Thursday, November 29, 2007

Tonight was the farewell dinner for the cast of the Norwegian Majesty. We had a great evening getting to know the cast members a little better and celebrating the successful completion of their Nashville rehearsals. They will be joining Gabriel (the final cast member who is already on board the ship) on Saturday - and then the fun begins! Late night rehearsals, frequent safety training classes, costume fittings, and frequent staging sessions will be a way of life for them over the next few weeks. We presented them with their Gary Musick Company jackets and took cast photos for our rehearsal studio wall. I always enjoy getting to know our first time cast members, and this group was no exception. What a great cast! They will be a hit on the ship, I know. These pictures were taken at their final rehearsal this afternoon. Break a leg you guys! And thanks to Dale, Garris, Mindy, Jeff, Brandon, and Kelly for another great job...from casting to choreo and vocals, they did a great job helping this cast get prepared for their adventure on the Majesty!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Jason Campbell, one of the singers on the INFINITY, sent me these images from their cast. The INFINITY is currently sailing in South America. Thanks for the pics, Jason!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Today was filled with meetings and rehearsals. We are in the home stretch on the William Morris open house event, as well as several other projects we're producing in January and February. I also had a chance to catch part of anther MAJESTY run, and here are the photos. Hats off to the cast for the great improvement over the last run I saw on Monday. They are really gelling as a cast and starting to make their rehearsals look like real shows. Way to go!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The cast of the Norwegian MAJESTY is in its final week of rehearsals before heading out to the ship. We watched a run through of their Broadway show yesterday - they did a terrific job, especially since they had just finished learning the show that morning. We're watching runs of their other two shows tomorrow and Thursday. The MAJESTY is a cast of only 8 performers, so there is no room for any "slackers". My compliments to the entire cast, Kelly, Dale, Garris, Dave, Brandon, and Jeff for creating such strong performances. Here are some shots I took during the rehearsals...

Monday, November 26, 2007

I was just browsing some Facebook sites of my friends from the MILLENNIUM and ran across these images. The above shot was taken at the cast party for the new cast of the MILLENNIUM. This is me with Erin, the assistant choreographer. 

This is a shot of the laser effects used during "Music of the Night" in one of the shows. Very cool effect!

This picture was taken at the going away cast party for the outgoing cast of the MILLENNIUM. Congratulations to the cast for finishing up a great 6 months on the MILLENNIUM!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Tonight was a treat for me!  The group I used to sing in reunited to sing a couple of songs for a benefit concert at our church. The group was called FIFTH AVENUE - we were four vocalists backed by an amazing 13-piece big band. Those shows were some of the most rewarding vocal experiences of my career. Tonight was the first time we had sung together in 16 years. It was a blast! The other members of the group are Ellen Musick (my wife), Pat Finch, and Garris Wimmer (yes, that Garris!). Pat's wife, Cindy Finch, graciously agreed to play piano once again for us tonight. It was a little like riding a bike - we seemed to remember the arrangements and nuances of the music better than any of us expected, I think.  The audience was very appreciative of our "reunion" effort - several of them had actually seen us a number of times when we used to perform years ago. It made me remember how fun performing can be! A huge heartfelt thanks goes out to Garris, Pat and Cindy for donating their time and talent. Hopefully, it won't be another 16 years before we get together to sing again! And thanks to our friends, the Thomas's and Lauren Jingles, who came out to hear us. 

Christmas is here...YIKES! So much to do! We have a lot going on a GMC this next month, including a major music industry holiday event for the WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY and their artists coming up in a couple of weeks. More on that later...

Hope everyone has a joy filled week!

Gary

Saturday, November 25, 2007

I spent some time tonight looking at some of my friends' sites on FACEBOOK. Hope they don't mind, but I snagged some shots from the current INFINITY cast performances. These are great shots! I received emails from a couple of the cast members this week and they are having an amazing contract down in South America. Can't wait to see some pictures of their adventures!

Here are Brandon Thomas (vocal director - yellow shirt) and the singers in rehearsal in Nashville.  

The flyers on the ship are awesome - a real favorite with the audiences!

Saturday, November 25, 2007

Today is one of those days when sitting around the house watching football and eating leftovers just seems to be the right thing to do. I did finally manage to get out and walk for a couple of miles earlier today. Otherwise, rigor mortis would have surely set in!

Here are some blasts from the past to share with all of you who were part of the GMC family pre-blog. These are pictures randomly selected from our Celebrity Cruises archives since 2003. Look carefully...you might see your buddies in these...or maybe even yourself! I will post more later. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Thursday, November 23, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and associates around the world! We want to especially send out our best wishes to the many performers who are out on the high seas this Thanksgiving day. I hope you are able to connect with those you love back home sometime today, even if its just by way of an email or an online chat. My family is home today, and we are vegging out around the TV while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. There's a turkey about to turn golden brown and a pecan pie (my favorite!) about to go in the oven. My wife, Ellen, is an amazing cook, so dinner will be awesome, as always. I think there's a long brisk walk in my future this afternoon!

Take care everyone, and happy holidays from the GMC family!

Monday, November 19, 2007

We had auditions in Toronto over the weekend. The turnout was a little disappointing, but we did see several talented prospects for our shows. We still have auditions coming up in London in January, and we may schedule some supplemental auditions, if needed.

I got to see the new cast of the NCL Majesty today. They did a great job! I was especially pleased to see how far along they were in "performing" the material. Congrats, you guys! I look forward to seeing more rehearsals these next 2 weeks.

We're all looking forward to a sharing a couple of days with our families on this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. We have so much to be thankful for in our family this year, as I know all of you do, too. It will be eespecially great to have our girls home from college. My wife and I are always amazed at how well they get along as young adults when we had serious doubts we would ever see that day when they all still lived at home. That is a sweet blessing which we cherish.

Have a great week everyone!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Jim Sheridan and I are at the Atlanta airport on the way back from our show in Bermuda. I just remembered that Ryan Walton sent me some great pictures from the cast on the Celebrity "SUMMIT" a couple of weeks ago. I was not at an Internet location where I could upload them at the time, so here they are..a little late, but still great! Thanks, Ryan, for sending us these. If you're on a ship, feel free to send me some shots of your casts when you have time. Its great to share them with everyone else on the other ships. Thanks, Ryan!