Twelve Hours of Toursies (9/11/16)

The Show and The Stagedoor

if you read the whole thing let me know so I can virtually hug you :) Also, I cried 5 times while writing this part alone sorry not sorry -Katie

The show was amazing. It was like a dream come true. The tour ensemble with the Broadway leads. I wasn't sure if I was dreaming. I turned to Alyssa during Carrying the Banner and whispered almost inaudibly, "pinch me I'm dreaming." She did and the pinch hurt, so it was definitely real.

There were so many little things in the show that I remember. I don't remember Santa Fe very well or the way the choreography looked for Carrying the Banner, but I remember little things. The way Jeremy Jordan smiled a genuine smile during Santa Fe Prologue right at the audience. The fact that Ben and Josh were onstage together once again. Ben and Josh throughout the whole show were really only separated when one of them had lines, but besides that all their choreography was right next to each other, all their blocking. It made my heart smile to see them onstage together. I remember that I laughed during Seize the Day when Ben Fankhauser was singing to Ben Cook because I thought it was Benception. I remember Andrew Keenan-Bolger making me cry during Letter From The Refuge. I remember the Guzman twins doing their little cartwheel thing and I started cheering. Michael Dameski still did the paper turn at the end of Seize the Day and when Josh comes flying in I started crying because I love him. Then I feel bad, but I laughed again during Crutchie's arrest because Josh gets wheeled offstage in the cart with his butt completely in the air. Kara and Jeremy smiled at each other genuinely during Something to Believe In and again during Once and For All. Once and For All made me start crying... again. It's my favorite number in the show. After the number ended, I hopped up from my seat and started a standing ovation.

After each big number the house lights would come on so they could get video of audience reactions. There had already been two standing ovations, one after Seize the Day and one after Santa Fe (making getting a pape super easy.) After I stood, I was alone for a really long awkward second, but I was joined by the rest of the audience soon enough. I hope the cast knows I started that.

There was only one thing in the whole show that made me mad. Now, before I say it I'm going to express that I'm no longer mad about it, but I was in the moment. There were a lot of little casting changes from a normal tour production to this one. For example, Beth went on a nun and Bowery Beauty along with Kaitlyn instead of Meredith and Aisha. (Meredith was still a nun, but Aisha was not). I was okay with it because Beth is amazing. The cast change that made me and Alyssa really angry was in Brooklyn's Here. I understand re-adjusting the cities that the newsies were from to allow more in the number as well as even out the newsies from each neighborhood. (With that being said, Josh and Chaz were not from Brooklyn they were from Flushing I think...) The only typical Brooklyn Newsie that wasn't reassigned was Zas. I understood that so I wasn't mad.

However, what made me mad was when Sniper says, "so's da Bronx" it wasn't Kaitlyn saying it. It was Daniel Switzer. I understand why this choice was made, so then when the movie rolls around people don't see Kaitlyn and start thinking, "a girl? that's a girl! How the hell? Is that even legal?" And I love Daniel Switzer I just think Kaitlyn is so incredible and my role model that when she wasn't Sniper it felt like a stab. I'm over it now, but for that night I was pretty mad about it.

The show ended. I cried. I couldn't see the curtain call because of the standing ovation plus I'm a shorty. Then after Curtain Call, Andrew Keenan Bolger stepped forward, and gave some instructions. We were informed of this before the show and had received our papers during Intermission and given instructions, but I still screwed it all up. For a really cool shot, we were supposed to crumble our paper three times as they counted then throw it at the top row of the risers, just like the cast does at the end of Seize the Day. Well they counted down from three and I crumbled as he counted instead of after he counted then when everyone else was crumbling, mine went flying through the air. I threw too early. How embarrassing. I'm hoping they cut mine out of the footage because it was not my intention to ruin the shot, I just got too excited.