Dear Randy,

Of course the one day that you are out of the office- it all goes down.

Don’t get me wrong, as your faithful servant dedicated employee, I can vouch for the fact that I have never seen you take a sick day, let alone a vacation. All I’m saying is that your time off is well deserved, but boy did you miss a doozy of a day!!!

So while you throw back your Bahamanian cocktails, I want you to know that I am committed to giving you an in depth report of what’s going on in Memphisland.

Where to start?

I know you got the performance report from last night about Chad Kimball being sick and needing to call out of the shows today- sinus infection or something, right? But of course that meant that for the first time EVER in Memphis, an understudy went on for Huey Calhoun- how much did it kill you not to be here to see Bryan Fenkart on for Chad?? :) Bitter? Me? That you are on vacay? No.

Anywhoozle, Sue and I were amped up in the office, which means that I was talking to myself alot and Sue was, well, doing her Sue thing. BUT THEN, we got the call from SpotCo that the billboard was up. We were dying at this point. Even Office Pal Sarah was lamenting how you were missing all the action…

You would have thought that the office was on fire. Like really on fire, not like those drills we do in our building CONSTANTLY, (Rachel at Telsey Casting can back me up on this one) where we meet at the end of the hallway and hear about how we should have a meet-up spot in the event of an actual emergency. (Westway Diner of course). Sue and I jumped up and ran out the door.

All I had on me was my camera, a flip cam and my cell phone. Not even my wallet, which of course, you always say not to go outside in New York City without your wallet in the event you are hit by a bus. Alas, we were off to see the gloriousness that is our billboard in Times Square.

All of those emails- those thousands of emails- drafts and comments and new drafts and approvals- and now it is a towering beacon of rock on the southeast corner of 46th and 7th. I cannot wait for you to see it, Randy. I think you’ll be pumped.

So, I’ve got my camera out, taking this picture from the TKTS stairs

and I’m realizing that James Monroe Iglehart is across the street with Freestlye Love Supreme doing Seth Rudetsky’s Sirius radio show that broadcasts live on Wednesday from the Times Square Alliance center.

So, of course, I convince Sue to come with me. We a bit early and they are running behind, we are STARVING, but of course I don’t have my wallet. Sue is the best and gets me a Diet Coke and we split a thing of fries from the McDonald’s next door. Its totally classy and glamorous, standing in the lobby of the Times Square McDonalds chomping on fries, slurping down “the good stuff.” I digress.

So we head back to the Freesytle Love Supreme (FLS) interview and of course, Sue runs into like 30 people she knows, including Thomas Kail- the director of In the Heights.

So she totally introduces me and he and I discuss how Sue is going to get major street cred with her teenage daughter for being at a FLS concert. You may not recognize Sue when you get back because she is so legit now…

The FLS concert is, as Seth would say, Ah-mahzing. I took a video but I cannot upload it (surprised?) because it requires too much technology. Pictures will have to do for now until someone from Apples and Oranges answers my desperate plea for tech support.

*I did not get any pictures of Sue during the concert, but trust, she was there and totally into it.

So, the show is over and James tells me that Seth’s wants him and J. Bernard and Derrick to be on his Chatterbox performance tomorrow!! I was “all over it” as you would say and Juliana helped us get that all squared away for tomorrow at 6pm at Don’t tell Mama. Of course you won’t be there as you will probably be eating delicious treats and caring for a over-confident-first-day-sunburn.

At this point it is only 1pm. Sue and I stop by the Edison for some take out. I think she got Split Pea soup which is interesting because that sounds so unappealing to me, I don’t know why. Who knew Sue liked split pea soup? [Cut to Sue reading this and turning to me saying "I can't belive you blogged about me eating split pea soup?"]

We scurry over to the theatre and I grab some floor in the stage managers office, which was, naturally, ablaze with activity. Bryan had been doing some rehearsing earlier in the afternoon, but now it was time to do fight call and all that kind of official business. I watched it on the monitors because I didn’t want Bryan to feel uncomfortable that we were all there to watch him. But, we were. All of us.

Even Office pal made her way over. Tegan too. We had a pretty full house today; the audience took the understudy slip in stride and welcomed Bryan with open arms.

Bryan did a great job. When you are shot out of a cannon like that, the fact that he was standing at the end of it was a miracle in itself. That role, as Kevin Covert said, “is a beast.” Huey is only OFFstage about 4 minutes total in the whole show, but every time he is off, he is changing clothes, running up and down to the radio booth trap door, I mean it requires some serious stamina. Chad has had months (nay, years) to work on the stamina it takes- Bryan has had but a handful of rehearsals.

Fun Fact: Broadway understudy rehearsals are a bit, um, how shall I say it? Dumbfounding. Not the work, but the work environment. They rehearse without lights, props, sets, costumes, orchestra- using folding chairs and facsimilies of props- understudies don’t get the full experience until its showtime.

Remember sitting in on Bryan’s audition? We were at the Hilton weren’t we? I can remember thinking, we need to cast this kid so that we can discover him before someone else does.

After the show, I saw him in the stage managers office and he came in, and all he could say was “what just happened?” I had to remind him to go onstage as he had peeps waiting to see him!! It was cute.

The rest of the day was sort of a blur: house seats, meeting with Jacob, Fed Ex drop offs, remembering the days in 2009 when we had chocolate in the office, that kind of thing.

And on my way home, I stopped by the theatre before the evening show where Derrick, J Bernard, James and Cass were running through the music for their appearance at Bryant Park tomorrow at noon, Bryan was getting ready for his second canon experience, and I was able to snag a chocolate peanut butter square from backstage (see aforementioned longing for chocolate in our office).

As I was leaving, a busload of people were being dropped off, a gaggle of high school students were already in line with their classmates, Superfan Raellen was there to see Bryan go on, and Clay Aiken was reportedly on his way.

And then I missed my train.

I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring but with the Bryant Park thing and the Chatterbox taping, at least there will be more pictures. Hope you are having fun and that the weather is as glorious as our new billboard.

Hockadoo.

Your pasty employee,
Carolyn