Back In the Saddle Again

Week 42: Toronto, ON

I want to start this post by following up on my last one regarding Clay Aiken. Thanks to all of Clay's fans who wrote me to express their regret about the few sour emails I had about my commentary on Clay's performance in "Spamalot" and to show their support. Your many voices by far drowned out the few dissenting ones. I never imagined my simple posting would elicit such DRAMA!! It's been reproduced on Clay Aiken sites all over the web, as has the picture I took with Clay (one site even stole the photo and cropped me out of it so it's just Clay!). His fans are very busy people!
Anyway, as I have said, I wish Clay the best in "Spamalot" and in all areas of his life. And I applaud his decision to come out and be truthful about his sexual orientation, both for his own sake and his child's. It is a testament to his integrity that he did so. I have read a phrase that his fans have used: "We came for the voice, but we stayed for the man." I hope that Clay's revelation, and his reasons for sharing it, will deepen the respect and admiration his many supporters have for him. I wish him all the best.

I arrived in Toronto nervous but very much relieved to be getting back to work. I joined my housemates at the enormous house we are renting in the neighborhood known as Old Cabbagetown. This area, which is only a short walk from where we are performing, was settled in the 1840s by Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine. In order to put food on the table, they grew cabbages in their front yard, thus lending the neighborhood it's distinctive name. The area is full of wonderful old houses, many of which, like the one in which we are lodging, have been beautifully restored. It's still a rather sketchy neighborhood, with a ragtag assortment of vagrants, druggies, prostitutes and crazies roaming about. I am told in recent years more and more people have migrated into the downtown areas of Toronto, prompting new developments and the gentrification of the old neighborhoods. Cabbagetown is one such neighborhood which is still in transition.

The company welcomed me warmly back into the fold and while I had a lot of nerves that first night back, I was able to make it through the show with the leg behaving itself. What a relief! I have a great physical therapist here and between the work I am doing with him and my renewed gym schedule plus lots of rest, I am getting back into my performance routine with only minor adjustments to some of the more strenuous moves in the show. Unfortunately, the show is not selling well here in Toronto and our audiences have been woefully small; disheartening for us, as we are so used to sell out crowds of a couple thousand people. It's "Spamalot's" second time in Toronto and the show has had to compete with things like the Toronto International Film Festival and the enormously popular first time engagement of "Jersey Boys." However, we have our own draws; I am told Patrick Heusinger, our Lancelot, who recently made a splash in a guest star role on the popular TV show "Gossip Girl," has been attracting small hordes of screaming female fans! I have not yet witnessed this phenomenon but I am looking forward to that. Such fun to tease him about his growing fame. Patrick, along with some other beloved members of our company, including my dear friend Bree, is leaving us after Toronto. There are many changes in store for the tour.

We are performing at the Canon Theatre this week.
It has a rich history, stretching back to 1920, when it was built as a combination vaudeville and movie house as part of the Pantages circuit. Over the years the theatre exchanged hands several times and was for most of its life exclusively a cinema. Interestingly, the first legitimate theatrical production ever to grace the stage was "Phantom of the Opera" in 1989. A grant from Canon Canada in 2001 for the preservation of the theatre lent it it's current name. It is a handsome house, with rich gold leaf and royal purple. I just wish there were fewer empty seats.

I expect next week to be able to roam about Toronto a bit more; I have been taking it easy this week in order to rest the leg. Toronto is a city of little neighborhoods, each with its special character or ethnic identity. I look forward to exploring some of these; and of course a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum, to appease the art dork within, will be on the agenda. I had two questions this week about the tour so here goes:

Michelle writes:

How is your costume holding out? You are almost at the one year point for your performance. Have they had to replace any parts of your costume, or have your dressers kept it in good repair? I know they did all the fittings and construction last fall.

All of our costumes are extremely well maintained both by our traveling wardrobe crew and the local stitchers and dressers who are hired in each city. They are constantly mending, re-beading, cleaning and sprucing up our costumes to keep them looking fresh and new. I'd say my costumes are doing very well. Sometimes certain things wear out--especially the elastic that holds my plastic "armor" pieces together, and my leather gauntlet gloves which absorb a great deal of sweat every performance. The rubber on the soles of my boots has to be mended fairly frequently and things like that. But these costumes are expertly built to last.

Pam asks:

How long does it take the crew to break down and load the touring set? And, how long does it take to set it up in the new theatre location? My hats off to them! It must be doubly exhausting when the show has only 1 or 2 performances in a
location.

I am actually planning to hang around and witness a load out one of these days and do a special blog post about it. My understanding is that it takes several hours; but the traveling crew have it down to a science and during the last day of performances all sorts of preparations are made to assure a quick dismantling and loading of the set, props and costumes. My understanding is that the crew has 18 hours in each new theatre to load in and set up the show. This means essentially that when we are doing one week engagements in each place the crew gets no day off. They travel either Sunday night after load out or Monday morning, get to the next theatre, meet the local crew, and do the load in, which has to be completed by the time the company gets there for sound check prior to the first performance of the week. The crew are the unsung heroes of the show, no doubt about it. Fortunately, we do not do less than a week of performances in any given city. Doing one or two shows, as you mention, Pam, would be called a "split week" and our production doesn't do split weeks.

Well friends, more from Toronto next week.