Four Feet

Week 52: Sioux City, Iowa

Brrr! Sioux City is in the grip of a deep freeze this week, but apparently this is not unusual for this part of the country. The extremes of weather here in "Siouxland" are just part of the way of life. Still, the cold is brutal. Sioux City is a small, quiet place; I will be honest, there ain't a whole lot going on here. One of the young ladies in the show was at a local restaurant and she asked her server what there was to do in the area. The server enthusiastically said, "Well, "Spamalot" is in town!" When this dancer said she was in it, the waiter sort of shrugged and said, "Well, I don't know what to tell ya." So, this is a rather quiet week. There's a cineplex across the road from the hotel, and I got to see Baz Luhrmann's new epic "Australia."
Beautifully filmed, and starring Hugh Jackman, who is my new hero--he looks the way every 40-something man dreams of looking. His physique is beyond belief. Oh, and Nicole Kidman looks pretty too. But she is going the way of Meg Ryan with the weird plastic surgery on the lips. A collagen intervention is called for. Saw "Changeling" as well--grim, gripping, terribly upsetting. Beautifully directed by Clint Eastwood in his usual restrained style, with one exception. He seems to have been so seduced by Angelina Jolie's beauty that he allowed her to be given the full Hollywood glamour treatment, in a role that really would have been served by a little less makeup and fashion. Jolie gives a finely modulated, strong performance nonetheless. I have also had a couple nice meals here in town at a place called Sweet Fanny's, where the southern specialties they serve are first rate. The rest of my free time has been taken up with working out, writing Christmas cards, and taking driving lessons from my dear friend Tim. Tim and I did what I called jokingly a 'Thelma and Louise' road trip, flying into nearby Omaha and renting a car to drive the hour and a half to Sioux City. So we have a rental car this week and Tim has been taking me out to parking lots and back roads and letting me practice. I must say, I am doing pretty well!

We are performing at the Orpheum Theatre here in Sioux City.
Built in 1927 as part of the famous Orpheum vaudeville circuit, this local landmark went through a meticulous restoration which was completed just seven years ago. It's an opulent, beautiful old theatre with a fully restored Mighty Wulitzer organ. Unfortunately, the restoration process didn't include enlarging the playing space to accommodate today's large scale tours, like ours. When the crew arrived, they had to do some fancy footwork to fit our scenery into the shallow stage space. This meant eliminating four feet of the stage 'deck' from the front of the stage, foreshortening our playing space considerably. A few additional changes were required in the set and some restaging of some key moments in the show--the rehearsals for these changes being quickly accomplished just an hour before our opening performance. This made for an exciting and sometimes scary first show. With cast and crew on our toes the entire evening, making sure that everyone was safe and knew where to go in a very different space, the energy was kinetic. Only one moment of terror opening night, during the nun and monk pas de deux in the "Camelot" number. At the climax of the dance, the monk takes one of the nun's arms and one leg and spins 'her' around-- but with the stage space being smaller, this move brought the dancers perilously close to the pit and Matt, our nun, almost ended up in the string section! Scary! But there were great benefits to the sudden change in stage space as well: the energy on stage was electric, spontaneous; we were closer to the first rows of the audience which made for a stronger connection with the spectators. And what an audience! Don't judge a book by it's cover, folks. Sioux City may be sleepy but it's inhabitants are not. Rarely in my year on this tour have I experienced a more enthusiastic, responsive and appreciative audience. It was pure joy. The day after opening I was sitting in a local coffee shop and heard a group of elderly men talking about the show. One of them was rapturously reporting to his friends that our show "will spoil you for any other Broadway show--it's that good." I sat there, in anonymity, grinning with great satisfaction.

Something else touching happened on our opening night at the Orpheum. As you may remember, at the end of the show, Patsy goes out into the audience and finds the Holy Grail under the seat of an audience member. It's a different "peasant" and a different seat every night, and the unsuspecting person is brought up on stage in a bit that never fails to delight the audience. On our Sioux City opening, Brad Bradley, who plays Patsy, went out and brought up a young boy, a shy kid with floppy bangs half obscuring his eyes. The next day I received this message from our bass player in the band about just how special it was that this particular young boy, Austin, was selected:

Great show tonight in Sioux City. I play bass in the pit. I wanted to let you know about the boy you brought up on stage tonight. He has had a very rough year and is suffering major depression. He has been in and out of school all year and his father passed away earlier this year. This is the second time he has gone anywhere besides school in the past few months. Today was his birthday and also the first time his family has seen him smile in months, and you have it captured in the picture you took tonight. I know it was not planned but you made his family very happy today. Kudos to you and the cast!


My emotional reaction to this touching news requires no comment. What we do does matter.

The holiday season always brings with it a time of reflection for me, when I look back over the year that has passed; the gains, the losses, the lessons learned, new friends made, and the growth that new adventures have engendered in me. This tour has been a seminal event in my career. After 20 years of solid work in many areas of the profession, from cabaret to Shakespeare festivals, I got a real 'break' being offered Sir Robin. It has been a year of many firsts and a chance to see the country. I have experienced more of North America in the past year than I have in my entire life. The opportunity to travel, to make a good living as an actor in a profession that offers a precious few such chances, to reach out and connect with our audiences and to be able to share my experiences with people like you... all this has been an embarrassment of riches. I feel very blessed. And my "Spamalot" adventure will continue into 2009. I have been asked to stay on at least until May. So there will be many more tales to tell in the next five months. I hope you will stay on for the ride.

My dresser here is Chris.
She qualifies as the coolest dresser I have worked with thus far on the tour. Chris was at one time a jockey in Colorado; she married and moved back to Iowa, working in her parents' photography studio. In her mid-forties, she decided to test to become a firefighter and passed! She is now the only female firefighter in her station house. Many of the guys she works with take part time work as stagehands and she followed suit, which is what brings her back stage at the Orpheum. This fascinating lady also competes in riding competitions with her horse Boo Boo. I just think she is the coolest. Next week is a layoff week, and I will be returning to New York to attend to some business there and then spending a long weekend with my Mom in Massachusetts, celebrating an early Christmas together. So look for a post the week after, from our Lady of the Lake Esther Stilwell's home town of Fayetteville, Arkansas.