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

Godspell National Tour: Week 8

Another Friday has come... It's the end of Week 8 of the Godspell National Tour!

If you've been following along, you know that last week (our first week back from the Christmas hiatus) landed us in Florida. Leaving our Canadian winter for the Sunshine State had us all very excited, although it wasn't quite as hot and balmy as we'd hoped. We most definitely made the best of it though, still dressing much more summery than the locals (shorts, tees, tanks, dresses) making us highly identifiable as foreigners. We're performers though, so not only are we used to getting extra attention... we bask in it, lol. All the strange looks and queries we got while we sunbathed and "they" bundled up, bothered us none.

Last Friday, we made the long drive from Bell Glade to Orange Park, Florida.  We had little more than an hour in the hotel we arrived at before having to dash off to the Thrasher Home Center for a 7:30pm show. 

On Saturday, we made another long drive, this time to Miami where we'd be staying for 3 days! We had two performances at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts centre: a Saturday night performance and a Sunday matinee.  

The theatre was bright, colourful and fun, much like our production. Even when we're tired or a little under the weather or our bodies are a little banged up from the last performance, our Godspell is always, always a great show - truly! Somehow, we are always moved by some energy or force that's larger than us, even when we're not sure how it's going to be possible. I like to call it, "blessed"! :-)

The blessed faces of Rebecca, Janelle, myself and Jake

Monday January 20th was our first day off of this tour leg so far, and coincidentally, it was also the HOTTEST day we had in Florida - about 25 degrees (Celsius, obvi)!  Most of us spent the day and night in South Beach, Miami: sand, sun, shopping, dining, and club-hopping. I even started my day with mimosas and scrambled eggs because... why the hell not? It was amazing how such little time off can feel like a full-on vacation when you're in the right location and with the right people.

Our bassist Mark Laidman and Alessia Lupiano working hard in Miami

On Tuesday, we got up to drive to our last stop in Florida: a performance at Youkey Theatre in Lakeland, Florida. This venue was literally attached to our hotel, which was pretty cool because a) it was a really nice hotel and b) we had more time to lolly-gag before sauntering over at the last minute for our soundcheck. 

That night after the show, we had a little soirée in Jake's room. Drinks, hummus, jokes, friendly massages on grateful shoulders, more jokes and as always, crazy amounts of laughter. It was a much needed get-together after a full week of performing and city-hopping with little rest and stability in between.

Wednesday afternoon, we braced ourselves for the cold and flew to Ohio. We arrived around dinner time, so some peeps immediately dropped their stuff and headed out for food. Others called it a night and knocked out almost upon arrival. Ok, I knocked out almost upon arrival. 

Our stay in Ohio was a quiet one until our Thursday night show at Kent State University's Performing Arts Centre.  They were a lively crowd that gave us lots of boisterous laughs and loving appreciation. 

Kent State University - another beautiful venue

As I write this, we're making our way to Toledo. Just three more shows until we have another, albeit shorter, hiatus beginning on Monday. Though we were just home two weeks ago, I think we're all still looking forward to seeing our families and sleeping in our own beds. It'll only be a week off this time, then we come back for our 3rd and final leg of the tour. 

That being said, I won't be posting another Godspell blog update until we complete our 9th tour week... So that's two Fridays from now. 

Most of the cast is on Instagram and Twitter, so you can keep up with us there in the meantime!

Much love and talk to you soon!

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 7

... Aaaaaaand we're back! 

I'm one of ten cast members on the first National tour of the musical Godspell, and we're back on the road after a 5-week hiatus over the Christmas holidays. We all live in Ontario, where the weather has been cold, dry and icy for a good chunk of that break. So you can imagine how excited we were that our first stop on this second leg of the tour is in freaking FLORIDA!

(Sorry, I don't know what the question marks on this poster mean. Not sure if anyone does. That's why there are question marks)

We flew from Toronto's Pearson International Airport into the warm, welcoming skies of West Palm Beach.

*Sidebar: why doesn't anyone clap for pilots when the plane lands anymore? Like "hooray, we didn't die! Great job!" Stacey Kay and I are reeeeeally trying to bring that back.

Most of my cast mates learned their lessons well from the first leg of the tour and packed lighter this time around. For some, that meant bringing only ONE super-sized suitcase instead of their previous two. For others it meant leaving the beloved, yet non-essential ukelele at home. Be the star of a post-show jam session or lug less weight around from hotel to hotel? Priorities.

From the airport, we were reunited with our tour bus (aptly crowned "the Soul Bus") as well as our favourite driver, Robert. It was a short drive to our hotel in Fort Pierce, and we were settled into DAY 1 before dinner time. 

By settled, I mean it almost felt like no time had passed since we'd seen eachother last. Yes, some of us saw one another over the break, but I still thought it was pretty cool how quickly we got right back into the groove. Ugh, it's probably that 'love' thing again. It won't really leave us alone ;-).

A bunch of us headed across the street to Red Lobster for dinner that evening, but overall it was a quiet night. We all wanted to be rested and ready for the rehearsal AND show we had the next day.

Enter Tuesday morning: hotel breakfast, sunny walks and poolside chillin. We all did our own thing, but most of us partook in some combination of the aforementioned activities until rehearsal began. It went great. Then we performed in front of a full, enthusiastic crowd at the Sunrise Theatre that night. Also great. I said "we're back!", did I not?

Sunrise Theatre

Wednesday morning, we drove to Sarasota. Sadly, we've been experiencing unseasonably cool temperatures in the Sunshine State. Gladly, it's still warmer than it is at home. So, there's that. And in Toronto, we don't have mini-putt courses with live alligators, either.  Jake (Godspell's Jesus) was all about it, but the nearest alligator-captivity-golf-course was a bit too far from our hotel. Also, it's weird.

In Sarasota, we performed at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall: all-purple everything! It's my favourite colour too, how did they know?!?!

Thursday we drove to some other town in Florida. I'm really not sure where the heck we were, but it wasn't a long drive, the theatre was small but nice, and they kindly prepared dinner for the entire cast and crew before the show. We like food. Especially of the 'free' persuasion, so thank you Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Centre.

*Another Sidebar:  I don't know what Lauren (our wardrobe lady) was doing to Jake's costume here... but I AM certain that taking this picture and putting it in the blog was the right thing to do.

It's super-early on Friday morning right now (some might call it "Thursday night"), and we'll be making the long drive to Orange Park, Florida, where we'll perform inside the Thrasher Home Center. Sounds intense. Surprisingly, I don't really dread the longer bus rides as much as I thought I would. I've got books, movies, games, music, snacks, a pillow, blanket and good company.  Just yesterday, I turned around in my bus seat and saw this staring back at me:

That's Michael Hogeveen. He enjoys acting, singing and long walks in and out of Crazy Town  (...and no, the picture has not been photoshopped. His head is indeed floating between the seats, lol).

So! That sums up our first week back after our big break... Making it officially the end of Week #7 on the Godspell National Tour. Remember, I'll be posting Godspelly updates every Friday, so come back and read it! :-)

Ciao for now,

~ Lisa Michelle

My Twitter: itslisamichelle

Tweet us! #GodspellNationalTour

LIVE @ The Drake!!

!!!!!!

I'm excited about two things. One: that I'm actually using my blog to talk about something other than Godspell (although I really, really love Godspell). And two: 

I HAVE A SHOW COMING UP!!!! 

On Thursday January 9th, I'm performing with my band at The Underground inside the Drake Hotel (in Toronto)! We'll be bustin' out a full one-hour set of originals from my albums This Moment, Love Lessons & Rebound (all available on iTunes, btw). And maybe a cover or two, 'cause we can ;-). 

Since October, I've been touring the US with the musical Godspell (lucky, blessed ME!), and just came home December 9th for what will be our 5-week hiatus/break.  We hit the road again for Florida, Texas and a few other spots beginning January 13th. Which means, I should probably be using this time off to rest.

BUT... knowing I'd be HOME for FIVE long weeks... I couldn't resist reuniting with my band members (love them), my fans (the real and the imaginary), and the taste of R&B Soul on the tongue. I missed my music!

So here it is... If you can be in Toronto on this night, know that you are invited and that I would LOVE it if you came! I won't be able to perform at home again until the spring/summer, so this gig is special!

All the details are in the beautifully designed flyer below (thanks Ashley!). 

See you there!

Xo,

~ Lisa Michelle

@itslisamichelle

www.ThisIsLisaMichelle.com

www.facebook.com/lisamichellemusic

Godspell Nation Tour: Week 6

Well, O-M-G (pardon my language), but I can't believe this is the FINAL week of the tour before our December hiatus! It's the end of week 6 on the first ever Godspell National Tour, and we fly out this coming Monday to our respective homes. Well some people are flying straight to their vacation spots, but the point is, we're leaving the tour until it starts up again in mid-January.

The truth? I'm very excited about going home.  Because like most, I miss my family, I miss eating food that didn't come from a restaurant (or truck stop), I want to rest my body and I really can't wait to see my regular hairstylist. BUT... I know for a fact that I am going to miss the heck out of the show AND I'm going to miss seeing all the pretty Godspell faces I get to see everyday when I'm here. Have I made it clear in my other posts how much we love eachother? Yes? Okay, good. 

For this last week before the break, we get to live and perform in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It's significant because we've been doing so many one or two-nighters, moving from city-to-city, so being in one place for a little while is quite refreshing. We've been able to unpack and settle in a bit - a simple thing you might take for granted until you've lived without a home base for a time. 

It took us two days and two overnight stops to drive here from Crockett, Texas. OH YEAH!!! Crockett, Texas! That was the super-small theatre we played in last Friday night, where we'd been warned that our set & lighting would be significantly scaled back. Well, I'm a little sad to report that there isn't much to report, lol. We were actually able to fit our colourful, round stage inside the theatre, we just had less space than we normally do around our disc. There were also no stage wings and the lighting was... different. But overall, we didn't have to change much, just a few tweaks in the blocking here and there, but that was it. Another good show. It's not that I WANTED anything to go wrong, I just think we were prepared for a bigger challenge than the one that was presented to us. Ah well... I think this just means that we're awesome. Let's go with that.

After Crockett, we stopped one night  in Jackson, Mississippi and another in Atlanta, Georgia. My cast mate Stacey Kay had the brilliant idea to look up concerts in the area when we got to Atlanta and stumbled on info for Kanye West tickets! As it turned out, only myself, Stacey and our conductor John Yun went to the concert and had an amazing time. But not before becoming entangled in a CRAZY fiasco to get the tickets in the first place.  I have no idea what the rest of the cast and crew did that night, but I know my outing with Stacey and John ended with a fireman-carry, cold pizza and my foot in an ice bucket.

Fast-forward to this week. We arrived in Charlotte on Monday and the first thing we see before stepping foot off the tour bus is our faces on lampposts all over the downtown core. You know, those little lamp post banner-thingies? We screamed. You would too.

Graham on a lamp post in Charlotte, NC

We had our first show here at the Knight Theatre on Tuesday evening and the crowd was amazing. Since we have a full week's stay here, it seems there was time to generate a good buzz about Godspell before we got here and it showed. We were graciously treated to a post-show reception that night, and were made to feel like stars. I really can't believe this is a job sometimes. I mean, performing is hard work no doubt (just ask my joints), but the rewards can be so grand. 

Today during some down time, a bunch of us decided to go on a segway tour of the city! I'd never ridden one before, but it always looked like fun, so why not! I was a little nervous in the beginning, as the segways are quite sensitive and move very fast if you let them. But we all got the hang of it in no time and had SO much fun learning some haunted history and zipping around town on this strange-looking vehicle. 

Our tour guide was amazing and is apparently coming to our show tonight! 

We have five more shows here in Charlotte this weekend: tonight, two tomorrow (Saturday) and two on Sunday. We're closing out this leg of the tour with a Kris Kringle party and a Christmas Carol Cabaret in our hotel's restaurant. Again... how am I NOT going to miss this?!?! Even though we have another tour leg in January, I feel there's going to be a lot of weeping during our last show this Sunday. Well, a lot MORE weeping than usual. Uh oh, I hope I'm not giving too much away. You see in Godspell, one of our friends dies and... I've already said too much.

To my faithful readers, this will be the last 'official' Godspell National Tour blog post until the new year, but I will indeed still be blogging throughout December. I'm sure I'll be involved in other exciting or interesting shenanigans before the next tour leg, likely even with some members of my Godspell family. So feel free to still check back here, or on my facebook (www.facebook.com/lisamichellemusic) for new posts and thangs.

Wish us broken legs for our shows this weekend and I'll talk to you soon!!!

Love to you from me... and from Godspell! 

Xo

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: @itslisamichelle

#GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 5

Here we are at the end of week 5 on the Godspell National Tour! Just one week left until we fly home to Ontario (then we hit the road again mid-January).

When I left you last Friday, we were set to perform in Clinton Township, Michigan that night. It was another fun show and surprise, surprise: our director David Hogan and musical director Mark Payne drove across the border to see us!  More than just the 'creative team', they're also the heart of this Godspell family. Thankfully, we did them proud and they loved the show. It was really nice to see them after all this time, though they couldn't stay for long. They were in the middle of producing yet another stellar show back home!

The cast & friends w/ dir: David Hogan & musical director Mark Payne in Michigan

We performed twice more at the Macombe Center in Michigan the next day (Saturday), and were fed and watered by an older lady known simply as "Mom". She's a long-time matriarch and employee of the theatre who's as sassy as she is generous, and as witty as she is petite. She graciously prepared a huge thanksgiving feast for us between our matinée and evening performances. 

We also had a number of out-of-town visitors that weekend including parents and grandparents, wives & kids, siblings, friends, and by the time we got to Texas on Monday, my husband joined the fold too! We like to think of these people as honourary Godspellers. And/or groupies. 

Alessia with friend Aly Workman

We arrived in Austin, Texas on Sunday night after a stopover in Charlotte and a few delays. It was the first flight we'd taken on the tour so far (we've been travelling solely by bus), and it went pretty well, all things considered.  We had the next day (Monday) off, so that's when our Texas adventures began. 

A bunch of us sat down for an authentic Tex-Mex lunch and it was gooood. I was the first to brave a server-recommended drink called 'The Hurricane' that was a tasty blend of EVERYTHING. It was icy, sweet and so strong that it was probably the only drink I needed for the rest of the day... or week (as if). Some castmates began a bar-hopping expedition after our spicy lunch that continued into the wee hours of the morning! Texas has amazing night life & a thriving live music scene, so naturally it's become the new favourite tour stop for many of us (I'm still holding on to good memories of St. Louis, but that's just me :-).

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, Jake Stern, Alessia Lupiano and myself had an interview at KUT - a radio station operated out of the University of Texas.  The host was (unintentionally) hilarious, teasing Jake about his cowboy hat, leading us into an impromptu acapella performance, and closing our interview with some random song called "Day After Day" because he couldn't find the song "Day BY Day" in his track listings (the one that's actually in our show). So much funny in a single morning.

Alessia, Jake and I after our KUT interview

Amidst all these Texas shenanigans, we had a SHOW to put on! Tuesday night was our first show in Austin at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. It's a phenomenal venue, seating approximately 2500 patrons, and the crowd was on fire! It was one of our most exciting shows, where the audience was with us from note-to-note. 

Our stellar band at the Long Center in Austin, Texas

These were painted all over the sidewalk outside the Long Center:

Wednesday night was another great show, another great night on the town afterwards, and Thursday we were blessed with an American Thanksgiving Dinner at one of the few local restaurants that were still open. After dinner, some of our crazy little bunch went to a make-shift amusement park situated behind our hotel. Bumper cars, rides and gaming ensued, with winners and stuffed thingies all-around. The fun just never stops. Unless you're this guy:

Jake's new bus-buddy

It's Friday, and we've just arrived in Crockett, Texas for another show tonight. It's a wee little town with a population smaller than the seating capacity in some of the venues we've played thus far. Apparently the theatre here is unable to house some of our larger set pieces like... our stage. And much of our lighting. But have you MET this Godspell cast & crew? Do you know what we say to that??? Challenge accepted. Our set may be scaled back, but our performances would never and could never be.

I can't wait to tell you how it all went down in next week's post. So check back!

Xoxoxox

~ Lisa Michelle

Tweet us! Use the hashtag: #GodspellNationalTour

Godspell National Tour: Week 4 update!

Time is flying by! We're already at the end of week 4 of the Godspell National Tour, and we've just left Kalamazoo. Yep. It's a real place. And nope. Nothing to see there. 

But that was just a 2-day pit stop as we made our way to where we are now: Clinton Township, Michigan. We have three performances here this weekend, beginning tonight at 7:30. Some cast members have family and friends visiting from back home this weekend, and in good time too. A taste of home is just what some of us need at this point.

When I posted last week's update, we were about to begin performances at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri. Once again, we were able to make our mark in another great city, and inside their theatre's walls:

Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, MI

Before leaving St. Louis, we celebrated cast member Michael DeRose's birthday! We held a pseudo-surprise soirée for him in Jesus' hotel room, then skipped out to a fantastic live music joint called BB's Blues Bar. The band was i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. When we weren't salivating over their musicianship like the geeks we are, we were tearin' up the dance floor to the beat of their funked out, soul-stirring set list. It was the final note on why St. Louis has been my favourite stop on the tour thus far.

Love for Michael De Rose! :-)

We also performed at the Grand Theatre in Wausau, Wisconsin this week. I'm still not sure how to pronounce that, but I can tell you they gave us another beautiful house; velvety red seats, exquisite design, and the 'wow-this-place-is-huge' vastness. We've been very lucky, as all the venues we've played on this tour have been aesthetically impressive. Hence the intense camera-phone action that happens upon our arrival in every new place.

Grand Theatre in Wausau, WI

Well today's blog was kinda late, so once again I'm dashing off to eat and get set for another evening show. And to break all my legs, of course :-).

Talk to you next week! xox

~ Lisa Michelle

Twitter: #GodspellNationalTour