Photos from backstage at MY FAIR LADY

My Fair Lady Rolls Into Town And Performs…All in 12 Hours!

7:56PM-“Good Evening…” I started my speech as the spotlight found its way to me. I delivered the whole speech with no problem and only one pause for the “Ooos” and “Awws” when I mentioned Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Jersey Boys.  I knew the pause could not be too long because I was told by Hope before I went on stage that I needed to be done quickly because My Fair Lady has a running time of 3 hours and we did not want to keep the audience here any longer than that. At the end of my speech I wished everyone in the audience Happy Holidays and exited through the center of the curtain…this time with the curtain being held in the right spot so I wouldn’t comically be stuck on the stage.

8PM-The overture starts and the curtain opens to show the lovely Eliza Doolittle on the streets ofLondon. As the audience was treated to all of the classic songs of this long-running musical, Karen and I took care of some paper work with the box office regarding the ticket sales for the night and before we knew it intermission had come!

9:45PM-It is intermission and Karen and I are back at the table talking to the patrons and we hear nothing but glowing comments about the show!

10:05PM -After intermission, the second act begins and as much as I would like to go in and catch the end of the show, there’s work to do. Karen and I spend are time straightening things up in the lobby to make it look nice for the end of the show.

11PM-The bows have been taken and the curtain closed. As the audience files out of the theater I am treated to comments from the theater patrons about how much they just adored the show!

“Wonderful voices!”

“Great! I give it two thumbs up”

“Very, very well done!”

All the positive feedback was a true testament to just how wonderful the show is. Not a single attendee had anything negative to say. It was exciting to see the smiles on everyone’s face as they were leaving.

11:30PM-Everyone left the lobby and the theater staff has turned off the lights. I headed down to theTheater League office, got my stuff and Karen and I headed out back to our cars and left for the night.

Whew! That truly was a busy day…but most load-ins are like this…and some are bigger. I recall for WICKED it was a 3 day load-in…granted they stayed for 3 weeks. It is always a lot of fun no matter how long or stressful it may seem. At the end of the day I truly am proud of the work that I do and most importantly I like the work that I do. I wouldn’t trade this for anything!