Home Stretch- Part I: Milwaukee, Sioux Falls, Colorado Springs, Greeley

 Back in the United States!  Ah, we're so relieved.  Now begins the four-week stretch that finishes off the tour.

There were plenty of two things in Milwaukee:  Beer and sports.  One look outside the hotel made this completely evident.  Since our second and final show in London, Ontario was cancelled, we arrived a day early in Milwaukee and gained a Golden Day.  Many people toured a brewery or went to a sporting event.  The theater in which we performed was on the next block from the arena where the Milwaukee Bucks play.  It became disheartening to see so many people outside our theater, then walk right past it and go to the Bucks game.

Milwaukee Theatre, Milwakee, Wisconsin

For my Golden Day, I saw “In The Next Room, Or The Vibrator Play” at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.  I’m usually not a huge fan of plays, but this one was highly exceptional.  It had a little bit of everything- comedy, drama, romance- which is what I believe makes any play/musical/movie/etc. worth seeing.  The performances and the set were stellar, and the play was written extremely well.

I also got to see and catch up with my friend Marty McNamee, with whom I performed “Plaid Tidings” at Circa ’21 Dinner Theatre.  He showed me around Milwaukee and graced me with his infinite knowledge of history, architecture, and other random factoids regarding Milwaukee.

We were only in Sioux Falls for a few days, but the audiences were quite memorable.  I don’t think I’ve seen so many kids in any previous city.  If you’re an actor reading this, then you know what an awesome audience does for your performance.  Let’s just say it’s like a Red Bull.

 Washington Pavilion of the Arts, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

                Colorado Springs was beautiful.  The weather was decent, and there’s an excellent view of Pike’s Peak from basically wherever you are.  We performed on the base of the Air Force Academy.  For the most part, our audiences seemed kind of sedated.  I’m not sure why that is, but it was quite a reversal from Sioux Falls.

 Arnold Hall- USAF Acadamy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

In the months prior to arriving in Colorado Springs, I'd maintained a correspondence with Kevin Graves, an alumnus of the University of Northern Iowa, and more importantly, the UNI Varsity Men’s Glee Club.  On our second day there, Kevin picked me up and took me to check out Garden of the Gods and Helen Hunt Falls.  Garden of the Gods is an expansive terrain with arbitrary rock formations strewn about.  And Helen Hunt Falls, named after an early settler and not the actress from “Mad About You”, was a pretty little waterfall with a small hiking trail above it.  We did a little hiking, took some pictures, and got some fresh mountain air.  After lunch at P.F. Chang’s (my first time!), Kevin came to our afternoon show on the base.  I’d like to sum up that the friends made in the UNI Varsity Men’s Glee Club can be relied upon for many years.  I was never in the group at the same time as Kevin, as he graduated before me; he went to Europe both times I went.  However, he still made the effort to connect and be hospitable to a fellow member.  I’m very proud to have been a part of that group.

                There’s not really anything I can say about Greeley.  We did only one matinee there.  Most of us just wanted to get it out of the way and have the night and the following day off.  We’re all eager to get to Texas and warm weather.

Union Colony Civic Center, Greeley, Colorado

    Oh, and I also expanded my Green Lantern Corps.  Tripled the size, actually.  They're doing a great job of helping me through the last few weeks of tour.

 

Oh, Canada...

I have to admit that I was pretty excited to go into Canada.  I’ve been to other countries in Europe and Central America, but never on my own continent.  Now, there are different, very diverse parts of Canada, and none of them could be further from the U.S. (culturally speaking) than Montreal, Quebec.  It.  Was.  FRENCH!  About 95% of people around you speak French.  Ads, billboards, street signs, banners, etc. are all in French.  Restaurant menus are in French with the English translation in a smaller text below.  Because the citizens of Montreal also speak English, it made some of the cast feel ignorant.  I consoled them by saying that they didn’t go out of the way to learn two languages- they’re surrounded by it.  If we’re immersed in eight languages as we mature from children into young adults, we learn all eight of them.  It’s just how their culture works.  We don’t quite find it necessary to learn more than one language, so most of us don’t.

The French thing also prevented our audiences from understanding some of the more subtle jokes in the show- those that are either cultural or are hidden in the lyrics or subtext.  This, along with lower ticket sales, made some of our Montreal audiences somewhat drab.

Pelletier-Place des Arts, Montreal, Quebec, CAN

I didn’t get too much of a chance to go out and explore Montreal.  I mostly just walked over to the theater to play piano and compose.  I was also a little preoccupied with how much money I was spending- our hotel, the most expensive hotel on our tour, was slightly over a hundred dollars per night.  Everything’s a little more expensive in Canada, but as far as how their society works, there may be something to that- they’ve really got it together.

Canadian Money (or, as I refer to it, Play Money)

Our 200^th show occurred in Montreal.  It didn’t seem to be as much of a feat as when we reached our 100^th show in Miami in December, however.  I guess the tour has just been going on so long that people are numbed to it.

I wasn’t planning on doing much for St. Patrick’s Day.  The day became even less celebratory when I learned of the death of my friend and beloved Quad-Citian Brian Nelson.  I had done a few shows with him, culminating in our performance of Jesus Christ Superstar in July/August.  One day after a rehearsal, he had told me that out of the many times he had performed the show over the previous decades, mine was the band/orchestra that best captured the flavor of the show.  Compliments are a wonderful thing, but are made more precious coming from someone so talented and respected.  It pained me not to be there for his funeral, but from all of the comments I saw/heard about it, there probably wouldn’t have been room for me anyways.  He will be missed by so many.

Our third and final two-week stay was in Toronto.  Toronto was quite a change from Montreal.  It felt much more like the U.S.  I heard a lot of comments from the cast comparing it to New York City.  And aside from Times Square and Central Park, nothing makes you feel like you’re in New York more than the subway.  Our travel to and from the theater was by subway.  It was about a 20 minute ride each way.  It was sometimes tedious, but I’ll admit that it was a nice way to mellow down after the show.  If/when I do live in New York City, I’ll be anxious to use the subway in lieu of a car, saving me SO much money on gas, parking, insurance, etc.

Toronto Centre for the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, CAN

I love a mall.  Our first night there I happened to stumble upon what I understand is the biggest mall in Toronto.  In urban areas, the malls blend into the scenery a lot more than what I’m used to, so I just kind of walked inside off of the street and wound up in the Eaton Centre Mall.  I returned here at least three or four times throughout the two weeks.

                Our second Monday there was a Golden Day (no travel, no shows), and a group of fourteen of us went to Niagara Falls.  A tour van picked us up from the hotel and the driver familiarized us with a few things in Toronto.  On the way to the falls, we stopped at a winery for a tasting- if you haven’t tried ice wine, I highly recommend it.  Then we strolled around the small town of Niagara on the Lake, perusing boutique and specialty shops.  The falls were beautiful- so much so that I hardly minded the temperature being in the 30’s, feeling even colder with the mists.  We arrived in time to see the falls in the daylight with its many rainbows, and after dinner got to see them lit up with spotlights.  This is a place I probably wouldn’t have gone to any other time, so I’m glad I got to see it on tour.

                With a few members of the band, I attended a rehearsal of the Toronto Symphony on one of our last days there.  It was so refreshing to hear classical music again- I feel like it’s been forever.  Sometimes I need a little Brahms/Mahler/Prokofiev to cleanse my palette.

Toronto Symphony Building

                Our third and final Canadian city was London.  And for the first time, one of our shows was cancelled.  We originally had two shows in London, but we knew a few weeks ahead of time that our second show would be cancelled.  We therefore travelled back to the U.S. a day early and enjoyed a Golden Day in Milwaukee.  Our show in London was our second venue in an arena (the first being in Tallahassee at Florida State University).  We did the show on a hockey rink with plastic tiles covering the ice.  The orchestra was on the floor behind the stage and it was pretty chilly.

LaBatt Centre, London, Ontario, CAN

                Well, the entire cast is relieved to be back in the U.S.- using our own currency, our cell phones, banks, certain restaurants, etc.  And now we’re on the home stretch.  It won’t be long until I’m back in the Quad-Cities!