Going on for Warner! - Seattle part 3 of 3

Week 8 - SEATTLE! (Part 3 of 3)

Going on for Warner!
or "It's Time to Get Serious"

by Jason Kappus, Legally Blonde cast member, Seattle native

It's happening! I was hoping that I would get to on as Warner at some point before we leave Seattle, and with just a couple days to spare, here we are! I'm going on tonight (Friday) for the first time as Elle's initial love interest. Should be fun! (Although thinking about it, I like my normal track so much, I'll actually kind of miss it.)

In other news for the week, Lucia Spina makes her debut as Paulette this weekend, while Natalie Joy Johnson is on vacation. We also have Sara Shepard (an LB tour vet) coming back to play Mom starting this weekend (Yay!). And we're on our last three days of shows in Seattle (Boo!). It has been magical to be here, and be a part of this amazing show. The audiences have been great, the experience un-paralleled and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. If you haven't caught the show yet, you've got time! Ladies, bring your friends, Moms, daughters! Guys, you'll like it, too! There's sports (watch closely for football, golf, and a whole jump rope number), rockin' music, and girls dancing around in various states of undress! Everybody I've talked to has loved the show - don't miss it right here in Seattle!

And if you're free tonight, I'll sing a rock ballad just for you! =)

**

click the Jason Kappus tag below to read all of Jason's backstage blog entries!

Is this the Face of Harvard Law? - Seattle part 2 of 3 by Jason Kappus

Week 6 & 7 - SEATTLE! (Part 2 of 3) or "Is This the Face of Harvard Law?" By Jason Kappus, Legally Blonde The Musical cast member, Seattle native It's obviously nice when we spend more than one week in any city because we get a REAL day off, instead of just a day to travel. It just so happens that I'M lucky enough here in Seattle to spend that whole day off at home with my wife and cats - heaven! =) It was particularly nice to come to the day off because we have been spending a LOT of time in rehearsal. That's partly for me, because I have still been learning the two tracks that I cover (Dad and Warner), and also because there have been a number of full cast rehearsals to clean both music and dances. Everybody knows that Seattle is a big theatre town, so the producers came out to see the show here, and the creative team wanted to make sure that the show was in great shape. As I mentioned in the last blog, I got to go on for a new track in the middle of week one in Seattle. The man who plays Dad/Winthrop/Reporter was in Hawaii on vacation, so Barry and I combined to cover his track for the week. (Every person in the show is covered by at least two people - three for Elle.) It was a little nerve-wracking, as I sort of feel somewhat new to my OWN track, but especially after the first performance (where I was largely concerned about just making sure I wasn't in anyone's way) it was a lot of fun... especially because within the span of four shows as Dad, I ended up having two different daughters and two different wives - never a dull moment! Speaking of which - here's a tour fun fact. As you can tell, we end up with swings and understudies on pretty regularly, as people have vacations, take personal days, or are sick or injured. So far, I have done 31 shows with this tour, and I have yet to do a show with the full cast. We've always been missing at least one person - keeps it interesting! =) Also in our second Seatte week, I got to participate in my first understudy rehearsal, where I played both Dad and Warner. The Dad stuff was pretty easy as I'd just done it in the show, and it was great to get to run through the show as Warner, which I have not yet gotten to do yet. Here's hoping I get to go on for Warner this last week before we leave Seattle! If I find out, I'll post it on here right away! More soon! *** For all blog entries by Jason Kappus, click on his name in the tags below!

5th Avenue star returns to Seattle - on tour! Pt 1.

by Jason Kappus, Ensemble, Legally Blonde The Musical (Seattle-native)

Week 6 - SEATTLE! (Part 1 of 3)
The Return or "Let's Go Home Before Someone Cries"

Week 5 was great, and Portland's a great town, so we had a good time. After a few weeks away from home and my wife, though, I was READY to be home. Lucky me, that's exactly where we were headed. Since it's so short, we took two buses instead of flying for this trip. It was really nice not having to deal with security, baggage weight, or keeping your elbows to yourself. I couldn't keep a stupid grin off my face as we rolled past Olympia, Tacoma, finally hit Southcenter and then Seattle proper. How cool is this?! Not only do I get to do a national tour, but I get to do it AT HOME for three weeks! I was a little worried that I may have talked the town up too much to the rest of the cast - but of course, the city did not dissapoint. Everyone LOVES it here (duh).

The coming home feeling I got driving up I-5 was just enhanced the first day at The 5th Avenue Theatre. Especially after the amazing experience I had here this summer with Catch Me If You Can, I was ecstatic to be back.

A few unique things about the 5th Avenue:

1) I had been telling everyone about how beautiful the theatre is, and it was fun to watch everyone taking in this gorgeous house on the first day. The bulk of the theatres we play are more multi-purpose performing arts center types. This theatre, as most of us here know, has more class and character than most you come across, including a lot of the theatres in New York.

2) A somewhat less well-known fact is that the backstage area at the 5th Avenue is particularly small. In fact, a lot of the national tours specifically take this theatre into account when planning their sets, as we have one of the smallest backstage spaces they will come across. Our tour is not particularly set-heavy, but even so, everyone really has to work hard to fit backstage!

3) The audiences here are FANTASTIC. I heard happy comments from a number of cast members on opening night, and it hasn't quit since then. The good ol' PacNW theatre goers are theatre savvy, but know how to show their appreciation! Makes for a fun show on our end!

I could ramble on forever about how great it is to be back here on tour. I've had friends at EVERY performance so far, get to work in the heart of my FAVORITE city, and sleep in MY OWN BED every night. Are you KIDDING ME?! And as if things weren't fun enough, I got to make my debut in a new track in the middle of week one. More on that in part 2, coming soon!

Don't miss Legally Blonde The Musical - it closes in just over a week on March 14! Tickets and info, here.

Omigod, it's a Dream Come True!

by Jason Kappus, Legally Blonde ensemble, Seattle Native.
Week 4: Denver (continued)

Wednesday, Feb 10th was my opening night! Show number one for me, show number 500 and something for the company. I remember when former Seattle and 5th Avenue actor Steven Taylor was joining the Broadway cast of The Lion King, he said it was weird because it was his Broadway debut, but for everyone else, it was just another day at work, so it didn't feel like the big celebration it maybe should be. I thought my experience might be similar, but everybody in the cast and crew made a BIG DEAL about my first show. They were very excited, encouraging, and happy for me throughout the whole day.

We had a put-in rehearsal in the afternoon, for both Michael Rupert and myself, so that we both got to practice all our scenes (and costume changes) once through with the cast before our first show. That was actually a little bit more nerve-racking than the actual show, since all eyes were on me during my scenes and it was the first time a lot of my new friends/colleagues were seeing me work. But the put-in went very smoothly - I discovered a couple helpful things about quick costume changes, and how some on-stage traffic works with people actually there.

When I got to the theatre for the show that evening, there was a lovely opening night present from some of the boys in the cast, as well as some flowers from my wife - both very nice surprises. I went over everything in my head during half-hour, got dressed and ready (WAY earlier than I needed to - ha) and then all of a sudden, the overture was starting, and we were underway. My first night on my first national tour. Wow.

"Back in the Game, Back in the Fray!"

by Jason Kappus, Ensemble, Legally Blonde The Musical



Week 3 - Denver, CO

First of all - Denver's cool! (Figuratively and literally - the first snow I've seen all winter - finally!) Neat city, good vibe, but the altitude does some pretty funny things to people. I was lucky in that I got a week of hanging out in the city rehearsing before having to actually do the show, so I had more time to acclimate. But with less oxygen around, there are definitely some extra challenges to singing, dancing, jumping rope, and sleeping.

That said, the show goes on, and the Denver audiences LOVE it - I watched it a few more times here and people have so much fun at this show. It's nice to see first hand the effect this show has on people. It makes it very exciting to start.

Oh, and did I mention that my first performance will also be the first performance of Michael Rupert as Callahan? If the name doesn't ring a bell, Michael, who won a Tony in the revival of Sweet Charity, originated the role of Professor Callahan on Broadway. So, while he and I are the "new guys," he's a step or two ahead of me. Ha!

I continued rehearsals in Denver, and started to get a little anxious to go on. And I thought I might go in early for a while, as the cast was dealing with a little round of injuries. In fact, I don't think there was one show the first week in Denver that had the same configuration of cast members. Keeps things interesting!

Alas, didn't get to go on early - but now I only had two days to wait!

Learning The Show (or "Time to Study!")

by Jason Kappus, Ensemble, Legally Blonde The Musical

My first week was spent rehearsing during the days, watching the shows during the evening, and going out at night with the cast to meet everyone and start putting names to faces.

I spent the days with one of the dance captains who taught me the show either on stage or in the theatre lobby if the stage was being used. This is one area where an actor's imagination is very helpful, because although you're on a bare stage, you have to envision as many as twenty other people, where they are, and where they're going. Not an easy task, but luckily, a good dance captain (like the ones we have) can tell you exactly where each of those people are and your relationship to them - which I always find impressive.

It's a pretty quick and dirty process in a situation like this. I had one session with the music director to "learn" the music, where we basically went through every song once, or twice if necessary. He gave me all the specifics, like cut-offs/dynamics/etc. and from that day on, I was just expected to have it down. Similarly, we got through the staging of the show in about two days, and the next day, it was time to run the show. Luckily, I had taken the time to do my homework at the hotel, and had also paid close attention while watching the show, so this went pretty smoothly.

At the end of the week, I was pretty confident in what I'd learned, and felt that if there was an emergency, I could go on early if they needed me to (which apparently is more common than not). Interestingly, we then had the layoff week, so it was back to Seattle for a week. This was a blessing and a curse: great to be home for a week, but I also had to make sure to retain on my own everything that had been crammed into my head in the last 6 days.

Back to Seattle! Wheee!

Oh My God - This is Happening! By Jason Kappus

by Jason Kappus, Legally Blonde The Musical (Ensemble)
The First Week on Tour- Tucson, AZ

I left on a rare sunny Seattle Tuesday morning, and headed for an overcast drizzly Tucson, Arizona - how's that for ironic? I had the luxury of only packing for six days to start because the second week of my contract was a layoff week: back home - yay!

I got there just in time for the weekly company meeting (first day in each new city) where they go over any specificities of the theatre, hotels, and the city. The theatres vary greatly in size and space week to week, so sometimes there are backstage traffic changes or even some cut set pieces in very small spaces.

Also, at this particular meeting, I was a point of order as they officially introduced me to everyone ("Jason, meet 75 people - Go!"). Stage management made sure to connect me with Nick, who I was to replace. He was very welcoming and gracious, insisting I let him know if I had any questions or needed anything.

After that, we also do a sound check before the first show in each city, so I got to watch and listen to that. They do almost half of the music in the show while they try to nail down the mix in the new space.

Then, I got my comp ticket (front and center) to that night's show, found my seat, and had my first second to stop and think about where I was and what I was doing.

Midway through the first number of the show, the girls sing "Oh my God, this is happening..." and I said to myself "Yeah it is."

How I Got The Job (part 2)

How I Got the Job - Part 2: Keeping the Faith
or "You Gotta Fight to be Legally Blonde"
For Part 1, click here.

After the summer, I had a couple months off before my next project, which was playing John Truitt in Meet Me in St. Louis at Village Theatre. As I had no idea when, or really… IF a call would come for Legally Blonde The Musical, I moved on with things as usual in Seattle, while at the same time trying to put myself in a good position to get the job whenever the call came. This meant familiarizing myself with the show, continuing my training, and getting whipped into the best shape possible. You’ll see when the show gets to Seattle - these boys are FIT.

The call did eventually come, though not for a while. It was early December, midway through the run of St. Louis, when they called and said they wanted me to come to New York in about four weeks. This was actually much more advance notice than I had expected, so that was nice).

And as luck would have it, they wanted me to come in right in the middle of a three day break from St. Louis, so I didn’t even have to deal with a conflict I started to feel at that point that perhaps some stars were aligning for this.

So my wife and I got two cheap plane tickets (yay!) to New York and took a mini business/leisure trip. I realized before the audition that Jerry Mitchell would not be able to be there as he was in the middle of putting up Legally Blonde on London’s West End (which has now gone over as a huge hit and is already extended into 2011!). So I sent him a message, told him I was excited for the opportunity, and thanked him for calling me in. He responded and said he would make sure to give a call to the folks doing the casting and put his two cents in. Now, considering that Jerry’s two cents is more like the whole dollar, this was an exciting thing to hear. The producer, Hal Luftig, who also produced Catch Me, who you may have seen at Spotlight Night, also said he would speak on my behalf: Woah.

A couple days before the audition, I got a call from the casting agency, Telsey & Co., asking if I could come in an hour before my appointment to have a private session with Justin, the casting director. Justin and I had become friends over the summer and fall, and he wanted me to get a chance to run through the material in the room before the team showed up – awesome! That portion went very smoothly, and helped reduce my nerves for the real thing. Consequently, the real thing went very well. Part of the job is covering (or understudying) the role of Warner, so they had me sing his song, “Serious,” and also read a scene from act two. They said things like “That was great!” “Thanks Jason” “Really good.” which in truth, are pretty standard responses, but there did seem to be a tone of sincerity to their compliments, so I felt good. I was asked to come back for the dance call, so I knew things were going well so far.

I hung out around Times Square for a couple hours and then returned for the dance call. I hadn’t had a good sense yet of how many other guys were called in for this spot, but however many they started with, there were seven of us total at the dance call. Not the best odds in the world, but again, I felt like I might have a slight cosmic edge, so I was going in with a good amount of confidence.

We did a short combination from “What You Want,” one of the big dance numbers in the first act. This was brief as they just wanted to get a sense of how everyone moved. The real test was to follow. This particular track we were auditioning for involved a heavy dose of jumping rope (yes, jumping rope). There is a number in the show that is basically a live workout video, and there are four guys who do a whole jump rope routine. So we proceeded to jump rope for over an hour: Woah. Not knowing we were going to be doing that, and therefore not being fully stretched or prepared, I ended up straining my left calf, which luckily was completely healed by the time I joined the tour! This was a unique audition challenge, but luckily I had done a good bit of jumping rope in college (thank you, Fight Class!).

We finished up, and everyone chatted a little in the lobby as we got our stuff together to leave. I was completely exhausted, physically and mentally, and walked back up to Times Square, where I just sort of wandered for a little bit, taking in the city, and processing my day. After about fifteen minutes, I got a text from Justin that said “Let’s talk about today. Meet me at the Starbucks at 43rd and 9th?”. My heart leapt, but then quickly sank, because that message sounded like I was in for a “Hey, you did great today/Keep up the good work/Maybe next time” sort of talk. So with my stomach in knots I walked past about eight Starbucks to get to Starbucks.

I walked in, saw Justin, headed toward him, and he stood up and said “I just wanted to tell you in person…” (oh crap, here we go) “…congratulations.” (wait… what?!). “Oh and by the way, they want you to start in six days.”

I can’t really articulate the emotions that were happening for the next few hours – ranging from elation, to anxiety about having to leave my current show, Seattle, and most importantly, my wife for the better part of seven months – but over the top of it all, was the realization that I had just booked the biggest job of my career so far. Luckily, the tour was able to wait one extra week, which gave me the time I needed to get all my stuff in order .

I got a chance to correspond with Jerry a little more after I had gotten the job, and he congratulated me and let me know that he indeed had put in the good word he said he would. This whole process, from summer to winter, really drove home for me that in this business (just like in most others) it’s about who you know, and more importantly, what kind of a reputation you have. There is so much luck and random circumstance that plays into casting, that the best thing you can do for yourself is to make sure everyone loves to work with you, and knows that you’ll do a good job. Most of the rest of the stuff you can’t control.

"You Gotta Fight to be Legally Blonde!"

by Jason Kappus, Ensemble in LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL

How I Got the Job - Part 1: The Real Audition
or "You Gotta Fight to be Legally Blonde"

My life changed at the Starbucks on 43rd and 9th in Manhattan... but that's jumping a little far ahead.

This past summer, I had the amazing privilege of spending most of the beautiful Seattle sunny days in basement rooms rehearsing Catch Me if You Can at The 5th Avenue. Spending two months working with some of the best in the business (on both sides of the table) was a dream come true and stands out as a highlight of my Seattle career.

Our choreographer for Catch Me was the brilliant Jerry Mitchell, one of the foremost Broadway choreographers today - who had recently made his Broadway directorial debut with Legally Blonde The Musical (he also did the choreography).

Jerry and I had a couple of talks over the summer about my career: about my "type," some advice, some ideas on projects and roles for which I should angle. In one of these talks, he mentioned that I could be a good fit for the national tour of Legally Blonde. I said "That would be awesome!" or something similarly ecstatic while trying to sound calm and cool.

Now, I was already determined to do a good job and make a good impression with "the New York folks" coming into Catch Me, so now with some extra motivation, well... needless to say, I worked my butt off. (Literally. I lost almost 10 pounds just doing Jerry's crazy-fast high-energy choreography.)

As any of you who saw Catch Me can probably imagine, we had a blast. The whole process was an amazing experience, and everyone's hard work and love paid off in many ways. For my part, Jerry and I talked a couple more times about New York and the future, and he referred me to the casting director for Legally Blonde (one Justin Huff). Through talking with the both of them, it became pretty clear that they were interested in looking at me for the show, and that I would get a call to come to NY to audition once the right spot opened up.

Then Catch Me ended, we all went our seperate ways, and I waited...

(to be continued...)

Buzz in the air - by Mo Brady

I had been looking forward to June 9, 2009 for a long time. Well, about five months actually. I got the call to join the cast of the world premiere of Catch Me If You Can in early January, and the subsequent months have been filled with anticipation, pride, and preparation for our first rehearsal. So, to say the least, it has been thrilling to finally be in the rehearsal room and start working on this show.

I would say the biggest surprise about the rehearsals so far has been how comfortable they have been. In many ways, we're just putting up another show. This production feels similar to the other four 5th Avenue shows I've been a part of this year. Last season, DAT5 has become a second home, so I feel very comfortable and capable within its walls. I walk the halls of the theatre with a familiarity and an ease that allows me not to be flustered by the amount of star power we have in our rehearsals.

It's not just the space that feels comfortable, but also the people. I look around rehearsals and see many familiar faces: two of my Pontipee brothers, Karl Warden, Kyle Vaughn, along with Shanna Palmer from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, one of my oldest friends, Jason Kappus, who I first shared The5th Avenue stage with in West Side Story, stage managers Amy Gornet and Bret Torbeck, who I had the pleasure to work with on both Sunday in the Park with George and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers last season. Even our rehearsal accompanist, Dwight Beckmeyer, is a familiar face from many previous productions (it seems that the theatre can't get rid of either of us!)

We spent the first week of rehearsal doing what we do at the beginning of every rehearsal process: learning the material. The week was filled with constant music rehearsals and choreography sessions. The learning curve is steep but nothing out of the ordinary, although Marc Shaiman's ensemble voicings are surprisingly difficult to pick up (I'm not used to being so challenged by note memorization, but his jazz-infused score is full of surprises.)

The choreography sessions consist of learning patterns: small snippets of moves that Jerry Mitchell then tries on different people in different positions in different spaces on the stage. The challenge of those rehearsals has not only been remembering the steps, but which version of the steps we last tried.

And while a lot of what we've done feels normal, there is a buzz in the air. It's an excitement that permeates each day of rehearsal, one that I've never felt in a rehearsal process before. We are putting this show on its feet for the very first time. And while I will be careful not to jinx our show, there is so much talent in rehearsals that I can't imagine how we could go wrong.

Everybody, from writers Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics), Scott Wittman (lyrics), and Terrence McNally (book), to director Jack O'Brien, choreographer Jerry Mitchell and musical director John McDaniel, down to our ensemble, is highly capable, highly inventive, and highly passionate about this story. And yet, at this point, there are more questions than answers about the show. This week, a lot time was spent this first week discussing the tone of the show: while the creative team seems pretty clear about the story they want to tell, they are still creating the way in which that story will be told.

It is the exploration of how to tell this story that has been the most exciting part of our rehearsals thus far. During our final rehearsal of the week, the entire company sat around in chairs, reading through the script and singing the songs. When actors had lines or songs, they would go into the middle of the circle and act their material from there. And at the end of each scene, Jack would give a few pieces of direction, or comment on the tone of a song or a line. It honestly felt like we were creating the show right then and there. For my part, his thoughts about the ensemble and our motivation to tell Frank Jr.'s story were elegant and powerful. Suddenly, I was seeing the material we had spent all week on in a new light, which made each song more poignant and vital.

It was a fantastic end to a thrilling week. And I'm looking forward to June 16, June 17, June 18.... and beyond.