Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I guess I never realized that Broadway is a constant promotion. Doing the show is about the easiest thing to this venture. Last night, on my night off I was at Bloomingdales entertaining the “shoppers elite”. It wasn’t the best of conditions, but I think I got the prime location. My stage was in the fur coat section. It reminded me of my trade show days, grabbing a crowd from a moving target. However, I was delighted and actually shocked at the number of people who came to see me do my bit. They had a lot of talent through out the evening and the crowd seemed to ebb and flow as something would catch their attention. Thanks Amanda for being there and helping me through it. You know how much we appreciate your work for "The Two and Only".

I was hoping to get to hang out with some of the other cast members of the other shows. That is one of the fun perks of being on Broadway. However, there were several stages and the talent was spread out over the evening, so I didn’t really get to hang with my peers much as I wanted. I did meet Amy and her 8 year old daughter August in the make shift green room. It was actually a storeroom off a fitting area. Amy has been in “I love you, you’re perfect, now change” at the Westside Theater for six years. It was really nice to meet them.

I asked Rick Lyons from Avenue Q if the pace of promotions/ interviews every slowed. Avenue Q has been a hit now for a couple of years, you might think by now they could coast. He said it never stops and never slows. I’m not complaining, just becoming educated.

For most of the day off I am a waste of space. I am so tired after the long week and 5 show weekend it really takes 24 hours to even get the batteries to start charging again.

Of course if I have too much time away from the theater I start to obsess on the business of show business. How can we sell more tickets, get more people in the door, start paying back the producers debt? Where is our tipping-point? How long can we stay at the Hayes? Then I go into overwhelm. I am so glad that the actual experience of doing this show is so wonderful, because the bi-polar nature of the rest of the experience is daunting.

Tonight I will get to do my show again and all will be fine. The best promotion is just to do the best performance I can every time. More later TAO readers.
As you were,
Jay

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wish I coulda been there in person but at least my thoughts were with you.

- TOO

Anonymous said...

Saw the ad in the NY Times this morning - love the new addition to TTAO website!

Anonymous said...

Roomie....
You, like I are hard pressed to relax on "off days" thinking about all the other things that make up "the show." But leave that to your "peeps" whose job it is to make those things happen and "do your thing all the rest of the week. Go to "The Cloisters" one Monday and relax.
Roomie # 1