La Crosse

So at the end of our second week on the road (not counting Madison) we have finally hit our first repeat venue - AND it's only a repeat for Bachelors, not Guys On Ice. It's a beautiful space and the load in went very smoothly especially when you consider that the house crew was on their 10th show this week. During the 2nd act, half the crew was outside changing the sign and after the load out, they were re-focusing for their next load in.

The show went well - only 11 empty seats which means that 1110 people saw Guys on Ice in La Crosse Saturday night. The town is great, but unfortunately, a lot of us were to apathetic to enjoy it. We were all interested in the 24 hour hot tub at the hotel, but it was full of kids until 2:45a. Oh well, maybe next year.
Next week we are back to a new venue - we'll be in Jefferson for two shows! See you on the ice!

Beaver Dam

Lovely Beaver Dam Wisconsin. We had two shows at the Beaver Dam High School, hosted by the Beaver Dam Community theatre. The houses were both completely sold out and the audiences were a lot of fun, including giving us the new battle cry "WALLEYE". Someone shouted it at the stage as the lights were going down our first performance. The house staff from the community theatre all dressed in their favorite plaids and hunting caps - they were very cute!
Since we were in one place for two days, we took the opportunity to have an understudy rehearsal. It was fun to see Lee as Marvin again and Paul as Ernie the Moocher.

Reedsburg

Here we are in Reedsburg - our third new venue in as many tour stops. It was a nice performance space, there were communication issues, and the crew was fairly young and inexperienced, but the audiences were great. There was a mix up with the curtain time, all the information that we were given indicated a 7p curtain, but all the published info in town indicated a 7:30p curtain. We changed our schedule to a 7:30p curtain. Communication issues aside the audience was lined up in the lobby all the way from the theatre door to the outside door by 6:20! Our Saturday night performance was SOLD OUT - 604 seats and not an empty one in the house!

Here, some advice for Cheryl - Fish may be the miracle food and you can love your fish, just don't LOVE your fish!


Just past the Norman Rockwell exhibit in our Hotel, you could find all of the MRT 8 in the Black Squirrel lounge after our Saturday night performance. Unfortunately, several of us went to bed early and missed Steve's telling of the creepy old guy obsessed with Doug. We've been told that we have to wait until the next outing with cocktails involved to hear it. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday we had lovely church-replacement music from Paul as he played with the organ and choir settings on the key-board.
Lee has added a new mascot to the tour - a lovely fish now guides our actor van from the radio antenna. Here pictured, our crew hard at work. Also, now that we have our road sea legs the King is back in the building.

And finally there were several of these little trailers advertising our show parked prominently on busy intersection corners around town. Fun!

Sheboygan

Day two of the road tour and we are in our second new venue. Lakeland College outside Sheboygan.












We did an early sound check and then the Guys headed across campus to give some Alumni/Big donors an inside look at the show.









The Guys sang a line or two from a song and a few lines from the opening scene of the play and the donors loved them.













The show was supposed to be sold out, and they were turning people away at the ticket window. But it looked like there were a lot of empty seats. In spite of that, they were a great audience. It's a nice venue and whether there were empty seats or not, they were sold out and the people who didn't get in to the show tonight are looking forward to seeing the show in Chilton.

Green Bay

So we are officially back out on the ice - the Milwaukee Rep annual tour is Guys on Ice, the eighth Rep production of da Guys. We opened in Green Bay last night to a crowd of just under 800 people. They loved the play, and laughed a lot! Our favorite moment of the night... in the final scene after a long day of disappointments when the guys crack their final beer and toast the late Cubby Cavernan, a dozen or so audience members cracked a beer and toasted along with them. Yes, not only were they allowed to bring beer in the theatre, you could buy beer by the bucket in the lobby.


















It was a great time and a great way to kick off our Guys On Ice 2009 tour of greater, or lesser Wisconsin. And this year, one stop in Michigan!

1.23 - Sheboygan
1.24 & 25 - Reedsburg
1.29 & 30 - Beaver Dam
1.31 - La Crosse
2.7 & 8 - Jefferson
2.12 - Wisconsin Rapids
2.13 - Eagle River
2.14 - Iron Wood, MI
2.21 - Chilton
2.26 & 27 Oshkosn
2.28 - Oconto Falls
See ya on da ice!

Mad Guys

So the guys are on the ice in Madison for another week and a half. We've been here since the day after Thanksgiving hard at work as you can see. The theatre is working well for us but our houses have been small. We had a great audience full of students last night and hopefully they will spread the word and send more our way. Other than that, it's been Cold but we're enjoying our hotel right across the street from the state capitol and sampling all the different restaurants and shops on State street between our hotel and the theatre.

Once we finish up here, we'll be spending our Holidays in the Steimke at the Rep and then it's on the road!

See ya on da ice

9 Days To The Ice

The Guys will be Back out on the Ice in this year's Milwaukee Rep tour of the greater Wisconsin Area.

We start with two and half weeks in Madison, then spend our Christmas and New Years at the Rep before hitting the road.

We are bringing the Miracle Food to several new venues this year including Grand Rapids Michigan, Green Bay WI and many more.

More news soon!

and See ya on da ice!