Raising Arizona (Oct.1)
a lot sure can change in 790 miles.
first off, let's officially bid an official adieu to Sacramento...
..."peace out".
now that we have that out of the way, let's catch everyone up:
i need to give huge accolades to our road crew. truly the hardest working crew in the freaking world. and here's why:
after we closed the show in Sac on a Saturday night, the crew started their load out. it went from 11pm all the way through 4pm in the afternoon the next day. only problem was, their 12-14 hour estimated load out took 22 hours. directly from there, they got about 3 hours of sleep and were up at 3am on Monday morning to catch a flight to get to Tempe so they could be at the theatre at 8am to start the load in.
and let me tell you...the were working on the load in literally until we opened on Thursday night at 7:30pm.
so "thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU" to all our electricians, carpenters, props, wardrobe, automation, sound, and everyone else who was involved in making our show look and run as incredible as it is.
Arizona is not bad at all. we have a fantastic little condo in Scottsdale that we are sharing with one of our stage managers and good friend, Michelle Reupert. the condo is great mostly because there is a great kitchen and the three of us love to cook. our first three night here, Sarah was my little happy homemaker making some great chicken dishes and probably one of the best tillapia dishes i have ever had in my life - DELICIOUS!
the first few days of Arizona were also busy. busy simply because since Deven amd Erich were not in town (we had three days between Sac and Tempe, so lots of people were home or on mini-vacations) so i was asked to do the press circuit.
wednesday started with getting up at around 7:30am to meet the other guys at one of the company hotels at 8:30 for our first taping at 9. after a live taping on Sonoran Living (GO HERE and click on "we roll out the red carpet for the Jersey Boys". After that, a quick interview at this incredible hotel called the Tally Ho. it's this weird hotel that they have essentially kept up like the hotel they probably were back in the early 70's. the pool area was full of cabanas and weird lunch buffets and the main resturant inside was a throw back to the old homestyle diners from back then. then back to the theatre for taped interviews with the NBC affiliate and the ASU campus news team (by news team, i of course mean two freshmen who took 10 minutes to figure out where the input jack for the headphones were on the camcorder).
after a few hours off to run home, grab a sandwich, and take a quick nap, it was back to the theatre at 5pm for another few spots with the AZ Family News station and the Fox affiliate. those were some fun interviews and if i can find the links somewhere, i will post them as soon as possible...
and then on thursday, we had our first public performance at the lovely Frank Lloyd Wright designed Gammage Auditorium - and i can't find a right angle anywhere.
(that was some Frank Lloyd Wright humor for you).
thursday was great. the theatre is huge with 2800 seats available. the audience was really excited to have us there and certainly loved us mentioning Arizona in the show ("the places you fly over on the way to Los Angeles"). and honestly, with as hard as the crew had been working, we were just happy to open on time and safely. the whole weekend was fantastic though and i'll be honest with you - having a student union just steps away from the theatre that has a Chick-Fil-A in it, i think i will be very happy here through October 14.
speaking of more food - and my family and friends back home will appreciate this more than anything - we found a BW3 close to us! i can't tell you how nice it was going there today for lunch for some trivia, wings with Spicy Garlic and a nice cold Labatt Blue! we haven't done much else as far as going to great restaurants around here simply because we love our kitchen, but i'm hoping we will see a few more good eateries before we leave here.
back to the show...
Arizona saw a great show on Saturday matinee when our "Joey", Courter Simmons, made his debut as Frankie Valli. he was UNREAL! for someone who has never done the role outside of understudy rehearsal as well as who had not had an official rehearsal in close to two months, let alone never had a chance to run with our new staging with the pallets, it was like he has been doing it forever. his voice was great, he flowed onstage effortlessly and he was so in the moment that all of us onstage were so proud of our good friend. of course, as he took his bow, the applause from the audience matched ours onstage as we all gave him an ovation.
if you are in Arizona and want to see him and get a great deal on our show, good tickets are still available for his next turn as Frankie this coming Thursday, October 4 matinee!
the rest of Arizona will keep us busy: we have our 9-show week this week (with no rehearsals slated so far!) and then next week i get to play Tommy for 4 shows as Deven will be on vacation (come see me Oct.9-12 or Erik Bates Oct.13 & 14) and then, just as quick as we got here, we will be heading to San Diego.
i think that keeps everyone up to date with what has been going on here. as always, i love getting emails and comments from everyone, so keep it up!
to finish, i want to say hello to our brother company, "Zephyr", who just closed San Francisco this past Sunday. the entire company is in Chicago by now ready to open this coming Friday night, and i want to wish them all a speedy and easy tech period but more than anything, wish my good friend Michael Ingersoll a hearty congratulations on finally getting back home to his beautiful wife, Angela, and the city he calls home.
as always...more to come!
first off, let's officially bid an official adieu to Sacramento...
..."peace out".
now that we have that out of the way, let's catch everyone up:
i need to give huge accolades to our road crew. truly the hardest working crew in the freaking world. and here's why:
after we closed the show in Sac on a Saturday night, the crew started their load out. it went from 11pm all the way through 4pm in the afternoon the next day. only problem was, their 12-14 hour estimated load out took 22 hours. directly from there, they got about 3 hours of sleep and were up at 3am on Monday morning to catch a flight to get to Tempe so they could be at the theatre at 8am to start the load in.
and let me tell you...the were working on the load in literally until we opened on Thursday night at 7:30pm.
so "thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU" to all our electricians, carpenters, props, wardrobe, automation, sound, and everyone else who was involved in making our show look and run as incredible as it is.
Arizona is not bad at all. we have a fantastic little condo in Scottsdale that we are sharing with one of our stage managers and good friend, Michelle Reupert. the condo is great mostly because there is a great kitchen and the three of us love to cook. our first three night here, Sarah was my little happy homemaker making some great chicken dishes and probably one of the best tillapia dishes i have ever had in my life - DELICIOUS!
the first few days of Arizona were also busy. busy simply because since Deven amd Erich were not in town (we had three days between Sac and Tempe, so lots of people were home or on mini-vacations) so i was asked to do the press circuit.
wednesday started with getting up at around 7:30am to meet the other guys at one of the company hotels at 8:30 for our first taping at 9. after a live taping on Sonoran Living (GO HERE and click on "we roll out the red carpet for the Jersey Boys". After that, a quick interview at this incredible hotel called the Tally Ho. it's this weird hotel that they have essentially kept up like the hotel they probably were back in the early 70's. the pool area was full of cabanas and weird lunch buffets and the main resturant inside was a throw back to the old homestyle diners from back then. then back to the theatre for taped interviews with the NBC affiliate and the ASU campus news team (by news team, i of course mean two freshmen who took 10 minutes to figure out where the input jack for the headphones were on the camcorder).
after a few hours off to run home, grab a sandwich, and take a quick nap, it was back to the theatre at 5pm for another few spots with the AZ Family News station and the Fox affiliate. those were some fun interviews and if i can find the links somewhere, i will post them as soon as possible...
and then on thursday, we had our first public performance at the lovely Frank Lloyd Wright designed Gammage Auditorium - and i can't find a right angle anywhere.
(that was some Frank Lloyd Wright humor for you).
thursday was great. the theatre is huge with 2800 seats available. the audience was really excited to have us there and certainly loved us mentioning Arizona in the show ("the places you fly over on the way to Los Angeles"). and honestly, with as hard as the crew had been working, we were just happy to open on time and safely. the whole weekend was fantastic though and i'll be honest with you - having a student union just steps away from the theatre that has a Chick-Fil-A in it, i think i will be very happy here through October 14.
speaking of more food - and my family and friends back home will appreciate this more than anything - we found a BW3 close to us! i can't tell you how nice it was going there today for lunch for some trivia, wings with Spicy Garlic and a nice cold Labatt Blue! we haven't done much else as far as going to great restaurants around here simply because we love our kitchen, but i'm hoping we will see a few more good eateries before we leave here.
back to the show...
Arizona saw a great show on Saturday matinee when our "Joey", Courter Simmons, made his debut as Frankie Valli. he was UNREAL! for someone who has never done the role outside of understudy rehearsal as well as who had not had an official rehearsal in close to two months, let alone never had a chance to run with our new staging with the pallets, it was like he has been doing it forever. his voice was great, he flowed onstage effortlessly and he was so in the moment that all of us onstage were so proud of our good friend. of course, as he took his bow, the applause from the audience matched ours onstage as we all gave him an ovation.
if you are in Arizona and want to see him and get a great deal on our show, good tickets are still available for his next turn as Frankie this coming Thursday, October 4 matinee!
the rest of Arizona will keep us busy: we have our 9-show week this week (with no rehearsals slated so far!) and then next week i get to play Tommy for 4 shows as Deven will be on vacation (come see me Oct.9-12 or Erik Bates Oct.13 & 14) and then, just as quick as we got here, we will be heading to San Diego.
i think that keeps everyone up to date with what has been going on here. as always, i love getting emails and comments from everyone, so keep it up!
to finish, i want to say hello to our brother company, "Zephyr", who just closed San Francisco this past Sunday. the entire company is in Chicago by now ready to open this coming Friday night, and i want to wish them all a speedy and easy tech period but more than anything, wish my good friend Michael Ingersoll a hearty congratulations on finally getting back home to his beautiful wife, Angela, and the city he calls home.
as always...more to come!
posted by The Guter at 10/01/2007 10:14:00 PM
14 Comments:
I signed up to be notified when you post a new blog, but I am more aware of your blogs, then the notifier, so let me be the first comment on your latest one. Love the heading, as usual,your sense of humor is as sharp as ever......Good luck to all of you as you blast thru Tempe and give Mark and Barb a hug for me........they are very excited to see the play and to see you play one of the Four Seasons.
Love to you and Sarah........
Aunt Sha
P.S. Big article on Frankie Valli in our local paper last week....will send it to your Mom and tell her to send it on to you. In a nutshell, you guys (meaning every single actor on Broadway, and the touring groups) have made him the hottest thing ever!!! Very nice article giving big kudo's to all of you.
thanks for the updates. good to know everything's going smoothly in tempe. got my ticket (oct. 20)for san diego so can't wait to see all of you there. will you be using the pellets or the elevator in san diego?
good luck...
Thank you for the updates. I saw the video clip and you looked GREAT! Have a wonderful time in Arizona.
lol, loved your interview video! Y'all looked very handsome. So Scottsdale, huh? I've been there once. Best wishes in Arizona and I can't wait to see you all again for Thanksgiving!
It's so good to see another post from you Eric!! Sounds like things are going good so far in Arizona. Went to the link you gave - cool interview - liked your shoes! I've got to go tell my friend that you're coming to San Diego!! I know she wanted to see the show in LA but couldn't, so I'm gonna go do that. Hope the audiences continue their excitement and you continue having fun!
Awesome clip! Looks like you guys got some cool gifts too. Kudos to the load in crew! That's harsh. Hopefully you guys open safely and on time in SD as well.
Gutty, I just have to tell the whole world (or at least the people who read your blogs) that I AM ONE PROUD MAMA!!! Loved the video and will be sending it to my friends and all my peeps at work. What an exciting (and hectic) life you and Sarah (and my granddog, Toby) are living. Great memories to look back on in years to come. I love you! Keep up the good (no, GREAT) work. Love to Sarah (and Toby)
Mama xxooxx
You have a good look on camera. I hope you get some film and TV work someday.
Thanks for the detailed update, once again Eric! You're the best.
-June
I think most people would back me up on this but THANK YOU SO MUCH for constantly giving us updates on the "Sherry" cast. Erich, Jackie, Melissa all seem to have fallen off the blog world but you've been great! You guys made such a huge impact in every city you've performed and I'm sure everyone hated to see you guys leave, but your blogs make us feel as if we're there with you, riding along this incredible journey! I wish someone in the 2nd National Tour would keep us up to date on their adventure, maybe you should have a little talk with them ;)
as a jersey boys fan hailing from san francisco, i was thrilled to hear that jersey boys will be returning to the bay area nov 20-dec 30th. any chance you might be in that cast? any chance you can let us know who will be?
thanks and best of luck in tempe.
I was at the Saturday matinee and Courter was indeed fabulous as Frankie. I would have never guessed that this was his first time in the role and I have seen the play 15 times on Broadway (I was in Phoenix on business).
The whole cast was great. Congratulations to all the cast on a fine performance.
Hi Eric: I was thrilled to read that Courtier got to go on as Frankie. When I saw/heard him in rehearsal in LA, I told him I hoped to see him do the role. Please tell him I am happy he got to do it...and gets to do it again. I'm sure he sounded great. All my best to everyone.
-chris (Ahmanson Theatre H.M.)
Thank you for the updates Guter! Really appreciate your hard work and efforts to keep us all here in cyberspace up-to-date on what is going on with you, your family and the Sherry Company. Miss you guys here in NorCal.
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