Yep, this week I gave my 400th performance as Sir Robin. That's 800 screams, 1200 times I "shat my pants", 2800 times I had my wig put on and taken off, and 2000 knee slides. That's a lot of mileage on the ol' carcass.
My week started with a lovely day off; a Monday of luxuries. I started with a little mani/pedi--some of the other performers found a nail place with a grand opening special package and we all flocked in there to get sloughed, trimmed and buffed. Then I took a wintry walk up Michigan Avenue, the "Magnificent Mile," which is pretty much Chicago's answer to Fifth Avenue. Lined with impressive hotels, designer boutiques and glass enclosed malls, it is one of those rarefied stretches of American real estate dedicated to the elite and the wealthy. At the northernmost end of the Mile is the old world splendor of the Drake Hotel.
My buddy Tim met me to partake of the Drake's afternoon high tea, held in the swanky Palm Court, where a tinkling fountain and a fabulous harp player set the mood. And the veddy veddy English tradition is alive and well at the Drake, with tea cakes, scones, sandwiches, clotted cream and lemon curd, and an impressive menu of various teas and infusions. I nearly gave myself a heart attack with caffeine overload from many cups of sweet and strong Irish breakfast tea! It was a real delight, and one of the must-do things of Chicago.
Monday night I went out to the DePaul University campus to see a student theatrical production directed by my former acting teacher and friend, Catherine Weidner. She ran the Academy for Classical Acting in Washington where I got my graduate degree and is a marvelous person and a gifted teacher.
The students performing "Twelfth Night" at DePaul were third year undergrads of varying ability, but the production itself--performed bare bones with a few rudimentary props and costume pieces in the round in a rehearsal studio--was terrific. Catherine's cutting and interpretation of the play was fresh and honest and the performances were exuberant and energetic. She had a four piece jazz combo playing an original score composed by a graduate music student and they added vibrancy and energy to the show. In short, it was a delight. And I sat there, the big shot actor in the glittery Broadway national tour, and I realized I was jealous. These kids are just discovering what they can do and just digging in to Shakespeare and the craft of acting. They bring passion and wonderment to it and I know that the creative process that Catherine led them through was challenging and uplifting. I sat there, a bit misty eyed and applauding their work, and realized that I miss that collaboration that is the birthing of a piece of theatre. I am grateful and happy to be a part of "Spamalot" but as a replacement actor, I missed out on the initial collaboration that resulted in the piece we are performing. I love that first day of rehearsal when everyone comes to the project at the same level and discovers it together. Nothing like it.
One performer in "Spamalot" who has known that experience, as an original cast member of several Broadway shows, including ours, is Brad Bradley.
Brad leaves us this week after a year of playing Patsy on the road, but he has been in "Spamalot" since the very beginning of the production, and is, as far as I know, the last remaining original cast member to leave the production. Brad is a kind and gentle soul and a talented man who started dancing as a kid and is now making the transition from ensemble dancer to principal actor with grace and ability. I will definitely miss him and wish him all the best as he returns home to New York City.
This week couldn't pass without a visit to a museum! I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, the free admission day sponsored by Target. The slogan of this museum is FEAR NO ART, and indeed the installations I saw there were fearless; some were political, confrontational, others were whimsical and deeply thought provoking. Jenny Holtzer employs electronic signs that scroll LED texts drawn from declassified government documents related to prisoners of war and US plans for the invasion of Iraq, while nearby, human bones are laid out in a sterile and systematic way on cold examination tables. Chilling. On the more whimsical side, there was a wonderful exhibit of pieces by Alexander Calder, featuring his signature mobiles and sculptural "objects" culled from found materials. My favorite installation was of works by Joseph Grigely.
Grigely was rendered deaf at the age of ten in an accident and has spent his life as an artist exploring the nature of communication, of various forms of "speech"--both spoken and gestural--and illuminating for the hearing his unique perceptions of the world. A lip reader, he sometimes employs scraps of paper when holding a conversation with someone to write things out for clarity. He saves these papers and then arranges them in wall pieces that become fascinating mosaics of thought and dialogue. He also did a really amusing video project with a choir singing familiar songs like "My Favorite Things" and "Silent Night;" he wrote out the words that he got from lip-reading the singers, showing how very imprecise this form of interpretation can be. And he recorded the choir singing both the original and the "new" lyrics, presenting a funny and touching contrast. It struck me, walking around this museum, which is, like many contemporary art museums, an exercise in negative space (vast white rooms occupied only marginally by the actual artworks), that the classical artists I love were exploring ways of interpreting the world they saw with their eyes and imaginations. Contemporary artists, many of them, are trying to explore the role of the artist himself. One school of art explored what they saw, and another explores the seer.
Meet Jeannie!
Jeannie is my dresser here in Chicago and she is a seasoned pro, having done this for 20 years. Her first show was "Starlight Express" (imagine dressing your first production and it's a musical on roller skates!) and since then she has worked with some of the top performers in show business, from Donny Osmond to Tony Curtis. Jeannie is a pistol--quick to laugh and joke around and just a bubbly, delightful gal. I am making the most of my last weekend in Chicago, with some nightclubbing and tickets to a show at the renowned Goodman Theatre. I really like this town, and I hope I will get to come back and explore it again soon. Detroit beckons... I am looking forward to bringing laughter to a community that has been hard hit by the economic setbacks our country has been suffering. More from Motown next week.
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