Photo of the Day: Here is the picture I wanted to share last night but couldn't.  This is taken from just around the black legs up stage left of our set. That is Julia standing with her back to us.  We are having trouble with the air conditioning system. They say there is one, but it is a sauna on stage and in the audience. And you know the rule "Comedy is cold". 

It is hard to see in this picture but if you look at the middle of the balcony you will see a television monitor. It broadcasts a picture of the musical conductor for the Italian show. Most musicals do this when the conductor cannot be seen in the pit.  However, as you notice it is a huge television sitting on the edge of the balcony not below it.  The cast can see the conductor clearly but the 6 seats directly behind the monitor can't see the stage. Prime seats in the "Circle" with an obstructed view.   Now that the Italian show is gone I assume they will move that monitor.  Good thing, Paul noticed last night that it is held in position with only gaffers tape. Yipes! Look out below. I think the entire production of the Italian show was held together with gaffers tape.

Circus trainers used to poke the Elephants in the butt with a broom handle so they would pass gas back stage rather than in the ring.  The new Elephants would wince with pain and flinch with humiliation at the invasion.  The trainer poked  an old Elephant who had been with the circus for years. The old Elephant had no reaction but simply turned to the trainer and said, "How's the house?"  

Okay that joke may not be funny or even coherent in my reciting it but I have a reason for telling it. It points out that eventually you can become accustomed to most anything if you have to do it long enough.  I wear a microphone hidden in my hair. The first time I wore it there, the clips pulled, the cord felt like a python on my head and I couldn't even move my neck from the pain.  I developed a couple of bald spots on my scalp where the clips pulled out the hair. 

Although it is usually the sound man's job, I starting doing it myself long before the Broadway run.  Tonight I was placing the clips in various positions on my head and combing my hair to camoflauge the cord.  It all seemed so simple since I have done it hundreds of times now. As one of the clips pinched my scalp I didn't wince I just thought to myself, "How's the house?"

We are slowly getting our show up to speed. This was show 3 and the sound is getting better and better. The Italian show set will be removed soon and suddenly we will have massive amounts of room backstage.

It was a small crowd tonight, but they were very responsive. We have only set one curtain call for the show. Tonight I think we could have taken three more. They continued applauding for a very long time after the final bow.  I don't think I have ever had that experience before.  

So far I can say that London audiences react slower than I am used to.  There are times when I have moved on in the script thinking there isn't a laugh, just when it begins.  I need to learn to wait on it and trust it. They are a little more restrained here, and tend to show their reaction more at the end of the performance than during the show.  I'm not sure that three shows qualify me to comment on the average response of the audiences, but it is enough time for now to say I notice a difference between the British and American audiences. It will require a little adjustment.  I am looking forward to learning how. 

I know people here like our show. I really hope we catch on and do business. It feels different this time around and I think this is just the beginning of a really wonderful run. Several of the cast members of the musical version of  "Gone with the Wind" were at the show last night.  They just closed here in London. One of the actors said that our show was the "best thing in the West End".  I am aware that we all commit "green room perjury" from time to time, but I think his comments were sincere.  I do think our show is different from anything that is running here.  The ticket brokers tell me that this is just what theatre patrons are looking for. The marketing and selling of my show is so far from what I understand.  All I can do is the best show I can and hope enough people want to see it so we can continue doing it.  I do so love telling this story.  

As you were,

Jay