Bergen is Okay - But We're Exhausted (Aug.27)

i know it's been 9 days and i know everyone wants an update on Erich Bergen and rehearsals and everything...so here we go:

Bergen is okay. He was out for something like 6-8 shows so Miles and I split the days and covered the role. we got daily updates from Jackie and he was doing some physical therapy (which actually kept him out a little longer). But in addition to doing half the week as Gaudio last week, we were also in rehearsals for 4 hours/day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday...and since Erich wasn't present for those, Miles and I also split the time doing Gaudio during rehearsals as well...and then did the shows at night. but Bergen is back and he seems to be on the mend and everything seems to be running clockwork again.

oh wait, let me throw a funny story out there first - kind off of track:

2 shows ago, Bergen goes out for the scene were Gaudio approaches Finny (the record exec in Detroit) to get one of Frankie's songs played. the big joke in the scene is when Gaudio snatches the cigar out of Finny's mouth with the line "you don't know jack shit about music. or talent. or cigars."

well Joe Siravo (who plays our Gyp DeCarlo) forgot to get his cigar before the scene. so the entire time, he starts playing with his watch; looking at his watch, taking his watch off, fiddling with the watch on the table, etc... so that obviously prompts Bergen to do his line like this instead: "you don't know jack shit about music. or talent. or watches."

freaking hilarious. what if he didn't have a watch? would he have put his shoe on the table?

back to this past week:

rehearsals were...um...fine...? we spent 3 full days this week going over and over the blocking and re-spacing. Des, Sergio and Richard making as many adjustments as needed as we all slowly got the gist of what this new stage is going to look like. essentially, with the microphone lift gone, everything is going to come onstage on these pallets (let's call them rabbits). the rabbits can be automated to come in in different increments (ie. how fast or slow do they need to get center stage) and the microphones that come in on them will be weighted and magnetized to the base. it sounds pretty cool, but we haven't actually seen it and are all kind of waiting with baited breath until we get to Sac for tech rehearsals.

and Sac is literally only 4 days away. we close Los Angeles this Thursday (Erik Bates will be doing the last two shows as Tommy DeVito) and then we all make the move the next day up north because rehearsal starts Saturday at 1:30pm. i can't believe we are about to go into yet another tech period and the fact that this is the 3rd set we are working with...it's utterly exhausting thinking about it. suffice to say, everyone needs to send good thoughts our way because we have rehearsals every day from this Saturday-Thursday except Memorial Day off and each day we are looking at probably 8 hours/day. add to that that we do not have a day off this week, so we are essentially doing:

• 12 shows in a row this week
• then a day to travel on friday
• then 2 days of 8 hour rehearsals
• then Memorial Day day off
• then 3 more days of final tech followed by 5 performances
• then a day off (whoo-hoo! hopefully a trip to Tahoe!)
  
• then 17 shows in a row within a 12 day span

in any event, it's going to be a tiring next 3 weeks and my heart goes out to the Seasons and our amazing Jersey Girls!

speaking of Jersey Girls - time to officially welcome our new family member into the fold: Lauren Tartaglia made her Jersey Boys debut last Friday night and she was magnificent! the girl was thrown into the fold and within 10 days, was shot out of a cannon onto the Ahmanson Theatre stage to rave reviews. though we miss our Melissa Strom, Lauren is a fantastic addition to the cast and we can't thank her enough for being so on top of her shit!

and have i mentioned our new swing, Chris DeAngelis? this guy has been working nonstop with Erik Bates and our stage management to learn his tracks...six of them...all at one time! he covers Nick Massi, Gyp and Bob Crewe as well as Miles, Nate and my tracks. again, that's six tracks he's learning...while we learn a new set...and while he knows full well that he will be going on in Sacramento at some point for someone. He is fantastic and again, though we are devastated to lose Doug Crawford, he is going to be a welcome and wonderful edition to the male ensemble!

i have to mention another thing that happened this past week...

as some of you may know, i am completely obsessed with the show on NBC, "Heroes". i watched every episode last season as well as jumped on their fan sites and message boards and i can not wait for the news season to start on Sept.24. in any event, last Sunday, Zachary Quinto ("Sylar") and Masi Oka ("Hiro") came backstage and i was so starstruck! they were really nice and i will have a picture of them on my website asap. however, just a few days later, i found out that Greg Grunberg ("Matt Parkman") was also in the audience and i am a HUGE fan of his. so Sarah talks to him at intermission and tells him to come backstage and he was probably the nicest person i have ever had the pleasure of meeting. we took some pics too - this one is of him reading my mind (like his character does on the show):



in any event, i went on his officially myspace page and sent a quick email just to say thank you and next thing i know, he is emailing me on my personal email! also crazy thing about him is that he plays drums in a band called Band From TV - pretty much a bunch of television/movie stars playing charity gigs together. their lead singer is Bob Guiney (Bob the Bachelor from "The Bachelor") who i used to know years ago when his band, Fat Amy, used to play at clubs along with my band, Small Craft Sighting. so i tell Greg this and all of the sudden, i'm getting emails from Bob Guiney as well!

freaking celebrities know my email address. Someone let Scarlett Johansson know i switched from hotmail to gmail.

well.......i guess that's it for now. it has been a whirlwind week and i'm telling you right now that there is no way i will be blogging before we leave Los Angeles. so the next one will be at some point in Sacramento.

to end, i want to thank everyone in Los Angeles who came to our show and gave us such a wonderful three months here. just like San Fran, we adopted some "regulars" at our show and they couldn't have been sweeter. An enormous thank you to the folks at the Ahmanson box office who had to deal with all our house requests (David Lee is the nicest box office guy EVER!), Chris Cox (the hardest working house manager in the universe) and our amazing tech and wardrobe departments who we wish we could bring on the road with us!

this is when the fun now officially starts: this is when we pack every 3-4 weeks and load up the car for the next city. this is when the cast all finds the closest bar to adjourn to after every performance. this is when Sunday poker night becomes a tradition. and this is when "Tour This" literally becomes just that...

until next time...get ready Sacramento.