OPENING NIGHT! FINALLY!

No. You didn't read that wrong. I said OPENING NIGHT. But WHY? Well, sit back and listen. Tonight, we had our first performance here in Houston at the Wortham Center. It's a beautiful performing arts center in downtown Houston. The show was a PRIVATE event for one of the sponsors. The sponsor was PriceWaterhouseCooper, and they bought out the entire house for their staff and some of their clients.
So before the show, one of the managing partners of the Houston office of PWC came backstage and was getting ready to go on to make a 'welcome' annoucement. She and I stood there and spoke for a few minutes, and then it was time for her to go on and do her thang.
As she started speaking, Roe, Felicia, Katie, Jonny and I were standing backstage right getting ready to go on and just talking and laughing....and suddenly, I hear a portion of the woman's speech where she says how happy she is that everyone could join us for this 'final dress rehearsal' of the Kennedy Center's WILLY WONKA. I waited for second - to let it process - and then I turned to Roe and Felicia to check and see if they heard what I had heard. They hadn't heard it...and neither had Jonny or Katie, but soon enough, we were laughing about how FUNNY it is that these people thought they were seeing a final dress rehearsal. We laughed about it a little, and then she show started and we didn't think anything more about it.
UNTIL....after the show. Because it was a private sponsor event, there was a Meet-And-Greet scheduled for after the show...which included all of us being in the lobby for about 15 minutes in our full costumes, saying hello to the audience. And as we stood there greeting people, the one sentiment that we continued to hear was that our show was great...and that we were going to be GREAT 'tomorrow.' Many people told Felicia that we had nothing to worry about - our future audiences should have as much as the 'dress rehearsal' audience had tonight. And after we changed and left the theater, Felicia and I were walking downtown back to our hotel, and a father and daughter passed us, the daughter recognized us as 2 of the actors, and they waved, and the dad said, 'You guys are going to do great! It is a great show! We really enjoyed it! You have nothing to worry about...you're ready to go!'
So folks...I know some of you have been following this tour/blog for the better part of 18 months, but it's now OFFICIAL! WONKA is done rehearsing....and we are ready to go. We've got the green light from Houston...and tomorrow, we have our opening night. Expect big things from all of us once it's open and running.
And thank you ALL of your support through this long and sometimes trying rehearsal process!
Happy Friday!
G