On Broadway

So today was my first day on the stage and I cannot tell a lie - it was frickin' AWESOME! I know, I should probably try and make it sound like it was no big deal and play it cool since I've worked on a Broadway stage before, but let's be honest, it's every actor"s dream to be on Broadway, and I'm livin' it!
As usual, however, there was very little, if any, fanfare. I entered through the stage door and met the doormen, whose names escape me at the moment, and headed right out to the house (theater) to drop my bag and get my bearings. There is a sense of "been there, done that" about this entire project, mostly because, except for us "newbies", they have all "been there and done that"! But that still doesn't take away from the fact that we're doing a Broadway show. And a highly successful one at that.
Even though I'm actually a day late getting to the stage (we started yesterday but I wasn't called), it was still exciting to be standing out there, on the set, looking at a 1400 seat house, knowing that in less than 2 weeks, it's gonna be full (or nearly) and I'm gonna be singing Swedish pop songs. There goes the pinch again.
We basically did a very rough run through of the show, skipping large sections of dialogue and songs, merely to get a lay of the technical land, as it were. One of the biggest surprises for me was the "Name Of The Game" scene, which is played on the "jetty". The "jetty" is a large, slatted platform that thrusts out toward the audience, and at the beginning of the scene it hydraulically lifts about four feet off the stage. We had talked about this moment in the rehearsal space, but I was surprised at how smooth and how high the lift was. Four feet high from the audience looks much higher when you're standing on it. We (Alyse and I) worked through that scene quickly and safely and as a company got the end in a swift fashion, saving much of the work for next week, when we will have more time on the set.
It was an auspicious beginning, but I think I'll feel quite at home here at the Winter Garden Theater.
I also got a quick haircut from the hair department, which, since they are responsible for maintaining the look of my hair, was a good thing. I haven't had a haircut in months so I was starting to look a bit ratty, although that is very "Bill". We actually decided that it would be best to keep the hair long, but groomed. That way we still give Bill that adventurous look without looking like a yeti.
Tomorrow we're back at the rehearsal space. But those days are numbered, now that we've had a taste of "the Broadway"!