Thursday, October 18, 2007

We did it! We mounted our final show last night on the Norwegian GEM. The premier of COLORZ went very well. Our rehearsal time was cut short by an unexpected fire drill (a common thing on cruise ships), so some of the cast members were a little nervous before the first show. Aside from a few brain cramps and normal "nerves", both performances went well. COLORZ is a cool show - truly something unique and entertaining - and there's music for every taste. A couple of cast members told me that this is their favorite of the 3 new shows. I know it will only become stronger into the next couple of cruises. I have some great pics that will be posted when I'm on land again. We are currently sailing to Barcelona. We fly home tomorrow. it has been a great experience out here. Thanks to the cast, band, crew and NCL entertainment team who helped us make these shows so successful so quickly. We wish the cast the very best for a great contract!

Friday, October 12, 2007

The Norwegian GEM was in Gibraltar today (as in "the rock of"). It was a great place with literally thousands of people filling hte streets. In addition to three ships being in port, it was a national holiday in Spain so their were tourists everywhere. The weather was awesome and the sailaway took us just past the rock face of the island. I have a ton of pictures to post when we get to an internet location!

Thursday, October 10, 2007

It is a beautiful day in Lisbon! The sky is perfectly blue, and there is a steady breeze coming off the ocean. I just spent the last hour searching for an internet site...fewer people speak English here than in most European countries, so getting directions was a bit challenging. I finally stumbled across the Museum of Communications, and it was like hitting the language and internet jackpot!

While I'm thinking about it, we are looking for a male dancer and a male singer/dancer to go aout for a few weeks to fill in on a couple of contracts. If you are interested, or if you know anyone who fits the bill, please get in touch with Mindy Johnson in our office (mindy@garymusick.com). If you are one of our current or past performers and recommend someone who we actually hire, there will be a nice "thank you" in the form of a referral fee waiting for you :-)

Here are some shots I took during the prevue performance of "Get Down Tonight" a few days ago. We will do the show again in 2 days for the inaugural cruise guests. I think the reaction will be terrific since we have a nice blend of Americans and Europeans on board.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

We are in port in Vigo, Spain, today. I had a chance to go off the ship for about an hour this morning. It is a great city with many quaint streets and shopping areas within easy walking distance of the port. I did not see any internet cafes, though, so all the new pictures will have to wait until we're in Lisbon tomorrow. We had reallysuccessful performances last night. The cruise director for the Norwegian GEM said he had never had so many outstanding comments on the entertainment. The cast really responded to the energy of the audience and the result was two great performances. Congratulations to the cast, band and crew for a great effort!

Monday,October 8

We had another successful show opening last night on the Norwegian GEM. The show is called "Get Down Tonight" and features some of the best pop music of the 1970's. The cast and band pulled together to create a really exciting show for about 2000 guests who were on a mini-cruise from Dover to Amsterdam and back. Great responses...and many of the guests did not speak English! Today marks the beginning first full cruise for the Norwegian Gem. We just sailed from Dover, England, about 15 minutes ago, on our way to the Mediterranean. About 50% of the guests are American on this cruise, so we believe this will be better gauge of how all the show will be received in the future. We fully expect an even better response from this audience than from our non-English speaking German and Dutch guests from the past 2 cruises. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Friday, October 5, 2007

NORWEGIAN GEM - "WORLD BEAT!"

Finally! We are in Dover, England, and I was able to get to an Internet cafe to post some pics from the new World Beat show on the new Norwegian GEM. It has turned out to be a really spectacular show. We've had great response from the travel industry VIPS who've been on for the past few days. Hope you enjoy the shots! I will post more photos later of this show and the others as we complete them.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Today is going to be our first day at sea on the Norwegian Gem! We leave Eemshaven, Netherlands, in about 3 hours. We're headed for Rotterdam on an overnight excursion with an invited group of VIP guests. We're working hard on the remaining two shows and things are going well. Thanks to the GMC team back home helping to pull the final details together on that end. I have some great pictures to post when we get to an Internet station on land. Stay tuned!