The high was 14 degrees the first day we landed in Rochester for Cabaret rehearsals at Geva Theater. Geva was one of the theaters we studied closely when designing the Armory, as it is also housed in a renovated Armory building.

The theater is configured differently than the Gerding, in that the stage thrusts out into the audience more: so you are closer to the action, but it is much more difficult to utilize the full depth of the stage - as you lose sitelines for the folks seated on the sides. So we had to restage some moments. But this actually made for some fun times: with Fr. Kost making out with her sailor right in the aisle.

I think the opening number (with the guys dancing on the chairs) raised the temperature of even frozen Rochesterians in this configuration.

There was definitely a bit of a “reunion” feel as the cast had been away from each other for six weeks. Jamie Hill (squished in the middle), our Assistant Stage Manager on Cabaret traveled with the company to help devise the backstage moves and coach the running crew. Thank God for her.

We had excellent support from the Geva staff, including Don (left, our musical director) and Kirsten (right) our terrific stage manager. The Eastman School of Music (one of the country’s finest) is just down the street from the theater- so the musicans we had access to were marvelous.

Because of the hiatus between runs, we had to replace a few of the ensemble members. On the left you see Tommy Berklund stretching. Tommy played Baby John in West Side Story last season, and stepped in to replace John Wood. Tommy is not only a terrific actor/dancer/singer - but he also fit into the gorilla costume!

The cast kept razzing me about never going out with them (I’m not much of a “hanger-outer”), so I acquiesced and joined them on Sunday evening. Here you see Karen Hyland kicking my ass in darts.

Wade arrived with a cold (he and his partner Noah had just completed their move from LA to NY), but fought it off after a few days. Noah joined us in Rochester after the first few days.

Joel Farrell, our brilliant choreographer, thankfully made the trek as well. I had to leave after our first invited dress to put Beard onstage, so Joel was there to keep cleaning and finessing up until opening night.

A great article in Sunday’s newspaper featured a big picture of Storm on the cover. The writer said Storm discussed her sex life with “blistering frankness”: we all had a good laugh about that one.

A few bumps technically getting the curtains to operate the way we like them to. But then audiences started arriving, and what do you know: they loved it as much as you guys!