quality time

everyone says long distance relationships are supposed to be really hard. well, I don't see why! I've been spending LOTS of quality time with monica lately... really, it's just like normal... here is a picture of us on our last date. i'm feeling good... <bursts into tears>

a theatre near you

monica just tipped me off on a hot new item: in the heights and lin-manuel are headed for the silver screen! what an AWESOME new development in the ongoing saga of that incredible show. (to read about my long love affair and former involvement with heights, check this blog's archives) can't wait to follow what happens. wepa!

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/123119.html

monica's show is officially scheduled

fox announced their midseason line-up, and monica's show, lie to me, will appear on wednesdays, after american idol! see release below.

LIE TO ME, the compelling new drama from the producers of 24, debuts Wednesday, Jan. 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) after AMERICAN IDOL and stars Tim Roth ("The Incredible Hulk," "Reservoir Dogs") as DR. CAL LIGHTMAN, the world's leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to discover not only if someone is lying, but why. When someone shrugs one shoulder, rotates a hand or raises the lower lip, Lightman knows he's lying. Based on the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman, the series follows Lightman and his team of deception experts as they assist law enforcement and government agencies to expose the truth behind the lies.

Big Neil Newsletter Scoops All Major Networks

The Big Neil Newsletter Online will now project the winner of the presidential election. We project that Barack Obama has won the presidency. SCOOP!

french dread

my friend arthur, the cutting-edge French theatre director that helmed the productions of Abigail's Party and Julius Caesar that I was in, emailed a group of us today with his across-the-pond thoughts on our election tonight. i think it's fun:

 

hi friends of america !!!
you know that in France we are used to see things from our point of view, or that we take our desires for reality. 8 years ago, we went to bed happy to know that Al Gore was elected. The next morning, surprise, it was Bush. 4 years ago, we slept relieved that Kerry was your new president. Too bad. F... jetlag. Tonight, i'll go to bed dreaming of Mc cain and Palin, to avoid another hangover tomorrow! I 'm sure that you must experience right now an incredible moment, and if i could, i would take a plane tonight to share the crazy night and the crazy days that will (let's hope) follow. Instants of grace. I'm envious :-)
My bet is also that Carla Bruni will probably dump soon Sarkosy and chase Obama. Antoher good news.
I think of you, share your excitment and hopes, and send you all my love,
arthur

suffrage device

i just voted! it took all of fifteen minutes, from my apartment and back again. even though it was so fast, the buzz there was that the turnout was at least twice the size of previous elections.

what a strange machine awaits you behind that curtain! not a machine.... a contraption.

jungle gem

fun pic from the orchard courtesy of cousin laura- clockwise from bottom right that's her, the adorable cousin kate, the also-adorable main squeeze monica, the highly masculine cousin charlie, his pal greg, and yours truly in the center.

great adventure

only a moment before i pass out from exhaustion to say it's easy to be a kid again: just steal your girlfriend on her last day in town, put some cash inside a ziploc bag and into a zippable pocket, rent a car, and drive to six flags for the day.

it was the last day of the season today, and a mite cold, but monica and i were undeterred as we scampered all over the park from one roller coaster to another. the rides were great, but our bodies feel the toll- bracing yourself at 80 mph all day and routinely freezing your face off in high loop-de-loop winds will tax you.

but it was FUN!

still blogging, after alllll these years...

(sung to the tune of a little paul simon number)

life is fantastic- monica's home from LA for the weekend. this morning we went to bernardsville, nj and had brunch with cousin laura and pete and their awesome kids (who i want to call second cousins but are actually first cousins once removed but maybe i'll just say cousins) charlie and kate, plus charlie's pal greg. it's beautiful in suburban nj today, with changing leaves and lots of rolling hills and multi-acre homes. the coles represented in the brunch field with a highly-big-neil-worthy spread: pancakes (in many polka-dotted permutations), bacon, cinnamon rolls, quiche, blueberries and OJ. and perfect hostess laura apologized that there wasn't more.

after brunch we went to an apple orchard and wandered a couple miles of tree rows, looking for hidden apples on trees that had been massively plundered already. the fields were beautiful, the air cool and clear, with the intoxicating and rich smell of decaying apples. apples lay in the hundreds at our feet, inedible, with gorgeous untouched halves facing the sun. a kick revealed the horror-movie-worthy other halves, rotting away in the mud. we hit the very corners of the huge orchards, finding treasure troves, untouched branches with grape-like clusters of heavy apples, and our special tools (a cross between a lacrosse stick and a pronged mediæval torture weapon) snagging some large perfect tens at the upper reaches. before we knew it, we were muscling back three large baskets filled with red delicious and winesap apples, more than we can eat any time soon!

back on the upper west side and monica is in the bedroom clearing out her closet for me to ship to her in LA. as she shoots the first season of her show, she'll stay in a sublet, and to our minds, her being in LA is still 'temporary.' but i have a weird and ominous feeling that she may never leave the west coast again. i hope i'm wrong, but there are worse places to be tethered to, and i'd be happy to move out there next year and join her.

tonight we're going to see her best friend laura-leigh in 'boys' life' off-broadway at the second stage theatre in midtown. it's a classic (and sort of sexist) 80s play about getting laid and it stars jason biggs (from the american pie movies).

i'm actually enjoying working regularly these days at niche media, fact-checking for various magazines. it's nice to have money coming in. i'm still auditioning here and there. monday i interview the ceo of the new jersey nets for gotham magazine. that'll be fun, although i know very little about professional basketball, and i'll have to be careful not to expose my ignorance in the article!

monica on entertainment tonight

following is a youtube link to a spot on entertainment tonight about "Lie to Me."

monica is about 1:45 into the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6oo3kFFuA

--
neil patrick stewart
917.434.2348

neil's poster

best movie poster ever:

http://www.kinopoisk.ru/picture/831893/

--
neil patrick stewart
917.434.2348

typo

the strangers website in english is actually at www.chuzhiemovie.com, not chuziemovie.com. sorry!

strangers in english

there is a (barely) english version of the Strangers movie website up now, at www.chuziemovie.com.

i'm contacting them to see if they want me to help fix the rampant typographical errors, although i realize that they may be part of the charm!

biting the bullet

after a very sobering review of my financial situation (LOTS of college loan debt) and a long talk with monica (she is more supportive than a sports bra) i've decided to apply for teaching positions at universities and top-tier private high schools nation-wide.

it's been fun researching the job openings available and imagining myself at all these different schools. i've put together a curriculum vitae that i think is very impressive and competitive except for that minor issue of never having taught at a university level before. i have a couple of powerful letters of recommendation from nancy houfek (the head of voice and speech at a.r.t.) and thomas kail (my dear friend and director of in the heights on broadway) and more coming from debbie mcwaters (founder/artistic director of btp), ron piretti (head of acting at BTP, fight director for in the heights, and professor at marymount manhattan college), and ann reinking (nuff said).

i love teaching, and i think i would/will have a ball doing it year-round. i have lost no love for acting (although maybe a little for the acting 'industry') and plan to pursue it, professionally or not, wherever i wind up, for the rest of my life.

the bottom line is: i have a terrific amount of expenses, and no forseeable way to make ends meet in new york as an actor. i am lucky to have an avenue that i love and can pursue which can put me in the position to make a salary. now i have to be lucky enough to be offered a job!

if i don't find a good match, i will remain in new york, attempt to defer my loans further, continue to pursue acting, and apply for teaching jobs as they become available.

it's scary to think about beginning a new arm of my wonky career path, but also fun. we'll see what happens!

in the heights opening

on sunday morning monica and i made our way back to new york (with help from cousin laura!) in order to attend the opening night festivities for 'In the Heights' on broadway.

anybody who's reading this knows what 'in the heights' means to me- i saw lin's hastily created one-act version at wesleyan during my senior year. i got my hands on a copy of the soundtrack from that production. after tommy, anthony, john, and i had created back house productions the following year, johnny and i tried to impress upon anthony and tommy how talented lin is, and made the case that we should definitely try to 'do something' with him once he graduated from wesleyan himself. finally, i put the cd in tommy's hands and encouraged him to listen to it.

6 years later, 'in the heights,' directed by tommy, written by and starring lin, opened on broadway to great fanfare. the intervening time was YEARS of hard work, workshop after workshop, presentation after presentation, auditions, rehearsals, phone calls, cheaply created wine and cheese spreads to make potential investors feel at home, and for tommy and lin, countless, innumerable hours of poring over the script or a keyboard, abject devotion to continuing the show's evolution.

in the early years, i was there as a co-director, tommy and i teaming up to make the workshops productive, to direct actors. but there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and tommy's vision was much more long-sighted than mine- he has a talent for taking the difficult steps (such as cutting songs and plot-lines entire, no matter their popularity) and focusing on the paths that will take a project ultimately to a better place. for the next couple of years i was happy just to act as a minor producer, a supporter really, doing whatever i could to make the workshops happen, to help tommy and lin and bill (our orchestrator) in their process. i listened to new rap lyrics and said 'heck yeah!' or hauled huge bundles of bottled water from staples to the theatre, or threw my shoe (which was our tradition) after a performer nailed a solo. back in those days, we didn't even have a drummer, so i would do my best to tap out latin beats on the baseboard in the corner of the theatre while lin worked out a rap-narration transition. i read stage directions at the readings, and fulfilled what were then minor roles (sonny in the bodega, who is now the funniest part of the show, hands-down, thanks to robin de jesus), and clapped harder than anyone when the presentation was over.

eventually, i backed off entirely, the show was moving forward, and i certainly was not going to be in its way. my role had really morphed into 'fan,' and there was no specific job appropriate for me as i continued my own personal pursuits.

but i didn't feel any less like a proud papa on sunday night, and i don't regret ANYthing about my trajectory with the show. i was there to help it get started, and that makes me as proud as i am about anything in my life. and i sat there in the house and watched as several people i love dearly had their dreams come true. and, the show is incredible.

we got into new york in the early afternoon and i learned that the start time for the show was 6:30! i originally thought i wouldn't be able to make the opening, due to my current run of 'julius caesar.' but we inexplicably had no shows that sunday, and i called tommy about a week and a half out to see if there was still room for me. a seat at a broadway opening is a coveted item, and i was fully prepared to be denied. but they had one earmarked for me, always had, and hadn't released it yet. but they only had one, not another for monica. she was, however, invited to the party afterwards at chelsea piers. well, at about four, a call from tommy confirms the cancellation of a friend of his, and that there's an extra ticket for monica if she wants.

we were delighted, but immediately went into emergency mode. we would need to meet anthony for dinner before the show, and then would be going right to the party after the show, which meant less than an hour to prepare for the evening. no problem for me, but, you don't expect a fabulous and gorgeous woman like monica to go to the latin event of the year on an hour's notice. we were like a well-oiled machine- she did her hair and make-up, we picked up some fake diamonds around the corner, and borrowed some shoes from her mom's place down the street. did i say shoes? i mean hot wine-colored cole haan peep-toe pumps. i learn something every day.

the crowds at the show were insane. i don't know why, but it felt twice as crowded as a typical sold-out show, which i know is impossible. maybe it was the fabulous outfits and all the industry networking that slowed everything down. we had to rendezvous with people at the hotel edison across the street just to find each other. (the hotel ed became an indispensable intermission getaway too- we never would have relieved our bladders if we'd stayed in the theatre!)

the show: nuts. each character got two minutes of applause on their entrance. they just had to stand there, frozen in a moment, and wait for the cheering to subside. the energy was incredible. it was, for many, a broadway debut, and all had loved ones in the audience. showstopper after showstopper and people went hoarse from screaming.

at the end, after more copious applause, and tears, lin invited the production team onstage, designers, choreographer, etc... and tommy. my hands stung from clapping so hard.

afterwards, we missed the free shuttles to chelsea piers, so we took cabs. inside was a twenty-piece latin salsa band, open bars everywhere you look, and smorgasbords of latin foods. there had to be close to 2000 at the party. it was impossible to find anyone, and, after a couple rounds of food and drink, monica and i were about to leave when we finally found the pocket that had tommy and his family, and lin, and a steady stream of admireres demanding hugs and photographs.

lin gave me a huge hug. he grabbed onto my arm and said, "i'm gonna hold on to you for a while, i don't know who half these people are." it was clearly overwhelming. he couldn't get more than two sentences out to anyone before someone new was tapping him on the shoulder. i managed to get a bread pudding in his hands, cause i was worried he wasn't getting a chance to eat anything! i turned my back for a moment, and he had been whisked away again. later i found out that he'd solved his problem of too much hand-shaking-not-enough-fun-having by holding court on the dance floor. if you wanted to congratulate him, you had to do it in time with some serious salsa hot-stepping!

monica and i eventually made our way home, and although it was freezing in new york by the water, i was warmed by two things: 1. the little hot chocolates they were handing out at the exit, and 2. the words i remembered lin saying into my ear as we hugged:

"this is all because of you, you know that, right?"

even though it's not necessarily true (talents like lin and tommy would and will shine, with our without my intervention), it was music to my heart.

in the heights

during this entire caesar process, a part of my heart has been in new york, with so many of my friends, rehearsing and opening the BROADWAY show, 'in the heights!'

8 or so years ago, johnny mailer and i watched a one-act performance of 'in the heights' at wesleyan, written by lin-manuel miranda. he was a KID at the time. a prodigy, yes, but a kid! after we started back house in new york, we invited him to come workshop the show with us, and he accepted. tommy kail, who started the company with me, really identified with the project and dedicated his considerable brain to the effort. what followed were years of readings, presentations, and workshops, 30+ new songs, most gone shortly after they came, and a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears from many people to keep the train going forward.

fast forward to today, it's in previews on broadway, opening officially next month. it's unreal. tommy is the director, lin, of course, is still the composer and now the star, and so many more of my friends are involved intimately in the show- in the cast, or doing arrangements, etc... i am no longer officially involved (not for about 3 years now), but my heart and tear ducts are as twisted up in that beautiful play as anything else in my life.

'yahoo! broadway' has two really fun short documentaries about the show now. you can see a lot of tommy and lin, and hear some music from the show. it's so exciting, i can't get over it.

www.broadway.yahoo.com, follow links for 'in the heights.'

sea of screens

the show's going great- still have the general ratio of two people who love the play to one who didn't like it or "doesn't get it."

our director left today, so it will be interesting to see if the play changes now that everyone knows he's not watching.

next week i'm looking forward to a ten AM student matinee! yay, audience of kids! we had a high school group filling half the house earlier this week and our stage manager said the view from the booth was breathtaking: a sea of cell phone screens as they text-messaged away during the show! i love it.

there are some fun pics of the production up at amrep.org/caesar.

review

there's a HUGE review in the boston globe today- finds the production pretty but that it overshadows the text itself- but more exciting to me (because i like simple pleasures) is the series of pictures- including one of the conspirators converging on caesar, including yours truly.

if this link doesn't work, search the terms "boston globe" "julius caesar" and "wrath" in google.

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/02/15/the_wrath_pack?p1=email_to_a_friend

opened!

the show opened last night and boy are my arms tired. it's been a long, wacky month+ of rehearsals and it will be an equally long and wacky run of performances. the show is three hours and change, but it is terribly fun to do.

there's been some fun press about the show so far, and there are some pics up on the website, amrep.org/caesar. if you search 'boston globe' and 'julius caesar' you can read a fairly tame teaser article about the show. i'm looking forward to reviews, because if they are anything like the audience response, they will be widely mixed.

fake public service announcement

in tonight's post we harken back to the spring of '07.

i'll grant that my last production while studying at a.r.t., killing game, was a bit of a mess, thanks to some seriously out of control class drama that went down. (hey, it IS called drama school.)

the best thing about the production was the fake public service announcements that a few classmates and i made with the sound designer. they played in the house as people arrived to watch the play.

below find a link to the announcements: the one to listen to is the fully compiled psa, at the top of the list, labeled "psa 052907." it is a little repetitive, as it was meant to be heard in bursts, between smatches of conversation, etc... as people arrived in the theatre. in fact, it looped three times before our show.

i voice all the guys, and it is a little long, but play it as background while you check your email or something, and i think you will slowly find yourself more than a little disquieted! i think it's lots of fun.

http://www.blaseur.com/killgame/