10:03am: Rise and shine in Brooklyn for a 2-show day at Beautiful - The Carole King Musical!
Anika Larsen
10:37am: I reluctantly go for a run. For me, it's the best way to be in good voice for a matinee.
Anika Larsen
11:44: Breakfast of Champions: cereal, organic berries and almond milk. Yes, I put 3 different kinds of cereal in my bowl. It's a party up in there. I'm sort of OCD, and I will go out of my way to make things in my life work out in threes.
Anika Larsen
12:49pm: Selfie on the Q train. Reading the Times on the subway, look at the wicked awesome surprise in the arts section!
Anika Larsen
1:06: Off the train here--the heart of The City So Nice They Named It Twice, y'all!
Anika Larsen
1:09: I don't enter the stage until 25 minutes into the show, so I really don't have to get here until right at a half an hour before the show, but I like the people here so much I almost always get here early.
Anika Larsen
1:10: We have the best damn security team on Broadway. They keep us safe, help fans get autographs and they've been known to party with us. This is Cynthia and Jason. I told Cynthia that she was a good omen because my character has the same name.
Anika Larsen
1:17: In the hallway, playbills to sign for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Anika Larsen
1:25: Dorion, Buck, John, Ron and Adam from the best damn crew on Broadway, hanging out in our green room. Not many Broadway theaters have room for a real green room, so we’re super lucky.
Anika Larsen
1:26: Here's my fabulous dresser, Meghan Gaber, and my booty from opening night a week ago. Problem: the flowers are dying to the point that there's actually fruit flies in my dressing room, so I think they're going to have to go.
Anika Larsen
1:31: I check in with the best damn stage management team on Broadway to apologize for forgetting to sign in at the callboard. And to get chocolate from the candy basket.
Anika Larsen
1:47: Wig prep done, but before I put on my makeup, I gotta glance at my checklist. It's important to have such a checklist. Sometimes you forget.
Anika Larsen
2:02: After "Places" is called, Jessie Mueller passes my dressing room on her way to be Carole King for the afternoon, and we wish each other a good show. Jessie: "I really need this gig, don't screw it up for me." Anika: "Sock it to 'em!"
Anika Larsen
2:04: When I arrive in the hair room to get my wig put on by Jenn Mooney-Bullock, Wig Whisperer, Rashidra Scott is always just finishing. We are all assigned wig call times, starting as early as half hour. Mine is the downbeat of the overture.
Anika Larsen
2:05: I wear two mics on my forehead under the bangs of my wig, in case one goes out while I'm onstage. Jenn hides one mic pack in my wig, I hide the other in my bra.
Anika Larsen
2:06: The wig goes on, and there's Cynthia Weil! It's amazing how much a wig will do to make you feel like your character. It never gets old, it’s always a special moment.
Anika Larsen
2:10: Back in my dressing room, time to put on my undergarments, which are all freshly washed and waiting for me in my ditty bag (don't know why they call it that). I was giddy when I saw the number the wardrobe department assigned me!
Anika Larsen
2:21: Meghan helps me into my first costume. I don't put it on earlier so it doesn't get wrinkled. Almost time to finally enter!
Anika Larsen
2:37: I pass Liz Larsen's lavishly decorated dressing room to find folks who aren't needed onstage looking at photos of the party we had backstage last night after the show.
Anika Larsen
2:58 Jessie uses my bathroom during "The Locomotion." The Sondheim Theater is beautifully designed and LEDE certified, meaning it's green. Its one flaw is that there is no bathroom on the stage level.
Anika Larsen
3:13: These two dashing young gentleman, Melvin Tunstall and Chris Peluso, are our male swings (understudies who cover more than one part), and they're both on today!
Anika Larsen
3:22: Intermission. Often at intermission I like to go sit on the couch with the girls in the female ensemble dressing room. We talk about boys. That’s Gabrielle Reid, me, Alysha, Ashley, Sara Sheperd and Sara King.
Anika Larsen
3:31: Act II Places. Meghan helps me into my favorite dress in the whole show. I told Wardrobe if they ever can't find it, they'd be wise to look in my closet in Brooklyn.
Anika Larsen
4:38: After the show, we have a talkback. Our Production Stage Manager Peter Hanson answers questions as he waits for actors to get out of costume and come join him. I can only stay for a hot second because I have dinner plans!
Anika Larsen
5:01: Thai food with my girl Cara Cooper. We met almost 10 years ago doing All Shook Up and have remained great friends. Fun Fact and Coincidence: Jarrod Spector played Cara's husband in Jersey Boys, and now he plays my husband.
Anika Larsen
6:06: Back at the theater, I remember to sign in this time. The building is so big, it's the only way stage management can be sure the whole cast is here and there's no need to put an understudy on.
Anika Larsen
6:08: Check out our studly sound guys! Best damn sound department on Broadway. Louis Igoe and Nick Borisjuk are both single, ladies. Just sayin’.
Anika Larsen
6:10: I pop in to say hi to Jeb Brown, who plays Donnie Kirshner. He had dinner with his daughter Eleanor between shows, and now they're spending some quality father/daughter time in his dressing room. Super cute.
Anika Larsen
6:11: Jessie comes in with a video camera Broadway.com gave her to do a weekly vlog for them. So now she is videoing me taking a picture of her for Playbill.com, while I am taking a picture of her videoing me for Broadway.com.
Anika Larsen
6:18: Back in my dressing room, my white noise machine is on and it's time for a little nap on my couch before show #2. It works wonders for second show energy.
Anika Larsen
7:29: Refreshed and rested, I'm up, and Meghan is showing off my newly flower-less and fruit-fly-less dressing table.
Anika Larsen
7:31: It's birthday time in the green room! Actor Douglas Lyons and crew guy John Paull fist-bump it over their shared birthday.
Anika Larsen
7:32: 3 different cakes! An especially delicious delight for someone who loves the number 3. And cake.
Anika Larsen
7:40: I start my wig prep. Didn't I just do this? I used to try to get away with keeping the same wig prep and makeup for both shows and just putting a hat on, but Jenn the Wig Whisperer gave me a good talking to.
Anika Larsen
8:02: Rebecca LaChance seems to disapprove of me sporting gear from another show. But they don't make Beautiful bathrobes!
Anika Larsen
8:19: Sexy Drifters E. Clayton and James Harkness enjoy a moment with Tara Delahunt, dresser extraordinare, before they go onstage to sing "Some Kind of Wonderful."
Anika Larsen
9:01: Jarrod Spector and Jessie are both very nice people. None of us can understand why they hate each other so much. We have to break up a fight like this backstage at least once a week.
Anika Larsen
9:03: Nelson and Diego knife a sofa into a track stage right so it can slide magically out onstage for the scene before “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling." Then they go back to what they're usually doing, engaging in backstage shenanigans and tomfoolery.
Anika Larsen
9:24: I stop by Jarrod's mancave to say hi at intermission and catch him redhanded. Whatever gets you through the second show of the day, Jarrod. Whatever gets you through.
Anika Larsen
9:30: Sadly, what gets Kevin Duda through the second show of the day is booze. Don't anyone tell him that's a bottle of red wine vinegar.
Anika Larsen
9:32: The best damn orchestra on Broadway. Time for Act II, fellas!
Anika Larsen
10:18: Liz, Carly Hughes, me and Sara in our last costumes of the day. Time for the finale!
Anika Larsen
10:32: Just after exiting from bows, Jarrod and I take an exhausted selfie. Time to get out of costumes and wigs and go home.
Anika Larsen
11:06: Selfie on the Q train home. To my sleeping neighbor: I feel you, my sister. G'night, everyone!
Anika Larsen
