Godspell National Tour: Week 11

We've reached our final stop on the first National Godspell Tour! We arrived in Dallas, Texas on Sunday February 16th for a two-week run at the Winspear Opera House.

I couldn't think of a better way to close out this experience: a two-week stay in a great hotel and 16 shows at what is agreeably the most spectacular theatre we've performed in for this entire run.  The Winspear Opera House seats 2200 and is adorned with a six million dollar chandelier that raises into the ceiling at the top of each show. For real.

Winspear Opera House

Top Balcony view

Our first show at the Winspear was on Tuesday night and was rife with emotion and adrenaline as it was the first time we've performed Godspell with our understudy David Cotton. He came in for Michael Hogeveen a few minutes into the show, and did an amazing job! The presence of a new soul on stage heightened our focus, as we took care to ensure that this new audience received the same magic all our performances have bestowed. Mission accomplished. Check out this sparkling REVIEW!

Michael Hogeveen & David Cotton

So what's so great about being in just ONE city for two whole weeks? For starters, most of us have UNPACKED for the first time since October! We also hit up a nearby grocery store and requested mini-fridges for our hotel rooms so we can eat like happy, healthy people - hummus and veggies and fruit, oh my! It's like we've arrived in the land of milk & honey. (We were able to buy and refridgerate those too).

We're blissfully located right downtown here in Dallas: steps from the theatre, minutes away from restaurants, and a quick train ride to some really good shopping. I MAY have indulged in some retail therapy since we've arrived, but only because I'm going to need some TANGIBLE memories of my tour experience, right? ;-)

Speaking of which, I complimented an audience member on her sparkly, faux diamond ring as I was handing out kool-aid ("communion") during an intermission last week.  This was at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City. The woman later had it sent to me backstage to keep! Such a sweet gesture and one that I'll never forget:

My new Godspell bling

Lots more to do in Dallas between shows, and many of us have our plans laid and ready: trips to the aquarium, the art museum, the North Park mall, The Little Mermaid stage production (nothing like seeing another musical to stir up some inspiration) and who knows what else!

Rebecca & Stacey being themselves on one of the hotel's poolside canopy's

Jake in the Dallas wind, lol

Mark & Alessia in front of a giant... eyeball park?!

This family affair we call "Godspell" has almost reached it's end. That final scene where we say our goodbyes* just might get harder and harder as the days go by (*I was going to say "spoiler alert!" but I know you know how it ends). 

Anyhow, I refuse to get ahead of myself. We still have 13 more shows to knock out of the park and many legs to break.

See you next week for the final blog post! FYI, it will likely come out after our final show, which is not next Friday, but rather Tuesday March 4th in Tyler, Texas.

Until then.... Xoxo

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 10

It's the end of Week 10 on the Godspell National Tour.  I was feeling a little more homesick than usual these past few days.  We travel more than we perform, have no home cooking, sleep in different beds almost every night and live out of our suitcases.  Add to that the obvious difficulty of being apart from loved ones for so long, and you can see how even an extraordinary experience such as this can take it's toll. But that's just it. Touring is an EXTRAORDINARY experience.  It has it's cost, but it is unlike anything else I've ever done. And Lord knows, it's everything I've ever wanted to do. And it's Godspell. And it's us. :-)

Soundcheck!

Airport naps 

Party? Always.

Last week, I left off telling you about our time in Milwaukee. We celebrated our 100th performance of Godspell there! 

Our 100th Godspell Intermission :-)

Then it was off to British Columbia. Although I've never been to the province before, it was still kind of like being home, just being on Canadian soil. We flew into Vancouver, arriving quite late on Monday night and drove to the city of Vernon on Tuesday morning. The long bus ride took us through the mountains and treated us to breathtaking views. Like these:

We performed at the Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre shortly after arriving on Tuesday night, and all too soon, our trip to BC came to a close. There's been so many great city stops on this tour, but this is definitely one that I'll be revisiting on my own in the near future.

Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre

Wednesday morning we had another long drive to Seattle. We spent a night there before flying to Rapid City, South Dakota the next day. And here we are! In the most beautiful boutique hotel with uniquely decorated rooms. Life ain't so bad...

My room

Mark's room

We had our first show here in South Dakota already, at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Centre. Fun times! The crowd had as much energy as we did, so it was a beautiful exchange. We get to do it to the South Dakotans (Dakotians? Dakoes?) twice more with two shows and then... TEXAS!!!

You know what to do. See you next week, right here ! Love to all those who care enough about us to keep on following along! We'll be home soon...

Xox,

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 9

I won't lie. I almost forgot to write this blog today. It's Friday already??? Time flies when you've taken four flights in less than a week. After a 7-day hiatus, the Godspell cast, crew and band are back to put forth the last 4 weeks of a 13-week National Tour.

We left Toronto on Monday February 3rd, the beginning of Week #9.  Two flights and a shuttle bus later, we made it safely and soundly to our first destination: Newberry, South Carolina.

But not before earning free bottles of Jack for belting out a Godspell tune on the flight!

We jumped right in with not one, but two shows on Tuesday at the Newberry Opera House. It was a sweet little theatre conveniently located right across the street from our temporary home at the Hampton Inn.

Newberry Opera House

Inside the Newberry Opera House

 After the matinée performance, the kind people at the theatre had a southern-style dinner prepared for us: fried chicken, green beans, green salad, macaroni salad, mashed potatoes & sweet tea. Perhaps not the leanest meal a group of performers could/should choose for themselves, but hey... a kind gesture is a kind gesture. And it saved us both time & money between shows, so no complaints here.

We also had extra special guests in the audience: a group of new friends who had already seen our production of Godspell when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina before our Christmas hiatus in December. They loved it (and us) so much that they made the two-hour drive to come and see it again! They're a bit* younger than us (*tee hee) and will be putting on their own production of Godspell in March. We met them after our Charlotte show and again after this one in Newberry.  Both times they expressed how much we inspired them with our performance.  So sweet!

Some of us with some of them

Wednesday was another travel day... a very, long travel day as we had two flights to get is to Milwaukee and there were some lengthy delays and a layover in between.  But we're a funky bunch, so we tend to make the most of our down time.  For instance, Ivan was crowned "Sauce Boss" for dancing in a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant at the airport. He kept the crown on for hours. We laughed at him. He threw the crown in the garbage. A good time was had by all.

Ivan The Sauce Boss and our Wardrobe Queen, Lauren

We eventually made it to Milwaukee.  It is FREEZING here, but our hotel is beautiful and there are so many things to do in the city. We had yesterday (Thursday) off, so between our arrival here on Wednesday night and this Friday afternoon, our group has had quite the itinerary. Brewery tours, trips to the art museum, bar-hopping, live theatre ("Evita" and "In The Heights" are playing nearby), figure skating, good eats and...

Hotel-lobby-ping-pong

Mark Laidman, Alessia Lupiano and myself starting from tha bottom

We have our first show at the Milwaukee Theatre tonight, so hopefully everyone saved enough energy to do what we always do - bang out a kick-a$$ performance. 

That said, it's time for me to annoy the hotel guests next door with some tongue-trills (an obnoxious, yet effective vocal warm-up). 

Come back next Friday for another update!  And you might want to look for us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram if you haven't already, as there are always wayyyyy more stories and happenings with this tour that I couldn't possibly fit into each blog... or wouldn't dare too ;-).

Til next time ... Xox,

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour