not feeling well at all. I can't even stand up by the end of the show. I did the Glee Club sitting on a block in front of the cast rather than standing in the group. I barely made it through the how, but I did.  I went home immediately after the show and spent the next couple of days in bed. It was bad. Really bad.

But the show went on. And the audience never knew. They had no idea. In fact, the kids were crawling around in the dog house right after the show.

And that is my worst on stage mishap or most memorable moment of all-time on stage.

What's yours?