AND THEY’RE OFF!
I just spent a fantastic week aboard the NCL “SPIRIT” while we installed a new cast. Our journey began in New York on August 9th, where we set sail for San Juan, Tortola, and the Dominican Republic. The SPIRIT returned to New York on Sunday, and we left the ship knowing this would be a great cast for NCL and GMC.
We all felt like this cast would be great on stage, but it was really gratifying to see how well they actually performed AND “lived” together. This is a definitely a tight cast! GMC production team members Brandon Thomas and Claire Williams were there to polish vocals and choreography. I honestly can’t remember a smoother install in recent years. The entire cast made it through opening week without missing any shows or having to swing parts due to injuries. The costume and tech runs went amazingly well, and the opening night performances looked like a cast of seasoned pros that had been performing together for weeks. The singers were spot on, and the dancers were clean and crisp. Great job everyone! I especially enjoyed spending time with the cast offstage when we visited San Juan and hung out together in Maharini’s (one of the nightclubs on the ship). “WHITE NIGHTS” and “TOGA PARTY” were favorite theme nights for the cast. Thanks for allowing me to tag along!
We also made some new friends while there. Quincy and Jan were travel agents on board for vacation from Denmark, and Lindsey and Graham were Canadian newlyweds sailing on their honeymoon. They befriended our cast and production team and we all shared a week of fun, great food and camaraderie. Meeting new people and making friends from around the world is always a treat when we’re out on the ships. I think I even convinced Quincy and Jan to bring a tour to Nashville to experience “Music City USA” and everything our city has to offer! And we almost convinced Lindsey to audition for us (she is a dance teacher in Toronto, but as she explained…”sorry, but that ship has sailed!”). Jan and Quincy promised to come see us if we make it back to Scandinavia anytime soon. Good luck with those parliamentary elections, Quincy!
We also got to renew contact with our long time friends Gareth Mogford and Morris Azouz. Gareth was originally a production manager for Celebrity Cruises and later became a full-time staff member responsible for all technical aspects of the theaters in the Celebrity fleet. He is now freelancing special projects for NCL and was on the SPIRIT to assist with the technical support during the cast changeover. Morris worked with us as the Lighting Designer for a couple of the Celebrity Millennium class ships about 8 years ago. Gareth and Morris have always been great friends and it was nice to reconnect.
Here are shots from our adventures on the SPIRIT. A huge thanks goes to the cast and staff on the SPIRIT for making this such a great week for our GMC family. Also, a special GMC “shout out” goes to the outgoing cast of the SPIRIT. Congratulations on completing a great contract! We wish all of you the best in whatever endeavors you pursue in the future!
Here are photos from "ON BROADWAY", one of the featured shows on the SPIRIT.
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