Title of Post

For those of you who have, dare i say it, "tired" of seeing Piazza...get your butts to the Vineyard Theater to see [title of show]!

Caught the opening tonight, and it is HILARIOUS, sweet, touching, honest, inspirational, and truly original. Yeah, so my on-stage brother is the director and I'm a little biased, but a packed house of everyone from Phyllis Newman to 'Broadway lawyer to the stars' Mark Sendroff seemed to be beaming with laughter right along with me.

I won't go into detail about cast performances (other than that they're all GREAT) because I don't want you to have any expectations. Just go. And let me know what you think!

As far as what's going on in Piazza land: Elaine Stritch and Mark Ruffalo have been roaming the halls rehearsing for their respective LCT shows. I have yet to meet either of them, but I hope to; our crowds have been fantastic! (it's mind boggling to me that LCT is going to close us July 2nd even with sold out houses, but such is the biz); had a new Giuseppe, my buddy Glenn Seven Allen, who performed the role twice this week--it was crazy! Performing on stage with a new actor is always equal parts fun, challenging, and terrifying. We had no rehearsal time together, so his first show I was just trying to take him in and get a feel for his Giuseppe. By his second show we started to really have some fun. Bravo Glenny! And what else? Just starting some TV/Film auditioning for life after Piazza. Scripts have been really good so far, so I'm pretty hopeful! Auditioning for TV/Film is something I should get into in my next posting.

Thanks to all of you who've braved the freezing temps to wait outside the stage door. And special thanks to Natsue Asada, for traveling all the way from Japan to see us! It's been great meeting all of you! Stay warm.

re: Drama League Benefit

So last Monday night, the Drama League threw a big party at the Rainbow Room and invited Katie and I and some of Broadway's best talent to perform on a Valentine's Day themed program. We sang 'Say It Somehow' from Piazza.

It was a fantastic night. Other than the performances, which were fun, I finally got to meet Harry Connick Jr., the Jersey Boys, Marian Seldes and Richard Easton, while seeing some familiar faces--D.B. Bonds, Clarke Thorell, Michael Cerveris, and Kelli O'Hara. Thanks to the Drama League, and to my amazing wife LeAnn for spending Valentine's Day a night early with me :)

Piazza Hats

Ok everybody! As you may or may not know, Chris and I treated the entire company to TLITPiazza baseball hats that we designed over the holidays. The came out GREAT!

They are black caps with the original poster (more arty) font 'The Light in the Piazza' stacked on the front in a pale bright yellow, and 'LCT'05' on the back above the strap. The strap is adjustable and snaps onto the back of the cap with the slack sliding into a groove on the side. It's a really nice hat! And as an added bonus, there's a yellow horse-shoe logo imprinted on the back right side where poor Clara was kicked in the head. :)

My point...we have about 15 extra caps. If any of you would like one, email me asap and for $16 a cap is yours. Because the supply is so limited, I have to limit individual orders to one each. sorry guys.

Oh, you'll also have to be able to meet me at the stage door one day so I can give you the hat.

On a sidenote: Hats off to all who made our little concert at Joe's Pub last night a success. It was really fun! And so great to get to appreciate the abundant talent of some of our cast members whose voices we don't get to hear enough. Bravo tutti!

Weird!

So last night was so WEIRD. Being back in the show after 9 days off was just strange. Some positives: I felt so relaxed from my vacation. My body felt soft and easy, free of tension. The Italian/accent relaxed a bit as well. I wasn't as aware of it as I had been--the text/lyrics seemed to flow with greater ease. Also, scene rhythms were different. I felt I was able to escape the rhythms I had gotten into through 5 months of 8 shows a week--that was truly wonderful, to discover the scenes again. There were some problems: I had some vocal issues from flying and returning from a tropical environment to NYC--my voice was (is still) really dry and the bottom wasn't there for the entire first act. As such, vocally I had my worst performance of the score ever--it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. Then by the middle of Act II, the pain resurfaced in my right hip. It's amazing--I spend a week away free of pain and then as soon as I put those shoes on, bang! the pain is back. I'm working with the costume department to get new shoes for the remainder of the run.

Overall, it was great to get back out there. I missed everyone, and enjoyed being on stage in this piece with a renewed energy and pride. Hopefully I can keep a little island feel with me for as long as possible to ease the strain of a difficult run :)