March 21, 2005
The past weekend has been one of several firsts.
Sunday night, I saw my first Broadway production, RENT, at the Nederlander Theatre on 41st St. This was a special night, for it was the last performance by Mark Richard Ford, who had been doing the show for seven years before joining the cast of LENNON in February. Since he's a standby like myself, it was my first time to see him in action, and it was well worth the wait. Doing it for the last time surely added an extra bit of intensity to the gig as well as emotion. What a pro.
After the show I joined Mark and the cast of RENT at Sasha's Lounge on 55th St for a little shove off party. It was my first time to get aquainted with the New York theatre scene. Everyone there was very cool and approachable, but then being in a show set in the bohemian district of Alphabet City, I expected nothing less. Apparently, those who cast RENT tend to look outside the box for players, and I was surprised to find a couple of theatre people with back stories similar to my own! Earlier I had stopped by an upscale restaurant on 8th Ave with Julie (from our show) and her fiancee, and a couple of nights before I had hung out with Chad and Allison, our assistant choreographer. Once a little cast bonding takes place like this, out on the street, it changes the dynamic inside the rehearsal room in a good way. Previously I hadn't really felt like part of the group, but now it's starting to kick in a bit. There'll be much more bonding of this sort when we hit San Francisco. We'll all be uprooted road warriors then.
Tomorrow is another first, though not as welcome. My first wedding anniversary to be spent without my wife. That's bound to feel a little weird. But she'll be joining me in SF in a few weeks, so there's a grand opportunity for a makeup date. Not a bad location for one, either.
And regrettably, today was the first Monday without pie (sniffle).