The Bad and the Beautiful

Week 13: Fort Myers, FL

Lest you suppose that the touring life is all glamor, my experience here in Fort Myers may give you a taste of reality. As with most journeys, there will always be surprises along the way, some good and some not so good. I will preface what I am about to write with the sincere hope that I won't offend the citizens of this Florida town. The audiences here are great and I am sure that there is much to appreciate in Fort Myers. Nevertheless, my first impressions have not been pleasant ones. Fort Myers is just sort of a depressing place, one of many American communities that have become victim to a kind of urban sprawl, a network of highways lined with strip malls and fast food restaurants. This is, regrettably, what most of the American landscape of today has become. Chain restaurants and franchise mega stores. And it is here in this prefabricated environment that much of the company found ourselves faced with having to stay at a substandard hotel along the highway about a 15 minute drive from the theatre, the Barbara B. Mann Hall on the Edison University campus. Finding housing for the company has proved challenging as we are in Florida at high season and everyone in the company has a limited budget, plus we require group rates. So it's a crap shoot and unfortunately, this week's hotel, which shall remain nameless (to protect the guilty) is, well, crap. Mildew, ancient carpet, fluorescent lighting, airless, ugly rooms with windows that won't open, and a great first floor view of a parking lot. Depressing. Ick.

However, as I have said before, there is beauty to be found everywhere. Just over the bridge from Fort Myers is the beautiful island of Sanibel. I had the good fortune to stay on Sanibel for several weeks a decade ago when I did some theatre out there. It is a nature preserve and has one the most incredible stretches of beach in the world, famous for the thousands of shells that wash up on the sand there. This is beachcomber's paradise. My friend Jonathan and I drove out there today and took a chilly walk on the windy stretch of sand and shells. The sea has always brought such a sense of clarity to me and a feeling of peace. I also have fond memories of my season on Sanibel and revisiting this charming place brought them all back. I was very happy to be reminded that there is beauty around us at all times--sometimes we just have to seek it out. So with the bad comes the beautiful.




There have been other great things about our week in Fort Myers. We got to rehearse with Gary Beach and get prepared for his opening next week in Miami. He is a wonderful, wonderful actor and someone I have emulated for years. I have had the chance to spend some time really talking with Gary and he is generous and funny and loves the work of the theatre. Next week I will dedicate a post specifically to Gary and how much his work means to me. This week I have also gotten to socialize more with the company--a poker party, a barbecue--and it is a delightful, rowdy, fun loving group, complete with about ten terrific dogs. The group gatherings are a delight. We are all excited about going to Miami! I have secured a condo right in the heart of South Beach for the week, and having never been there before, I am eager to soak up all the fun of this popular resort. This should make up for the dismal hotel I have stayed in this week!


Continuing the tradition of the dresser photo gallery, here is a shot of me with my Fort Myers dresser, Susie (on the left). With us are her daughter, Crystal, who also works wardrobe, and her husband Gus, who works fly rail (the system that raises and lowers set pieces and curtains). They have turned stage work into a family affair. Truly nice people and Susie is a real pro and an excellent dresser. In the end, this town has turned out to be more beautiful than bad. It's all about perspective, isn't it? More to come from glamorous Miami Beach, friends.

The Only Constant

Week 12: Jacksonville, FL

"People come and go so quickly here!"
--The Wizard of Oz

If one chooses to, one can see any journey as a metaphor for life itself. This tour is no exception. While the show remains the same, the scenery and the people are constantly changing. And one has to simply roll with it. In the brief three months since I have been with the tour, four performers and two crew members have been replaced. And within the next few weeks there will be a few more changes in personnel. Is this a cosmic lesson not to get too attached to anyone? Or is it simply the way that life is-- people come in and out of your life. Enjoy them while they are there. If these changes were not part of the life of a long running show I wouldn't be here! I already have a sense that touring life is going to give me the ability to roll with life more, and to take what comes with as much humor and flexibility as I can.

Florida continues to be a blessing, with bright sunshine and balmy breezes. Hearing reports from my friends and family up north of inches of snow and ice storms I can only express my gratitude for this early summer. Last night a bunch of us went out to taste some Jacksonville nightlife. We went to a sort of club "complex" where there was a piano bar off the main part of the club which was more of a disco. Being from New York where smoking is prohibited in bars and restaurants, the smoke level in this place was oppressive. Let's get some national laws about this, people! Anyway, we stuck it out long enough to have a most surreal experience. A gaggle of people were gathered around the piano singing songs and suddenly the pianist starting into playing "Not Dead Yet" from our show. Before we knew it, they were singing through the entire score of "Spamalot" at lightning fast tempos! We just looked at each other in disbelief. It's following us wherever we go!

We are wrapping things up today in Jacksonville and will have a "golden day" (day off without travel) here tomorrow--a great opportunity to just relax at the beach. The price we will pay for this day of rest will be a six hour bus ride on Tuesday to Ft. Myers, followed by a 5:30 soundcheck, our performance, and an opening night reception. Let's hope they have comfy beds at the hotel in Ft. Myers.
Here is a picture of me and Suzanne, my Jacksonville dresser. Suzanne moved up here from Cocoa Beach to be near her kids. Her son is a stagehand so Suzanne jumped on board and became a dresser. Our crew here has been great and one of the crew members is a berry farmer and made fresh blackberry shortcake for the entire company after our matinee today. Good folks. I hope that wherever you are, you are rolling with the changes in your own life and my prayers and best wishes for health and well being to you and yours. More from Ft. Myers! Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the show, touring, or anything else that might be of interest, and I will try and answer them in upcoming posts.

A Day In the Life

Week 12: Jacksonville, FL


A very nice fan from Hershey wrote me and asked if I would give a description of the actual day to day workings of the production of "Spamalot" and to explain some of the terms and things that I refer to in this blog. I thought it was a lovely invitation to share with you a little about the day to day of being in this tour.

On Monday, we travel to our next city. This week a large portion of the company took a flight from Nashville to Jacksonville, some company members drove themselves down. When we arrive in the city, we get our transportation together (here in Florida there are shared rental cars) and we go check into our housing. Our company managers provide us with two options for hotels or efficiencies in each city--these are laid out for us on an offering sheet called a "greenie," because it's printed on green paper. Some company members choose to find their own housing, perhaps sharing an apartment or house with several others; some stay with friends or family in a given city. This week I have a very nice studio efficiency and am carpooling into Jacksonville for the gym and work with another actor. Our assistant company manager Jeff is a whiz at getting us free access to gyms in the towns where we work, and believe me when I say, it's a necessity that we stay in shape. It's a great benefit to working on this tour.



Tuesday, 5:30PM

We report two hours before the opening performance for sound check. While the orchestra rehearses, we all gather for a company meeting where our production stage manager, Ken, tells us about the facility, what if any understudies will be performing during the week, and other business to aid us all in adjusting to the theatre and the space. After the meeting we go on stage for sound check. Each performer in "Spamalot" wears a microphone. Those of us in principal roles wear two. These mikes are small and flesh colored and usually sit on one side or the other of the forehead, with a cord that is pinned to the hair and runs down the back of the neck to a mike pack which holds the battery and transmitter, and is held in place in an elastic belt. This cord is then covered by our wig caps (a nylon cap that covers the hair) and then the wig goes on over that. At sound check we just pin our mikes on and run through a handful of musical numbers, especially group numbers, both to rehearse with the orchestra and for the sound technician to get the right balance of all our voices through the system and with the acoustics of the particular theatre.



After soundcheck is done the first night, we don't do it again, and simply come in for our 7:30 half hour call. On Tuesday, some go and get a bite to eat or warm up prior to half hour. At half hour we receive the call over the intercom. Usually at half hour people start makeup, do some vocal warmups, and generally get prepared for the show. On opening night in each city we also meet our dressers. A dresser is someone who works with the wardrobe crew and assists the performers in getting in and out of their many costumes. There are dressers assigned to the ensemble men and women and also to the principals. I share a dresser with Brad Bradley, who plays Patsy in the show. Dressers are indispensable! They make it possible for us to do lightning fast changes of costume and character. They also make sure we have water backstage when we need it and other small things that make a big difference to our performances. Not only that, they do our laundry! That's a lot of sweaty tights!

At the 15 minute call, my hairdresser Suzanne comes in with my wigs and puts me into my first one. She pins it into my wig cap, which is pinned into place using little springs that get clipped into my own hair. All the wigs (there are 88 of them in the show) are made of human hair and the hairlines of each are hooked into flesh colored transparent netting or "lace." These hairlines are based on tracings of our own hairlines so that when we put the wig on the hair appears to be growing out of our own heads! We have three amazing hair and makeup people who travel with the show and we always have another hairdresser in each city who assists in the hair department.

We get a five minute call and then a "places" call at which point all of us who will be in the opening portion of the show go and get into our starting positions back stage. The last few moments before the overture, we stretch and chat a little, get our props etc. I get up into my place during the overture. It is a small platform with a cushioned piece for me to kneel on behind the high window of the portal tower stage right (stage directions are always from the actor's perspective). So I climb a ladder and kneel there during the opening number, watching the "Finland" extravaganza. Then when the scene changes, I crouch down and the window is opened by a stagehand. And at the appropriate cue, I pop up in the window: "Hallo? Who goes there?" and my show is off and running.


I hope that gives you a little taste of back stage. More on the workings of the show in a later entry. We opened tonight in Jacksonville at the Times Union Center, a huge modern facility with 3000 seats. It was a little challenging to do the show in such a huge space. The audience seems (and is) so far away from us! Jacksonville is all reflective towers and modern architecture, and it feels very clean and very Florida. We met our new King, Gary Beach, today. I don't know if any of you have ever gotten to work with someone you greatly admire, but I am just thrilled to work with Gary. He is someone who is the kind of comic actor I would aspire to be, and who has given some incredible performances on Broadway, most notably of late as flamboyant director Roger DeBris in "The Producers" and as star of the revival of "La Cage Aux Folles." As a fan of his work it is so fantastic to have this opportunity to share the stage with him. He is in rehearsals this week and we will get to join him in rehearsal later this week. Well, I am a bit bushed so I will sign off for now. More later from sunny Florida.

For the Claymates

Week 11: Nashville, TN

This will be a brief entry, friends, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank the fans of Clay Aiken who seem to have suddenly discovered my blog and have written very nice comments for me. I have published your kind words and I feel very happy that you took the time to share with me not only your enthusiasm for Clay but for "Spamalot." It is clear that Clay's fans are people who appreciate talent and who are inspired by kindness and good spirit. I am sure by now Clay is having a total blast playing Robin, as am I. Once you have done the show enough, it gets into your muscles and you can let your spirit soar and enjoy the connection with the audience. Then the real fun begins. Come Sunday evening here in Nashville I will have given 71 performances of the part. How time flies!

I did want to mention to the fans of Clay Aiken and also to anyone visiting my blog and wanting to say hello that you can email me directly at james@jamesbeaman.com. When you post a comment to the blog I am not always able to respond to your questions directly. But to answer a couple that I received--yes, I will be with the tour when we hit the midwest this spring. We will be doing dates in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. For dates, visit the "Spamalot" website and click on the tour map to find a city near you. Also to the Clay fan who wrote from Vancouver--you will be pleased to know that the tour is coming to your town. We will be there for a month in July and yes, I will be performing there.

Since I am here I can relate a few more of my Nashville adventures. I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is a fascinating museum, full of wonderful memorabilia, costumes and guitars owned by some of the greats of country music, and even one of Elvis' Cadillacs with a gold interior and a finish made with crushed diamonds. There are rare recordings from the early days of the industry to listen to, and video interviews with greats like Dolly Parton. When you are in Nashville, don't miss it.
I also went to visit the Parthenon, a replica of the original ancient Greek temple which was built originally as part of Nashville's Centennial celebration in the late 19th century. It was a huge event similar to the World's Fair in St. Louis. The Parthenon is quite beautiful and houses a huge statue of Athena gleaming with gold leaf, as well as an art gallery with a permanent collection of fine paintings, including one by Winslow Homer.
Last night, to celebrate the birthday of one of our actors, we went to a real Nashville honky tonk club called The Stage. Packed with people wall to wall and rocking with good time country music, it was a real taste of the town. All that seemed to be missing were John Travolta, Debra Winger and an electric bull! And if you don't get the reference, then you're much younger than I...


Here is another in my growing gallery of photos with "Spamalot" dressers. Dressing Number 5 this week has been the lovely Tiffany. She is another one of those impossibly young looking mothers of three! She got involved in dressing at TPAC through an aunt years ago and it has become a steady sideline for her. She is just lovely. Well, folks, we head to sunny Florida next week and I already have my white Vans to wear with my linen pants during the day, and my jeans and cowboy boots to sport in the evening! Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day and best wishes until next time.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Week 11: Nashville, TN

Y'all take it easy now. This isn't Dallas, it's Nashville! They can't do this to us here in Nashville! Let's show them what we're made of. Come on everybody, sing! Somebody, sing!
--from the film "Nashville"

We closed our engagement in Hershey during a deep freeze. When we left the theatre, the crew was preparing for load out and the temperature was 14 degrees with a wind chill below zero and a bitter wind blowing. I prayed for those people. The crew of any show are always the unsung heroes of the production-- we get the standing ovation and then they get to break everything down and pack it up for the next city.
Our local crews work hard too, even though they are only part of the "Spamily" for a week. Here I am with my Hershey dresser, Jaki. Jaki is such a cool lady, mother of four (her oldest is in college--I know, I don't believe it either) who owned her own hair salon and now does numerous things to make her living--all of them with a wonderful sense of humor and a definite sense of cool. Thanks for the laughs Jaki!




And here we are in Nashville. The winter weather followed us here and this city is experiencing uncharacteristic snow and ice. I have been looking forward to Nashville because I had a sense that it was going to be a fun town. Thus far I have not been disappointed. Nashville is very much like other American cities that have history but have changed with the times. The architectural landscape is a series of contradictions--19th century churches next to glass skyscrapers, funky old buildings sandwiched between steel towers. Music and the music business are everywhere. Guitar cases are as common as briefcases in the downtown streets. Places like Printer's Alley harken back to another time, a time of honky tonks and country boys coming to Nashville to find their big break in the music biz. Those country boys and girls are still coming to Nashville full of dreams of stardom and the city is rife with places to hear great music. There are even boxes on the street corners that blast country music all day long, just to keep the soundtrack of the city going.





And the Nashville audience knows how to appreciate live performance. Our opening night audience was like a rock concert! Such enthusiasm, such quick ears--this audience was laughing and applauding in places no other audience yet has. And there are plenty of Python fans in Nashville. The atmosphere at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center was like a big party. And the Nashville audience raised all of our spirits to a high that reminded me why I got into this business in the first place. For the joy of sharing the live experience. It is wild, too, to perform in this HUGE ultra modern facility after the quaint Venetian chocolate box of the Hershey Theatre. There you would run off into the wings and practically hit a wall (or a crew member)--here the stage is so large that there is enough room behind our set for a whole other stage!


One of my missions while here in Nashville was to buy a pair of cowboy boots. I don't know exactly why I got fixated on this idea but I thought Music City would be a good place to shop. I found a place called Boot Country which is on Broadway where there is a strip of honky tonks and Western stores and souvenir shops. I walked in and had not exchanged two words with one of the salespeople, Paul, before he said, "You're from New York, huh? Here with 'Spamalot?'". We started talking and it turns out Paul is an interesting guy who has lived many lives. He was an actor at one point, having appeared in the original Chicago production of the musical "Hair." In 1970 he became a born again Christian and was handing out pamphlets when he met Jim Morrison. He told me the story of meeting him and handing him a pamphlet which Morrison took without saying a word, crumpled it up, and ate it. Paul is an interesting guy. I tried on probably 20 pairs of boots, finally deciding on a wonderful pair of vintage style boots, just like the ones the guys wore on "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza." But it turns out Boot Country is buy one pair GET TWO FREE. So I got two free pairs! I now have a boot wardrobe which I have to somehow travel from city to city--I guess I will have to take up two-stepping! Well, the weather report for Jacksonville, Florida says 60s and 70s. Hallelujah. More from sunny Florida next week...

Choco-lot

Week 10: Hershey, PA

Our bus ride from Providence took us through the gloom of an overcast Monday into the Pennsylvania Dutch Country and finally into Hershey. In Hershey it is all chocolate, all the time. It is the Vegas of chocolate. Milton Hershey came into Derry Church, PA back in 1906 and created a chocolate dynasty, and named the town after himself. We are playing at the Hershey Theatre and staying at a hotel on Chocolate Avenue. Will I survive the run here without going into sugar shock? The drive into the town is truly surreal because the road winds its way, essentially, through a theme park, which right now in February is out of operation. The landscape looks like dinosaur skeletons with all the twisting steel roller coasters banking the road on either side. The street lamps are crowned with giant Hershey's Kisses and there is a very faint, odd odor of chocolate in the air at all times.


The Hershey Theatre is part of Milton Hershey's vision for his community, and was built in 1933 in a Venetian style. It is very attractive inside, with newly restored lobby complete with lovely gold mosaic ceilings. The proscenium arch is meant to evoke the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, and the place has little lion emblems and figures everywhere. Being a devotee of all things Venetian (I have the lion of St. Mark tattooed to my back!), I find the theatre really sweet and amusing.
The cramped backstage area with its shallow wings and antiquated dressing rooms is not as sweet but this amazing crew and company are making do and the show went off on our opening night without a hitch.

There are few things to do within walking distance of our hotel here in Hershey and the weather has been gray and rainy since we arrived. I did however feel obligated to do something chocolate while here. So I took a stroll over to Chocolate World, an attraction which is part of the Hersheypark compound, and which is essentially a place for kids to enjoy and for their parents to purchase lots of Hershey products and souvenirs. I of course had to buy chocolate and indulged in things I had not seen before--jumbo Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Special Dark Hershey's Kisses and a bar of antioxidant rich 60% dark chocolate (yeah, I am kidding myself that I bought it for health reasons). I sidestepped the "attractions" which included some sort of 3-D movie spectacular, and went over to the Hershey Museum. The exhibits primarily tell the story of Milton Hershey, the son of Mennonites in the late 19th century who went from confectioner's apprentice, to entrepreneur, to founder of a community and philanthropist. His is quite a fascinating story in the grand American tradition of the self-made man. And he did many, many great things for his community--he chose to build his base of operations near his birthplace here, built a town with its own transportation system for his workers, established a home and school for orphans. And of course, created a confectionary dynasty. The museum houses his collections of Native American artifacts and Pennsylvania German objects and antiques; there is also an exhibit commemorating the 100th birthday of the Hershey's Kiss. All in all, a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. I wandered a little in the theme park, eerily boarded up, a sad little imitation Tudor village. I was very amused to find this oddity--the Roller Cowster--which is cute in view of the flying cow in our show. Fechez la Vache!

Divine Providence

Week 9: Providence, RI


Every city has its beauties. Sometimes you just have to go hunt them down. Downtown Providence (or "Down City" as they call it here) had fallen into a bad state and it is experiencing a renaissance, with lots of restaurants, clubs and hotels. Still it is an area in transition. Up above the downtown area is the historic College Hill district, with beautifully restored Colonial and Federal homes as well as a few Victorians. I went for a walk along Benefit Street, the main drag through this neighborhood. The houses are just wonderful, and all with plaques giving the name of the original owners; people with names like Duty Adams and Samuel Staples. America's first Baptist church is in this neighborhood as well as the John Brown house and among other things, the Rhode Island School of Design.





I have not gotten to do a whole lot in Providence as we are in rehearsals to integrate some new actors into our production. Add to that busy activity the fact that it is Michael Siberry and Jeff Dumas' last weekend with us, so there are all sorts of events to send them off in style. Our producer came to the show here as well as both of our assistant directors. My agent, Jim Flynn, came up from New York to see me and it was great to share the success with him. I admire Jim a lot. He put himself through law school while working as an agent, and he has great integrity and really likes uniquely talented, well trained actors. We took production photos this week with Joan Marcus so before too long I should have some nice Robin images to share! All in all, it has been a busy week. In the tradition of my blog to date, here is a photo of me with my Providence dresser, Bethany. I didn't get to know too much about Bethany; she was a very quiet girl. But she politely laughed at my jokes so she's okay in my book!




I think I am finally getting my legs under me in the show and in the tour. Nothing can really prepare you for an experience like this--you just have to take the plunge and roll with it, learning as you go. Sustaining oneself and making sure one has the energy, the health and stamina for the job is a constant project. There are no real days off, one is moving in and out of strange hotel rooms, sleeping in strange beds, and finding one's meals on the fly or making simple ones in the hotel room. Taking time to explore a place a little, or read a book, go to the gym or simply do nothing can make the difference when one has to summon up the energy every night to pump it out for another appreciative crowd. None of this is for the faint of heart! I have been blessed thus far to have been able to see special people from my life in every city I have been to thus far. I have reconnected with some really wonderful people through this and that is a great blessing. More from the land of sweets, Hershey, PA, this coming week, friends.