When last we met, I was bitching about my eyes. Turns out, I had every right to complain: infections in both eyes causing photosensitivity, itching, pain, and redness. No contact lenses allowed for two weeks.
This of course meant that I had to do the show in my natural, nearsighted fashion. I think it would be more fun to pluck hair from my arm slowly, but of course this ended up being the two-week span of everyone getting sick, hurt, or having vacation time. Can't catch a break, can I?
I also didn't own prescription sunglasses. Since my eyes were extremely light sensitive, I asked the doctor for something to shield them while I waited for my sunglasses to be ready. This is what he offered:
That's right. A strip of dark plastic sandwiched between my glasses and my face. Very classy. Very LA. I've never gotten so many quizzical looks in my life.
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Thankfully, I was crashing at the home of two very dear friends, Michael Rosenblum and his soon-to-be-wife, Alison:
They dimmed all the lights and shut all the blinds and proceeded to cook me a delicious stir-fry dinner.
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Along with Brad's super sexy tan lines...
I have a bunch of pictures from our opening night party at Beso, Eva Longoria's restaurant in Hollywood. Here I am with Sam and our dear friend, Kate Pazakis:
Beautiful restaurant/bar area:
Trying to get a shot of Brad's ascot and matching pocket square:
The family!
Close-up on my eyeliner. Serving you 60's:
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I have a fair amount of friends in LA! I hadn't realized just how many, so forgive me if this post is one-third long-arm shots of people I haven't seen in far too long. Beginning with Adam Dornbusch!!!
Oh, Adam, Easily one of the coolest cats I met while going to school in Syracuse. He came and saw the show the same night as Mikey and Alison because we thought it was the only night I'd be on. How wrong we were. I ended up being on for more than half the LA performances, all with no contact lenses. I know that doesn't sound frightening, but imagine the stage going to full blackout and you can't even tell what the shadows are while standing on top of the tallest part of the set. That was my week.
Still. Friends in LA. Worth it.
Up next in the list of awesome people: SAL SABELLA. Those of you know know Sal will remember him as an extremely good-looking, high-spirited man with one of the best personalities in the history of ever. So awesome, in fact, that he volunteered to give me an afternoon of Hollywood tourism before one of my many shows, beginning with the Hollywoodland sign:
That's not it. That's the strangest, pink art we'd seen in a long time.
This is the Hollywoodland sign:
This is what it looks like around the sign:
I mean, I knew California was beautiful, but I always pictured LA as a gritty, urban city. I certainly didn't expect a view like this:
Sal loves it up here:
My Jolly Green Giant imitation:
On our way back down the hill, we saw the best garage door of all time:
Another view:
Also on the way down the hill is a fabulous little LA chestnut called the Garden of OZ. A private garden built into the hillside of a Hollywood home, its made of jewels, bricks, stone, tile, and found objects, and it resembles the munchkinland set from The Wizard of Oz.
Hard to see it, but this is the "Highway of OZ." There's a street of toy cars going across the cement wall:
Here's a peek inside the gate. You can make an appointment to come inside the garden, otherwise its private and off-limits. There's all sorts of signs welcoming children of all ages, which could be considered a little creepy, but I'd like to think its meant to be a tea-party heaven for little kids.
Follow the...:
9/11 memorial on the gate:
A throne of your own!!
Please ignore the "sunglasses:"
After our trip to the garden, we headed up another hill to the Griffith Observatory. More stunning (if more urban) views:
As well as busts of James Dean? Of course.
Inside the Observatory was just as beautiful:
Reaching for a piece of the moon:
Or casually leaning on the monument out front:
There's a fascinating clock at the center of the building... I'm sure its operation is based on the Earth's orbit and rotation, but I didn't get a chance to read the instructions. Its basically a giant pendulum knocking down little pillars representing the twenty four hours:
Here we have the back-lit table of elements, currently highlighting all those that make up human bodies:
Now back to the entire table:
Love this:
Poor Pluto. Go listen to Jonathan Coulton's "I'm Your Moon" as well as Clare and the Reasons' "Pluto."
After the Observatory, we headed over to 101 Cafe for a quick bite before my half-hour call. The 101 is a fabulous, retro spot with an excellent menu:
By the entrance, they have costume test shots from all sorts of famous movies. See Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music below:
Love the wall detail:
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Up next in casual encounters, we have my darling Harvard (aka Bao Buns ((aka Jason Beaubien))). A classy dude with an attitude, Harvard and I met serving sushi at the infamous Ruby Foo's of midtown Manhattan. Now a Los Angeles actor, Harvard is working at yet another corporate, sushi slamhouse... only this time its a little smaller and the food is more consistent. Case in point, our awesome lunch:
The Kale Salad was so good, I forgot to photograph it.
Even though we were stuffed, Harvard insisted that we walk over to Sprinkles for a little vegan red velvet cupcake action. I'm in favor of any baked good, but I was skeptical about vegan frosting.
On the way over, we paused for a photo-op:
I knew I'd heard of Sprinkles Cupcakes before! It was featured on the Cooking channel because of its unique Cupcake ATM:
Inside, rows upon rows of temptation:
We took our vegan red velvets over to a corner park to enjoy. I shit you not, these were some of the best cupcakes I have had EVER, let alone compared to other vegan options. Moist and flavorful, you'd never know they had no milk or eggs. Writing about them is making me wish I'd ordered enough to travel:
To work off our cupcakes, we posed with some local art:
Harvard lives in the heart of what we like to call "Chelsea, LA:" West Hollywood.
A cluster of gay bars and fabulous restaurants, West Hollywood is a mecca for homosexuals of all shapes and sizes. Luckily for us, LA Pride Weekend fell right across our two-week stint at the Pantages. Chris Danner, my company manager, decided to have his birthday party at one of the more well-known g'bars in the area: The Abbey.
The Abbey is full of half-naked men hanging from the ceiling. Seriously. Here's one on the ground:
That is Skylar. At least that's what he told me before I started thinking about laundering my shirt across his abs.
Here are a few from the raucous bash that followed:
Caption contest:
See?! Hanging from the rafters:
Love this next shot with Christopher Littlefield:
Another favorite, with Ray:
What goes up...
Dougie and Todd attempting a photo:
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As I said before, LA was a full week for the Addams swings:
We had people dropping left and right, and for the first time we had all our swings on at once:
That night I was fortunate to receive Steve Moller at the stage door! His little brother had just turned 21, so they were enjoying a night on the town:
You'll hear more from this darling boy later on.
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Musical theatre Draw Something strikes again!
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Line for The Book Of Mormon tickets:
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I made breakfast for Kate and myself early one morning:
Then I met up with Harvard again for some adventures. We ate at a place called HUGO for lunch, which had these insane Ginger Lemonades:
And an entree where you could pair any five veggie side dishes:
We decided to walk off our meal and tour some more of the Melrose area:
Doggie Drinking Fountain. So cute:
If I lived in a mansion, the door would look like this:
Love the shop windows on Melrose:
After the show, I met up with Kate at Jeff Edgerton's birthday bash. Jeff and I did a show called Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge together back in 2009. Go listen to it on iTunes, its awesome:
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More friendly faces!!!
After yet another show, I went out for drinks with Adam Dornbusch, Rich Prugh, Lisa Coombs, and Andy Grosso:
The Wolfslair is a German style pub complete with stuffed wolves and pretzel dough delivered fresh from Germany every day:
We're pretty classy.
I really do have the best friends.
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I went over to Kate's apartment before we grabbed coffee and drove through the hills. Here's Oscar looking adorable:
Kate needed to print out some sides and I needed some sheet music, so we headed to the local equivalent of Kinkos. They had a pretty fabulous fish:
Wink wink, ladies.
We enjoyed refreshing iced teas at a corner coffee shoppe who's name escapes me:
Then we posed a bit:
Laughed at the local WiFi titles:
Pined over the cottages:
And snuck past the Pritchett house from Modern Family:
Apparently this is the Kardashian house. I don't know.
Kate's new baby, a shiny blue convertible bug:
Her apartment is on the corner of the best street in the universe:
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I had a ton of time to kill before getting to the theatre, so I drove around the touristy part of Hollywood. here's the Magic Castle from a distance:
And a very special star:
Here come the touristy shots:
This one's for Ivy:
Star Wars!!
That's Liza, with a "Z" --->
When I got back to the theatre, I found that Ivy's birthday package had arrived super early:
I do so love a good magnet. And the Muppets.
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FINALLY, my prescription sunglasses were ready:
To celebrate, I picked up an album I'd lost to the great computer crash of 2006:
That night at the theatre, our little Pugsley turned the ripe old age of 13:
What better way to ring it in than with silly string!?
13 is old, but I still don't trust Patrick with a knife:
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More Draw Something silliness:
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Shot of the front of the Pantages theatre, just for kicks:
Gosh, I love him:
And her:
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Friday afternoon, we were treated to the matinee of Cirque du Soleil's IRIS: a whimsical adventure through the history of movie styles:
I thought her costume was cool until I saw the actual show. It then paled in comparison.
Crazy whip-hair!
Her skirt was a spinning light box that showed moving images of a title fight:
Back at Chris's birthday bash at the Abbey, I'd been rescued by an adorable dancer-boy named Joshua. I couldn't fight my way to the exit, so he took my hand and literally DANCED us to the exit. He even managed to flirt along the way - that's talent.
After IRIS, he took a bunch of us backstage to see the costumes and sets, as well as the warm-up rooms for all the cirque acts. Its amazing the amount of space and money it takes to run a show of that magnitude. Here's Josh and I posing by the stage door:
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Next morning, I went out for brunch with Steve:
The Blu Jam cafe, friends. Go.
Afterwards we headed over to Wasteland and did a bit of consignment shopping. Did I buy Michael Kors heels? Why yes, yes I did.
I then went to the theatre and played Draw Something. Again:
After the two show day, Dougie and Todd had everyone over for a "little party" at their house. I put this in quotes because no one I know has a "little party" with a catering staff, taco stand, and bartender.
A Model A in the front:
An oasis in the back:
And all the luxury in between:
They had a fantastic collection of art:
I particularly loved this little wooden hippo:
And the men scaling the wall of the guest bathroom. One of them, anyway:
Taco stand:
Even Tiffany had her swimsuit on:
I manned the s'more booth, though Doug's friend Chris had the best s'more of the night:
Shawn's swimsuit... was small...
I had to cut out a bit early because I was on for both shows on Sunday, plus I was singing at a concert with Kate after.
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Quick shot of Stella and Matt on father's day. I sent her that dress from Beverly Hills :)
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Next up on the friends roster, I had lunch with Nicole Sullivan: an old friend from the abroad program at Syracuse University.
Her phone case was something to behold:
Here we are facing the sun:
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After we closed our final performance at the Pantages, I jumped in the car and headed over to Broadway Bar to sing a ditty or three. We missed the first half of the show because of our skit, but we arrived as Jason Paige was singing "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and beatboxing around the cabaret space. My first thought was, "Shit. Did I pick the wrong material?" Thankfully, the next guy sang "Waiting for Life" from Once On This Island.
We had a superfan in the house, and she videotaped a fair amount of the performances. If you'd like to watch a few, see below:
Gaelen Gilliland: "Get Out and Stay Out" from 9 to 5
Cortney Wolfson: "It Won't Be Long Now" from In The Heights
Brian Justin Crum: "Lost In The Wilderness" from Children of Eden
Brian and Cortney: "High Enough" from Rock of Ages
I have two recordings of my performance. The first is shot by the superfan, the second by Sal Sabella from across the room. The video is better on the first, but the audio is far superior on the second. Plus, Sal's recording includes my inane banter before the song, which is a performance all its own. Hope you enjoy:
"I Had Myself A True Love" by Harold Arlen
I had way more people at this event than I'd anticipated, including Rich and Lisa, Sal, Steven, and my dear, dear friend Lisa Margaroli:
I couldn't have asked for a more supportive crowd. Plus, Kevin Chamberlin was hosting, which was an added treat.
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The next morning I had to wake up early to return my rental car and hop the next plane to Denver. Mikey got up early so we could breakfast together before my departure. I miss him already:
That brings us to the end of California! I'm sure I forgot to write about a few adventures, but its kind of like Vegas... some things you have to keep for yourself.
Now we are in Denver, and I already have a ton of things to share. Until then, you stay classy.
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