Es Un Lugar Maravilloso

Greetings my dear readers.

Today was the second day of rehearsal for "Storytime Live!" This is the next chapter of my life...a year long national tour.

Nickelodeon has combined four of their cartoons into one mega-show. It includes: "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan," "The Backyardigans," "The Wonder Pets," and "Dora the Explorer." Each individual segment of the show combines the characters from each cartoon with characters from classic fairy tales like: "The Monkey King," "Alice in Wonderland," "Robin Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." In essence, children are going to lose their shit when they see it all put together.

The production team for this show is incredible! Director Sam Scalamoni (Beauty and the Beast), Choreographer Wendy Seyb (The Toxic Avenger), and Musical Director Gary Adler (Altar Boyz). The cast is definitely in good hands. I could not be more thrilled to be working with such accomplished and genuinely wonderful people.

The cast of 10 are all fantastic. As with most shows, energy is to be expected, but these actors and actresses bring it up a notch. It's only been two days and I'm having a blast.

I'm the swing, which means that I cover all of the male tracks. Should any one of them need to be out of a show, I go in. I'm essentially an on-call actor. Ready to go when the time comes. It's a bit overwhelming because each track plays so many different characters, but it's a very welcome challenge.

There will be more updates as we progress through the rehearsal process, but I've got to review and get to bed.

I hope that you are having a safe, healthy, positive, productive, and loving start to 2010! I would like to emphasize the loving part. Take some time and let people know how much they mean to you. I know it's easy to forget, but we truly don't know what could happen from day to day, so take that extra time and spread some love.

-Joey-

P.S. I met Tony Yazbeck (A Chorus Line, Gypsy, most recently White Christmas) today! He was preparing for an audition, so I didn't want to bother him...but I did. He was really nice and humble when my word vomiting produced endless piles of gushing at his feet. THEN, as I was getting on the elevator, who should be coming out of said elevator but Sutton Foster. That's right, Millie herself, or most recently as Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical! All in all, a fantastic day!