Happy New Year Everyone!
I had a great time playing The Lion King in Denver at the Buell Theater. Lots of fun working with the local players as well as my friends on the tour. And what a beautiful place to be …
Although I was a bit sleep deprived, I flew home late on 12/4 and got up and took a 6 a.m. flight to NYC to represent TMA at the Pamphlet B Caucus at the AFM. I’ll be returning to NYC the end of this month, when the negotiations begin.
I played A Christmas Story at the Chicago Theatre December 14-30. It was a great show, based on the movie. Cynthia Kortman-Westphal was conducting and was truly a pleasure to work with. The band was a 17 piece big band which included harp. Marcia LaBella was amazing on that book! This was a really fun show to play. Great cast also. I gotta feeling it’ll be on Broadway next year.
I’ll be playing Bring It On at the Cadillac Palace March 6th – 25th. Alex Lacamoire did the arrangements … should be cool!
My son, Ashley, had his 30th birthday on 1/7. WOW! I’m so proud of him. He’s an amazing musician (check out ashleymendel.com) and living in Berlin, Germany with his fiance. He was born on the coldest day of the century in Chicago. I think that it was -33º (about -90º with the wind chill).
Speaking of winter weather, yesterday was our first major snow here in Chicago this season. I shoveled three times. I won’t complain (too much). It just scares me though. Last year, we had a major blizzard around the beginning of February. E-burrrrrrrrrrrrrrr