April, come she will

For the past week, we have happily been in the midst or rehearsing our new show. I say happily because it's something to do while our Mexican ports have become progressively more ridiculous in terms of heat and not being able to hold our attention. Some time ago it became more about passing time until our relocation cruise to Alaska than it was about experiencing the joys of the Mexican Riviera. Seriously, though, if you do know of anything of cultural significance or interest unique to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, or Cabo San Lucas, write soon to share it because we've none of us experienced it.

Our new show is a Broadway revue titled "WORDS AND MUSIC." Another reason I say we are rehearsing happily is because this cast is, even months into the contract, just great to be around. In our normal routine of not doing much of anything our busy onboard lives, sometimes we rarely see one another... so it is nice to be doing more of what we actually "do" and spending time together doing it. Joe Sackenheim and I, for example, make stupid absurdist remarks and giggle inappropriately. While the true work is being done, we manage to blow simple lines about the important work of Leonard Bernstein because we've been making jokes about how to truly convey every aspect of the word "intimacy" in our "intimate cabaret setting."

This "intimate setting" is a very large theatre with several hundred seats and a dress circle, by the way.

Next week we open the show and also will celebrate Leslie Turner's birthday. Leslie is one of our guest entertainers, and she is one of those people with her own catchphrase... one that is quite often appropriate on ship, "This is an outrage."

I realized today that the end of April has been a significant time in my life for years now, quite randomly it seems. A year ago I stepped off the Voyager from the world cruise on April 30. Two years ago, I began on April 28 what will likely remain in many ways the worst, most calculatedly humiliating ten days of my life - long story. Three years ago I got onto a ship for the first time on the first of May, so that doesn't really count... there are many other things that circle around this time of year for me, and I wonder if it's something astrological or absolutely random that it's been so eventful. Just blathering at this point.

Oh yeah - big news... this summer, I am discussing producing a musical during my time between contracts. I'll be putting the show up with my good friend Nick Marchello and his fiancee Tara, who are currently staying in Wichita, Kansas. We'll put the show up for two weeks in July/August, and it will likely be a small show called "MUSICAL THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS."

Once details are ironed out, I'll post more here.