4 Drinks In And Happy

It was the night we were all waiting for and it took us by surprise. Ever since the "p.s. See you in Toronto" that unfortunately wasn't possible, and the hopes that it would come true in other cities, we were finally surprised by the presence of Billie Joe Armsrong at our final show in Costa Mesa.

It would be so easy to pretend that I wasn't as excited as I was when I found out he was there. "Billie's here, did you know" Leslie said as we were walking downstairs to the dressing rooms after the show. "Yeah, he got here just as 'Novocaine' started". Whaaaa? Of course I didn't know... I was doing a show at the time.

This whole process has been dream come true after dream come true for me. Becoming a member of Actors Equity, not only meeting but having the chance to work with Michael Mayer and Tom Kitt and all the other amazing creatives behind the scenes, playing the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, travelling the country and calling a stage my "office". We had the pleasure of meeting Mike Dirnt, the bassist of Green Day, when he came to see the show in Los Angeles. Several celebrities came to see the show, and a ton of my friends and family (maybe most important of all) were able to see this show that I'm so proud of.

And then the man who started it all, the face of Green Day, the man who's words touched the angsty hearts and minds of millions, comes for a surprise visit. How can I even pretend to contain my excitement? No, I wasn't that fangirl who couldn't speak around him, or the one who wanted to ask questions about his career and fame and family life. To me, people are people no matter who they are or what they've done. But I was the person who was thrilled when he said that we did the show justice. There's not much more that we could have hoped for. All the hours that Michael and Johanna and Loren and Steven have spent showing us what this show is about have all been worth it. All the work we've put in has been worth it. This all may sound quite sentimental, and maybe it is, but there's no point in pretending you don't feel proud when you've done your job right.

And not only did he come see the show and meet all of us after, but he also came out to the dive bar we've been enjoying for the past week to chill out for a bit. What a lucky bunch we are.

I meant to post this weeks ago but for some reason blogger won't let me embed the actual video on the blog... weird. But here's a link to a little behind the scenes thing I threw together. I have another one in the works with more shots of everyone, but enjoy this one for now and hopefully soon I'll have another real update!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYc2ZGPJQf0


xoxo

Your Questions Answered...

Ladies at our opening night in Minneapolis

Has it truly been nearly two months since I last blogged? I felt like I had made a promise to myself  - maybe even to my readers - that I'd blog more, and now I've gone and done the opposite. Or maybe I didn't make that promise. It's been so long, I can't even remember.


We've made it all the way to State College, Pennsylvania by way of Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Raleigh, Chicago, and Minneapolis. To sum it up briefly: Toronto was cooooold but we had a lot of fun; Detroit was much more friendly than we had expected; Boston was so cool to explore and had great food; Raleigh was nice and relaxing; Chicago was wonderful and I had my first real deep dish pizza there; and Minneapolis was confusing with it's skyway but gave us some of the best audiences yet! Now we're in the  home of Dan Gleason's alma mater. We opened to a pretty big but polite crowd on Tuesday, and last night we had a great, loud audience for closing. That's right, only two shows and now we're off to St. Louis!


To help me get the ball rolling, I asked people on twitter if there was anything they wanted to know, so here we go...


@cgtheatregeek - "What are your fav and least fav parts about being on the road all the time?"
   + I love being able to travel to so many places I've never been before, and I'm a big foodie so I love to see what the local favorites are! Least favorite part would maybe be living out of a suitcase and trying to keep it under 50 lbs. It's also tricky to eat well sometimes, depending on the area we're staying.


@whatsername43 - "favorite things about the tour and playing extraordinary girl :D"
   + The company I keep is one of my favorite things about tour. Cast, crew, everyone... all so cool. My favorite thing about playing Ex Girl is probably that once I "become" her, I get to take a little break backstage! The first half of my show is dance/sweat/sing/sweat more. It's nice to finally take a breather after I fly.


@alyson_leonard - "Have there been any big stand-out moments for you that have happened while on tour? What has been your favorite stop so far?"
   + There have been a couple not so great stand-out moments involving flying... I guess it can get weird  going from city to city, dealing with different power sources and new dressers. There was one time in maybe Boston (?) when Scott's mic fell off his head and I somehow got it back on to a degree, I felt like a hero :) And last week we had a huge fiasco... for anyone who saw the Sunday matinee on the 26th, just know that you didn't see, or hear for that matter, what the flight was intended to be.
   On that note, there have been lots of great stand-out moments as well! On our travel day out of Raleigh, all the girls decided to dress like "elegant ladies". We got some interesting looks at the airport. Being on TV for the new year's eve celebration in Canada as soooo much fun! Looking out over Chicago from the Willis Tower was really incredible. Lots of good moments so far.
   I've liked different thing about each city we've been to, but I'd say that so far Chicago may have been my favorite stop so far because...


@NikkiRandom1 - "how it was being in Chicago & what was your favorite thing being in Chicago for the 2 weeks?"
   + ...One, we were there for more than a week! I actually got to unpack my suitcase and have a whole free day. Also, my boyfriend was able to be there for a few days including Valentines day <3 and we got to explore together. And also, deep dish pizza!


@armedwithlysol - "...how do you feel about fangirl stalkers at your shows?"
   + Haha, I love talking to fans after the shows! 
@armedwithlysol - "Please also finally confirm the cast vote for best deep dish Chicago pizza. What's the best thing you ate on tour?"
   + I don't know about the whole cast, but I dined at Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Due (because Pizzeria Uno was too packed) and I'd have to say that while Due was nice, The "Lou" at Lou Malnati's has my vote. Wow. Wow. Like, really.
@armedwithlysol - "Legit: How'd your pilot audition go? How do you find time to audition on the road? Also, how do you guys choose roomies?"
   + The audition went great! My manager in Los Angeles got me the audition, it was just lucky that they happened to have a big casting office in Chicago. Several other people from the cast auditioned for the project as well! 
   As for roommates, most of the cast opts to have their own room, but once in a while Krystina, Jillian and I will choose to room together for a little extra per diem. Sometimes it's every other city, it just kind of happens. 


@IdiotOnTourFan - "So much has happened since your last post, would love to hear some highlights! What's a typical day like?"
   + A typical day... generally most of us sleep in, then get some food. Maybe a trip to the gym for the muscle twins (Vince and Dan), and maybe a little exploring, more eating, often a lot of relaxing. We get to the theatre an hour before showtime (plus 15 mins for whoever is doing flight call) to warm up and get ready, do the show, then have dinner and sometimes go out for drinks.


@evan71788 - "can we get a video please?"
   + As a matter of fact, I'm working on one now, I'll put it up as soon as it's done :)


Well that was fun! I love answering questions you guys have so keep 'em coming. And I mean it this time, I will try to blog more often!!

Don't Wanna Be A Canadian Idiot

It's nights like these, when I can't get to sleep and there's no boyfriend to talk to, that I should be blogging or reading the next book in The Hunger Games series. After a day like today, I think the former is the way to go, hopefully I'll get a little of the latter in too...

As scheduled, Gabe was to go on for the role of Johnny tonight so we had a put-in rehearsal in the afternoon to make sure all would go smoothly during the show. We had a couple boys out because of relatively minor-ish injuries, so both of our boy swings were put into the show. It was a bit of a whirlwind because one of the boys disappeared with his injury just as we were finishing notes, so we did the run through while spacing a fixing and figuring out tracks at the same time.

Then... just before the show started, before I was hooked into the chains that take me up for upside down girl, we get word that the rig isn't doing what we'd like it to do. Something about the power source in Toronto is different than how we had teched it in Utica, so we said 'better safe than sorry' and cut it. The great part about that is that I got to do the first number without a harness on! It felt glorious. A little weird to run on stage with the rest of the girls, but I had no idea what fun I was missing backstage while I was hanging out (literally) waiting for them.

We had an ever so quick discussion right before the curtain came up about the possibility of the fly rig not being ready. We were told that they were confident that the issue would be sorted out within the next 35 minutes, but in the off chance that it wasn't we were to basically walk the number. At some point one of the stage managers found some old non-fly contingency plan for bway (that was never put into use because FOY always works) so I got a chance to glance at it for a few seconds here and there during my numerous quick changes. Luckily, our team is so amazing that the rig was unquestionably fixed and we could fly Extraordinary Girl like nothing ever happened.

If I had ever doubted it (and I haven't), I know by what happened today that I am a part of something incredible. So much credit goes to the entire cast who tweaked things here and there to fill in spacing, vocals, and movement, but mostly to Vince and Tommy who combined did the work of three men tonight with only a scant rehearsal this afternoon. Gabe was an incredible Johnny, and we were all so excited to be doing Canadian Idiot for the first time!

What a day. With today's put-in rehearsal, I'd call this a nine and a half show week. I'm not sure that I've ever done more than five shows in one week before this, so it will be quite the personal accomplishment when we get to Sunday night! And then it all starts again on Tuesday...

What A Silly Girl

I'm shaking a little as I'm typing this. I have a phone interview for a radio station in Detroit (WWJ 950AM) in about ten minutes and I'm nervous! It's weird, I don't get nervous about shows or auditions much anymore. Just excited. But I've never done this before! I think what's freaking me out is that it's for a newsradio station. I'm afraid they're going to ask me how this show relates to the current political climate and I won't be able to come up with adequate answers. There's a pad of hotel stationary next to me on which I've scrawled a few notes about the show, the people involved, Green Day, but nothing about politics. Hopefully this will be more like the "All Things Considered" segment on what's-that-station in Los Angeles that has more to do with entertainment or fun stories as opposed to news items. It'll be taped, not live, so maybe they can just cut out the weird/uninformed things I say and make me seem like a bright shining representative of American Idiot. Or maybe I'll do so poorly that they'll decide not to air it at all, or interview someone else instead. I'd be totally ok with that... Yup, still shaking.

. . . . (20 mins later). . . .

What a silly girl I am. It went just fine. The anchor, Greg Bowman, was nothing but pleasant and much to my relief didn't mention anything about politics :) My hands are still a little clammy, but my heart rate is back to normal. Phew.

Now that that's over with.... Hey! We're in Canada!! Have been for a week now. You may be happy to know that my neck is feeling just fine and my back is nearly back to normal. My voice on the other hand... well, it's getting there. It's been one hell of a week... several great previews, opening night with a gala afterword (Adrienne, BJA's wife, was there and seemed very proud of what we did!), more shows, sound check and performance on new year's eve for the giant televised celebration downtown, and an open bar/free food party at a "British pub" to follow!

Saturday morning I woke up and noticed my voice felt a little hoarse. I'm not surprised after the week we had, I think all the excitement and adrenaline caused me to push a little to hard. The NYE party didn't help either, because how can you not loudly celebrate on new years eve?? I decided to put myself on vocal rest for the past two and a half days (we got Sunday AND Monday off!), speaking as little as I could manage. This interview was the second actual conversation I've had in those past 2.5 days, so that's a part of why I was nervous. Luckily all the words came out. Hallelujah.

We're back at it again tonight. So glad I had that time to rest and recuperate, because understudy and put-in rehearsals are already underway. It's gonna be another big week! Alright, another hour or two of Catching Fire before I'm off to fly call....

*Fun fact: even though my pants don't fit anymore, when I went to LA for xmas I found out I gained three pounds. That means I probably gained 5 pounds of solid muscle, baby.*

A Little Bit About Nichi...

Oh hi, I'm Nicci!

One. What is your middle name?  Marie
Two. What are you passionate about?  Finding meaning through art
Three. Zebra or leopard print?  Ooh, maybe zebra!
Four. Do you have any fears?  I'm terrified of tsunamis. It can be slightly debilitating. Also I guess being along... not on a day to day basis but in the grand scheme of things.
Five. Silver or gold?  I like to mix and match.
Six. Top three places to visit?  I've always wanted to go back to Leipzig, Germany. the Philippines has some of the most amazing scuba diving ever, and.... Aroma Coffee and Tea in Toluca Lake :)
Seven. How many siblings do you have?  One seester, Sarah. Two step brothers, Jesse and Justin.
Eight. Where are you from? As I tell everyone, I was born in Utah but am somehow not Mormon. Lived in Washington state for about 5 years before moving to northern California. Have been living in Los Angeles for the past 7 years.
Nine. First career you wanted as a child?  Artist. Then I think I wanted to be an astronaut for a minute.
Ten. What's your sign?  Libra (just barely, my birthday is Sept. 24)
Eleven. Future names of your children?  We'll get there when we get there...
Twelve. Do you have any pets?  Grew up with them but don't have any now. But I supplement my lack of pets by visiting my sister's website.
Thirteen. What are you listening to right now?  The ever pleasant sounds of a babbling humidifier.
Fourteen. Do you believe in fate/destiny? Hmm. I guess I believe there are great possibilities for everyone that they can reach if they're driven enough. So I think you kind of create your own.
Fifteen. What are your career goals?  To continue being a working actor and be able to pay my bills by doing what I love. And to be on the broad way ;)
Sixteen. What is your favorite color?  It's hard to pick one. I don't want to hurt the others' feelings.
Seventeen. What is your favorite flower?  Orchids and lilies.
Eighteen. What was the first concert/show you attended? I saw Phantom of the Opera with my family in third grade, and my first concert was Cake with my sister and her friends.
Nineteen. Something you are working on right now?  This thing...
Twenty. Have you ever had a near death experience?  I'll say probably.
Twenty-one. Are you a procrastinator or do you get things done early? Depends on what the thing is. Getting a flu shot or cleaning my room?  Procrastinator. Learning music/lines or organizing outings? You'd better believe I'm on top of it.
Twenty-two. Left of right handed?  Righty tighty.
Twenty-three. TV shows you watch regularly?  Breaking Bad. The Biggest Loser. Top Chef. Mad Men.
Twenty-four. Where do you work?  First national tour of American Idiot, baby!
Twenty-five. Halloween costume this year?  Jem from Jem and the Holograms. Made it myself (it was totally outrageous...)
Twenty-six. What is your relationship status?  I'm in one.
Twenty-seven. Last movie you watched?  Bradesmaids, last night, for the first time. 
Twenty-eight. Your best friend's name?  Kat(t) ;)
Twenty-nine. A song that's been stuck in your head?  Mama Knows Best - Jessie J
Thirty. A book you want to read/have recently read? Almost done with The Hunger Games, and after that it will be the Heroine Diaries.


I'll do a real blog update soon. Any other questions?

I looked it up online. You can't technically "throw" your back "out", but I think I did what is commonly referred to as "throwing your back out". I also did something to my neck about a week ago... I think I need to stop whistling in the wings (it's bad luck in theatre...)

If you haven't seen on my twitter or facebook fan page yet, I am now the blonde in the cast! It's going to take some getting used to, but I don't think I would have ever done it otherwise so I'm enjoying it. As Gabe said, the cast is slowly but surely transforming into misfits. The guyliner and hair dye has done a lot to progress that transformation.

Anyhow. We were fortunate to have two previews in Utica this week before our mini holiday break. None of us were really sure how many people were going to make it out to the show, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the large houses filled with tons of awesome and supportive fans. That took our adrenaline levels up immensely, and I think that's maybe why I hurt my back. With all that excitement it's hard not to want to go full throttle the whole show. I hate to say it but with a show like this I'm gonna guess we'll get quite a bit of stuff like this. It's about an hour and a half of non-stop sweating and singing and kicking theatrical ass. After our first "show" we had a party in the hotel lobby with pizza and an open bar provided by our production company. We also did a secret santa thing, and I got the most amazing back/neck massager from Larkin! I have a feeling that is going to come in handy a lot.

Our second show was great! It gets pretty crazy back stage, but everything sounded and looked awesome and my personal show went very well. I had given some comp tickets away to one of my twitter followers  because I didn't know anyone in the area and she gave me a thank you card after the show! That was pretty sweet. These idiot fans are the best.

Now it's time to head back to Los Angeles for a quick Christmas. I'm planning on swapping out clothes for warm stuff, eating delicious food, and staying in bed as much as possible. We have a big week next week, with press events, more previews, opening night, and a performance on Canadian television on NYE. Not to mention shopping :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! xo

The lovely and talented Johanna McKeon and Lorin Lotarro