I'm Pale

I know some of you wanted to see the first and second place doors from the "Jersey Holiday Door Contest".

Here they are:

Second Place: Lori Byars, with a poster made with jelly beans and real working lights:

First Place: John Altieri and Erich Bergen with their Vegas door:



Well, it’s been a hectic two weeks. Let me explain.

I believe it’s now common knowledge that at the end of each city run, we do performances for 2 weeks in a row without a day off. So, instead of updating the blog, I’ve been working my ass off!

Let’s go back:

Our New Year’s Eve Party was great, but sad, as it was the last night we would spend with Mr. Erich Bergen, as he makes his way to parts unknown (I don’t know if I can talk about it, but if you’re a true JB fan, you probably already know what he’s doing, so I’ll just leave it at that). Everyone came to the party dressed to impress, and entered with a different energy than the year before. I remember last year’s New Year’s Eve party: a bit awkward. You see, our first New Year’s with the JB Sherry Tour occurred a mere 2-3 months after we started rehearsals, and just began performances in San Francisco. So all the rapport and experiences we share now were but a dream to us back then.



But fast forward to December 31st, 2007: the night was full of friends, smiles, and plenty of 80’s dance music. Somehow, 80’s dance music is our drug. We hear it, and EVERYONE runs to the dance floor. We spent the night dancing, drinking, chatting, and taking pictures. But as the restaurant kicked us out at 2am, 2008, we couldn’t help but think back on our amazing year with Erich: We will miss you.

And during that transition, we had 3 new cast members join us (to replace John Altieri, Erich Bergen, and temporarily Zach): Jonathan Hadley (our new Crewe), Andrew Rannells (our new Gaudio), and Joe Bwarie (The 2-day Frankie for now). These guys are fantastic, and bring something new and different to the role. I’ve been having fun with them, but I’ll tell you one thing: John and Andrew both very mean to Phil! It’s alright though, it makes me laugh (Phil is the recording engineer role that the Joey role plays). But silly things aside, it’s great to have them, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

Meanwhile, back at the Jersey Sauce, I did another 3 Frankies! And each one successively felt better. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it is to perform as Frankie. It really is a dream role, and I hope I am able to do him justice. Plus, for those of you sending me Frankie emails, your kind words mean the world to me, and thank you for letting me know that I made your night at the theater an enjoyable one.



I also did a grip of Joeys to let Courter go on as Frankie, and being Joey is so much fun. Working with Andrew in the scenes couldn’t have gone better, and John keeps Phil on his toes!

And I don’t have anything weird to report, except one night, right before “Boyfriend’s Back”, one of the strings on my guitar broke! Those of us who play guitar in the show are always noodling around on the guitars before scenes where we use them, and I was noodling a little too hard I guess. So, I yanked the rest of the string off the top of the guitar, and walked on stage just in time! But other than that, JB is a well oiled machine.



Seattle has been good to us. We worked with a phenomenal local crew there, a great hosting theater, and great audiences. This morning, as I boarded my plane home, I felt the sense that I was going to miss Seattle, a lot. There are so many memories in Seattle, which I will never soon forget. But you know what I have missed, more than I will miss Seattle?

That’s right. Sunlight.

It’s been a long 2 weeks, and a bunch of new changes have been abound. And there are more to come. But that’s for another entry.

Oh, and here's Nate with a shaving creme beard: