The Man Who Would Be King

Week 68: Wilmington, DE

This week we began rehearsing with John O'Hurley, who will be our new King Arthur until at least the fall. While he doesn't begin performing with us until our opening in Anchorage in a few weeks, he came to Wilmington to work with us this week. "Spamalot" is not new to John, as he was the star of the Las Vegas production at Wynn Casino which closed last summer. He has most recently been playing Billy Flynn with the tour of "Chicago." You will know Mr. O'Hurley from his many television appearances, which range from playing the role of J. Peterman on "Seinfeld," to winning the first season of "Dancing With the Stars" in a controversial "dance-off," to hosting several game shows, including "Family Feud." But this versatile and accomplished man has far more to his credit than that. He is a successful voiceover artist, providing the voices for many cartoons and video games; he is a venture capitalist and principal partner in two companies; he is an accomplished musician and composer, with a CD out of his cello and piano compositions; he is a motivational speaker and the creator of products for corporations to increase productivity and customer satisfaction; he maintains a single digit handicap in golf; he is a published author; and he is a devoted husband and father. In short, John O'Hurley is THE MAN. He is larger than life in every way, and his Arthur is supremely dignified, ultimately befuddled, and as charming and charismatic as Mr. O'Hurley is himself. It will be great working with him.

We are performing this week in the historic DuPont Theatre in Wilmington.
Originally built as The Playhouse Theatre in 1913 as a venue for out of town tryouts of shows heading to Broadway, the DuPont has the distinction of being the tiniest theatre we have played since I joined the tour. The house itself is lovely and intimate, about 1200 seats, but the back stage areas are cramped and claustrophobic. My dressing room is like a small train compartment in which I have to stand to do my makeup; the stage door opens out into the lobby, and all week I have left work and come smack dab into a crowd of patrons! The theatre is housed in the swanky DuPont Hotel and is of course a popular destination here; the sold out houses have been most gratifying.

Wilmington itself has a rich history. More than a hundred years ago, it was the center of the iron and steel industry in America and a major shipbuilding hub, with foundries and factories lining the Christina River (named for Queen Christina of Sweden by the Swedes who originally settled here). Today, Wilmington is the center of the credit card industry, and the banks of the Christina River are now an attractive river walk, lined with restaurants, condos and a farmer's market. Great care has been taken in the development of the riverfront, and the marshes and wetlands on the river have been meticulously preserved to support wildlife and the flocks of migratory birds that are attracted to the area. Wilmington was an important player in African-American history.
During the Civil War, it was a treacherous and crucial passage through which the Underground Railroad operated, with heroes like Harriet Tubman leading the courageous effort to bring southern slaves to freedom in the north. Despite these efforts, criminal gangs successfully abducted free slaves, selling them back into slavery down south, a shameful part of Wilmington's history which is movingly remembered in a monument on the Riverwalk. In fact, African Americans are further honored with Harriet Tubman Park and public ways named after Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, Wilmington seems to have a large black community and it's great to see their cultural history being honored in this way. My favorite discovery, in my early morning walks through Wilmington, was the architectural cornucopia that is Market Street, the main business strip leading up from the railroad station and riverfront. The street still retains much of the feeling it must have had as travelers ascended the hill carrying their carpet bags in the 19th century. It is lined with a wonderful collection of buildings from various periods, from the carefully preserved 18th century houses on Willingtown Square, to ornate late 19th and early 20th century structures, to some marvelous streamlined examples of Art Deco design.
While many of these old buildings are boarded up and crumbling, one can see the efforts to restore these great structures, particularly in the Lower Market Design District, which is revitalizing this historic street. Perhaps the most imposing of the architectural features of Market Street is the Grand Opera House, its white gingerbread facade creating a fanciful effect, especially at night, when it is washed with lights in shifting rainbow colors.

I have received a couple more questions via my website regarding touring life, and thought I would answer them here this week. Just a note to those of you who want to send me a personal message or a question--rather than posting a comment here on the blog, shoot me an email instead at james@jamesbeaman.com.

One reader asks:

Got a cosmetic question for you -- I noticed in one of your pics, MAC was on the table. Is that usually the best make up to use for those who appear on stage and/or tv?


Our wig and hair department supplies all the makeup we need for the show, and they use a combination of MAC and Makeup For Ever, which is a French brand. For specialty things, like the "dirt" we use on our faces in the early scenes, we use products from Ben Nye, which is a tried and true theatrical makeup company. MAC does make products suitable for stage work, and of course they have a great many products and choices. MAC was started by a group of professional makeup artists in Canada and was bought out several years ago by Estee Lauder. When I played the lead in "La Cage Aux Folles" a few years ago, MAC "sponsored" me and provided me with all of my makeup for the show.

Wendy writes:

My family saw Spamalot 'way back in frigid Peoria in January and loved it! My husband has been reading your blog on his lunchbreaks since then and is now all caught up. One thing we wondered - do the musicians tour with the show, or do you use 'local' musicians at each city? My sons both play instruments and they always want to know about other musicians.


Our tour travels right now with a drummer, a trumpet player, and two keyboard players, plus our conductor. The rest of the orchestra is jobbed in in each city, and I believe five additional musicians are hired: a woodwind player, a bass player, guitarist, violinist, and an additional brass player. When we have our longer runs in California this summer we will only be bringing with us our two keyboard players and the rest of the orchestra will be local, per the rules of the union out there.

Danielle is my Wilmington dresser.
She is primarily a costume, wig and makeup designer and works with the theatre department at University of Delaware as well as the Delaware Theatre Company. While she works wardrobe for us, she is busy creating wigs for three shows at once. Industrious girl! Well, folks, Wilmington has been a busy week. We have had some intensive rehearsals with Casey Nicholaw, the original choreographer of the show, in anticipation of our highly publicized openings in San Francisco and L.A., in addition to the company rehearsals to integrate John O'Hurley into our production. After our Cleveland engagement next week, we all get a blessed week off!

The 'Burbs

Week 67: Atlanta, GA

When you travel as much as I have been, certain absurdities about the travel industry become just part of the drill. Airport security, with its usual series of indignities, has led me to become what they call an "expert traveler." No belt on travel day, slip on shoes for easy removal, my lip balm and toothpaste in regulation ziploc bag. But certain aspects of airline travel nowadays just get up my nose. The most glaring example of gouging imaginable is the new baggage fees.
Airlines now charge you an "excess baggage fee" just for having checked baggage. Used to be no charge for the first bag, a nominal fee for the second bag checked. Not so anymore. You have to pay just to have luggage. And not only that, if your bag is even one pound over the limit of 50 pounds, you pay an exorbitant fee. On Delta, flying from Austin to Atlanta, I paid $15 for my first bag, $25 for my second bag, and because my suitcase was three pounds overweight, I was charged $90. That's $30 per pound. In all, the fees came to $130, enough to have bought an extra plane ticket. Now, our company covers these charges, as our union requires them to transport a certain amount of baggage for us, but nevertheless these fees are pure GREED on the part of the airlines and are an outrage. End of diatribe.

Atlanta, as you may know, is not merely a city. It is a region. Downtown Atlanta is a small fraction of what makes up the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is made up of a plethora of counties and communities that sprawl in every direction. We are playing Atlanta this week, but technically we are in Cobb County--northwest of Atlanta--in an area called Cumberland, which is kinda-sorta part of Smyrna. In short, we are in the suburbs of Atlanta. The reason for our being out here in the land of malls, shopping centers, and office parks is our snazzy venue, The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
This state of the art facility opened less than two years ago and is an impressive structure of enormous glass tiers rising in stylized "waves", with a multi-story grand facade that offers a view at night of the alabaster grand staircase and massive gold and Murano glass chandeliers in the style of Dale Chihuly. It's a very beautiful venue which just happens to be a half hour outside of Atlanta in an affluent suburb. Because our hotel is within walking distance of the theatre, we have no company vehicles this week, so there's not a whole lot to do out here except eat at chain restaurants and shop.

Our opening night was made a bit more special than usual by a visit from none other than Clay Aiken. Clay drove six hours in order to see his good friend Merle Dandridge, with whom he performed in "Spamalot" on Broadway. I admit that when I heard he was out front, I got a couple butterflies; one always feels that extra scrutiny from another performer who has played the same part. But turnabout is fair play--I got to see Clay perform when I was in New York last fall-- and I was actually delighted to show him my take on Sir Robin. He stopped back stage after the performance and was very complimentary to me. It was nice to see him again, and what a good friend he is to come and see his buddy Merle strut her stuff.

On the glorious first day of spring this Friday, I took the public bus downtown to visit the High Museum of Art. The museum was hosting two special exhibitions, one about the Louvre and the other an army of terra cotta soldiers from China. Both had long lines for tickets and to see the exhibits and I am not one to be pushed through an art show with a crowd of people. I opted to visit the permanent collection, which I found rather meagre. The museum itself is very modern looking; vast stark white atria with a series of ascending ramps connecting floors, similar to the Guggenheim in New York. What alarmed me was that the gallery spaces were all fairly wide open with no real climate control within each space, and with the natural light flooding in from the large windows on every floor, I worried about the preservation of the artworks, being exposed to these factors. I was also really concerned that the paintings seemed poorly supervised. The vinyl transfer captions on the walls next to each piece were peeling and rubbed away in places, and the walls themselves marked with grimy fingerprints. I shudder to think that priceless artworks are being handled by thoughtless fingers. Anyway, there were some nice pieces in the collection, including some representatives of French impressionism, including Monet, Renoir, Camille-Corot; some nice decorative art pieces from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright, and a few nice Renaissance pieces including a fine Madonna and Child by Bellini. The one representative of the Carravagist school was Nicolas Tournier, and his Denial of St. Peter. A French painter who lived and worked in Rome, he was clearly influenced by Caravaggio; all the hallmarks of the school are present in this work: the anachronistic costumes and dramatic gestures of the figures, and the sculpting of light and shadow. My favorite piece in the High collection is a small, wonderfully spontaneous portrait by John Singer Sargent of his friend Ralph Curtis, on the beach at Scheveningen. The piece was clearly created on the spot on the beach, as evidenced by the grains of sand embedded in the paint. It's a free and happy small masterwork, by a portraitist who usually worked in a larger scale, more formal style.



Check it out! Two lovely fans from Huntsville, Brooke and Jenni, who took our show to their hearts when we played there (and me and Ben Davis in particular), drove all the way to Atlanta to see us again.
It's amazing that they are so enthusiastic that they would come all that way. What's more, they made, with their own hands, this fantastic "action figure" of me as Sir Robin, complete with chicken tabard, studded gloves and floppy red wig. It is one of the dearest and loveliest things ever, and even sweeter because they made it themselves to thank me for my work in the show. My new "mini me" will travel with my makeup kit and sit on every dressing table from now on. And when I am back home in New York, he will become a new addition to my Christmas tree. Many thanks to you, Brooke and Jenni, for your kindness and support!! You rock.

My dresser at the Cobb Energy Centre is Kelley.
Kelley dressed Robin and Patsy when the tour played the Fox Theatre in Atlanta a couple years ago, so she knows the tracks well, but her finesse and expertise are in the blood. Kelley is a third generation wardrobe worker, following in the family business of stage hand work which started with her grandparents. In short, she was born to do this, and she is the epitome of calm and skill. Kelley works mainly with the Atlanta Opera, which is in residence at the theatre, and she says we are the first big musical road company to play the venue. The 2,700 seat theatre has been quite full this week and the audiences have been great. Our next stop is Wilmington, Delaware, where we will meet the man who will be our next King Arthur, John O'Hurley. We have two more weeks with our beloved Richard Chamberlain, and then a one week layoff before we head to the west coast.

Keeping it Weird

Week 66: Austin, TX

I have a soft spot for Austin. Six years ago, I did Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!" here at Zach Scott Theatre Center. It was a wonderful production of a great play and I had the marvelous role of Buzz, who is the comic center of the piece. It was a blast, and during the two months I was here I got to know and love Austin. An oasis of liberalism in the heart of Texas, Austin is it's own special world. It's a college town, home to University of Texas Austin (where we are performing this week at gigantic Bass Concert Hall), and a hub of live music, art, culture and creativity of all stripes. The city's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird," and in a way it's fitting. I love the diversity here, the funky neighborhoods, the open minded attitudes and the great music and food. I have had the chance to revisit some of my favorite haunts, especially the fabulous restaurants.
Chuy's (the original location on Barton Springs) is where you go for outrageously good Tex-Mex and kitschy homage to Elvis Presley. I have yet to have a tortilla soup as splendid as theirs. And for the best burger in Austin, it's Hut's, in the same location since 1939 and full of old diner memorabilia. I had a Richie Valens burger, overflowing with grated cheese, tomatoes, jalapenos, and guacamole. So much for the diet. The shopping is great here, as is the nightlife, and the "Spamalot" tour had it's own special Austin celebration when we marked our three year anniversary this week.

We had a special brush up rehearsal this Thursday to polish up the music and choreography of the show. It was a nice opportunity for us all to get into a rehearsal hall together and reconnect with the work we do without the pressures of the audience out front. And a chance to just enjoy working together and refining what we do. Our stage manager Ken started the rehearsal by telling us that our Austin reviews were stellar and remarking that in all the time he has been on this tour he has only read one mixed review of our production. And he praised all of us for continuing to present a fine, committed, high energy show each and every time we get out there. This affirmation added to the sense of camaraderie and enjoyment we enjoyed in rehearsal this week, as well as to the celebration of our anniversary at Moonshine bar and restaurant, where we had great food and drink and stomped our feet to the fabulous sounds of Bluegrass band Milkdrive.
A great time was had by all. Here's Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Connell enjoying some party grub and camping it up for the camera. Sometimes in the thick of the whole relentless touring thing, it is easy to forget how lucky we all are to work within such a great group of people.

The annual South By Southwest Festival begins this weekend, with a film festival and an extensive lineup of live music events. You can feel the energy in the streets. Austin is definitely a place where things are happening, where people go out every night of the week, and where creative people are doing their own thing. There is art everywhere, from the tattoo parlors to the art and craft galleries, to the Austin Museum of Art. I ventured in this cold, rainy Friday and enjoyed a really beautiful exhibit of photography by Clifford Ross. Ross is a landscape photographer whose work spans from the realistic to the abstract. My favorites of his images were his series of surging waves captured by Ross during hurricanes along the Long Island coast. The majesty of these foaming towers of water, frozen in vivid tones of white and gray, is really captivating. I was glad to have a chance to catch a little bit of art in Austin this week.

The Austin crowds have been big, boisterous and appreciative and it has been a blast to perform here! Bass Concert Hall is enormous and it has been gratifying indeed to see those packed houses. My dresser this week is Trinka.
Trinka tells me her name is a Slavic derivative of Katherine, and Trinka is as unusual as her name. With a bright, eccentric personality, she goes about her job with a smile, answering in the affirmative with her chirpy "Yup-per!". She fell into wardrobe work when she was the driver for singers in the local opera company. One night she dropped her charges off at the theatre and was asked to fill in last minute as a dresser when the crew was shorthanded. She has not left the wardrobe world since. She's been great fun to work with. I wish we had more time in Austin for me to retrace all my favorite places here and discover new ones. But I know I will be back here. It's a great town. We are off to Atlanta next week--see you there!

Lush Life

Week 65: Tampa, FL

Some stops on our tour feel like resort vacations rather than work. Tampa is one such. Pristine, sleek, the city embodies everything I imagine a Floridian city to be. It's elegantly situated by water on many sides; it seems to all have been designed by the same architectural firm and been fabricated overnight. Reflective glass, creamy sherbet colors and lush plantings of palms, hibiscus, and bougainvillea. Our gym this week is over a bridge in chi-chi Harbour Island, all impeccable landscaping and gated communities, and my spacious room at the Sheraton Riverwalk Hotel has a balcony overlooking the Hillsborough River, with a view beyond it to the most eccentric feature of the Tampa skyline.

Plant Hall at the University of Tampa was built originally in the late 19th century by a wealthy magnate, Henry B. Plant, as the Tampa Bay Hotel.
This over the top fantasy castle in the "Moorish" style was meant to outdo any luxury resort up to that time. It rises five stories, with spires topped with silver minarets tipped with crescent moons. It has over 5000 rooms and was the vacation home for luminaries like U.S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt and Sarah Bernhardt. Now it is the main classroom building of the University, but, framed by flamboyant palms and silhouetted against a hot pink Floridian sunset, it looks like something out of The Arabian Nights.

On Friday, I took an adorable streetcar to historic Ybor City.
This, the Latin Quarter of Tampa, was established in the 1880s by a cigar manufacturer from Cuba, attracting Cuban, Spanish, and Italian immigrants, who came to Ybor City to work in the cigar trade. Today, this national historic district retains its multi-ethnic flavor, but like most re-gentrified ethnic neighborhoods, is also home now to the "funkier" element of Tampa--with gay clubs, artist's studios, tattoo and piercing shops, and a lively nightclub scene. The two story brick buildings, with their upper galleries framed in wrought iron railings are reminiscent of New Orleans, while the Latin music and cigar smoke wafting out on to the street speak to the neighborhood's Cuban roots. The only real eyesore in this charming neighborhood is the Centro Ybor outdoor mall, a tourist destination with all the familiar and tiresome American mall businesses like Urban Outfitters, Claire's Accessories, Starbucks. Americans simply cannot go to a new place and explore without having the security blanket of these ubiquitous temples of commercialism. Tacky. Hungry for an authentic experience and some real Cuban food, I wended my way to the Columbia Restaurant, a Tampa institution for over 100 years.
This popular (and noisy) eatery with its painted tile facade and wacky, overdone Spanish interior, serves some really stellar traditional food. I opted for the "El Combo de Cuba," with roast pork, rice and beans, empanada and fried plantains. Absolutely delicious. Despite the more touristy aspects of Ybor City, I am glad that Tampa has supported the ongoing life of this historic district and has encouraged commerce and tourism (even with the tacky mall shops). I wish more cities would invest in the heritage of their old neighborhoods. For example, I am waiting for someone enterprising to revive Coney Island in Brooklyn and bring it back to its former glory.

I love answering your questions about road life, but haven't had any in a while. This week, Jeff asked:

How much or does the change in weather and or venue change your performances?

Well, going from one climate to another definitely has an effect on one's health and energy levels. I have terrible seasonal allergies and asthma, and moving from the cold weather in the midwest to the warming spring of Florida had a real impact on my sinuses and bronchial tubes. That said, the warmer climate is more relaxing and rejuvenating. In terms of the effect of the venue on the performance, there are things to be adapted to in each theatre. Some theatres are enormous and the audience can be very far away from us. This requires us to really reach out with our energy and to bring a larger physical presence to our performances. Different spaces have different acoustics; sometimes we can hear ourselves perfectly and sometimes it is hard to find the balance between us and the orchestra. Some theatres are overheated; some underheated. Sometimes the climate on stage is so dry that we are guzzling water all night, sometimes it is so humid that I have sweated through my costume within minutes of starting the show. All of these things require our flexibility and good humor, but they also keep us on our toes.


My inner art lover was thwarted this week, as both the Tampa Museum of Art and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts were closed. Drat. I had to console myself with lounging by the pool, working out at our swanky gym... all right, smack me now, I know! We are performing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, a huge complex with a loyal following of theatre lovers. Richard has been received particularly warmly here, and it's been a good run.
I was reunited with Ann, my dresser from last year in Clearwater (lord, time flies). You may recall that Ann had been a competitive figure skater in her youth. She still has that elegant posture and bearing and is she ever the most impeccable pro! It's wild that I have been on this tour now long enough that I am repeating dressers. I am excited that our next stop is Austin, Texas! I did a play in Austin a few years ago and it is a good time town. I am so looking forward to a little two step, a little push-tush. See y'all in Texas.