The view from the window of my hotel. With its Hershey Kiss street lamps and roads named Chocolate Avenue and Cocoa Way, Hershey is proud of its heritage. And yes, the air really DOES smell like chocolate.
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Some of our kids enjoying a nutritious, eco-friendly breakfast in the hotel. They started a book club and, along with most of the adults, are enjoying "The Mysterious Benedict Society."
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Our own George Andrew Wolff leads the kids book club in a lively discussion of "The Mysterious Benedict Society" at breakfast.
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Fenicci's Restaurant, strategically located between our hotel and the beautiful Hershey Theatre, extended a warm welcome. We wound up there for lunch, dinner, drinks or all three almost every day we were there.
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We spent the morning at Chocolate World, where you can make your own chocolate bar. Here, Broadway divas Kirsten Wyatt and Karen Mason manage to whip up yummy candy bars AND look fetching in their hair nets at the same time.
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Some of the gang show off their personally created candy bars. Lyn Philistine, Sean Nowell, Karen Mason, Kirsten Wyatt, Steven Macarus, Andrew Cristi.
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This is what happens when Flick (Nicholas Daniel Gonzalez), Schwartz (Jake Bennett Siegfried) and Scut Farkus (Charlie Plummer) OD on sugar. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
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Here I am at the Hershey Store picking up a couple of energy bars for the evening performance. Note to self for future: do not leave in back seat of hot car.
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Our kids at the Hershey Park Lost Children's Corral. I think some of them are still there.
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Walking from the hotel to the theatre brings you past Hershey's answer to Equity, the Chocolate Workers Local 464. Does that mean there are 463 other Locals? And, more importantly, can I use my AEA ActorCash card there?
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The kids pose with our show poster outside the theatre before the afternoon rehearsal.
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Outside the Hershey Theatre, costume designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy improvises a saloon girl's hat while ordering more feathers from New York City.
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Matthew Lewis, who plays kid brother Randy in the show, with HIS kid brother Gavin at dress rehearsal.
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Set pieces cut from the show await their fate by the loading dock.
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Amazing stage managers Jason Hindelang and Amy Gornet brace themselves with a smile before the long day of work starts.
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The Equity front-of-house slider board. Now you KNOW it's a real show.
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I mean come on, how many shows have a free pink bunny suit photo op in the lobby? My lovely show-wife and partner-in-crime, the fantastic Rachel Bay Jones grabs her turn. PS: She's a great kisser.
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The dance captain's table in the dark theatre. Caution. Geniuses at work.
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The leg lamps await their moment of glory. And boy does choreographer Warren Carlyle give them a great one. Trust me, you haven't lived until you've been surrounded by a chorus line of kicking, glowing, Busby Berkeley-ing leg lamps.
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Our 12-year-old star, the sensational Clarke Hallum, fends off the paparazzi. Wait 'til you hear this kid sing.
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The divine Margeurite Willbanks. Is she lamenting her wig hair or her pointsettia corsage? My money's on the corsage.
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The neat, well-organized dressing table of a serious professional actor. And yes, those are Grether's Blackcurrant Pastilles and they are worth every penny.
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Santa puts on his beat. Good pal (and former Titanic castmate) Adam Pelty transforms into drunk Santa.
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Of COURSE there's a leg lamp cake to celebrate our first performance. What else can say Merry Christmas better than a fishnet stocking?
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Ladies and Gentlemen, the future of the American musical: astoundingly talented composer and lyricist team Justin Paul and Benj Pasek with young cast member Emily Rudolph in the lower lobby after the show.
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Get out your Little Orphan Annie decoder pins. On hand for our first show was Annie herself, the always-terrific Andrea McArdle, who looked fantastic AND offered great support to both me and producer Roy Miller.
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A Christmas Story cast members Lyn Philistine and Sean McKnight first worked together as children with the Pittsburgh CLO Mini Stars.
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A whole lotta good lookin': Jonathan Burke, Andrew Cristi, Alex Puette and Mara Newbery celebrate our first performance.
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The wonderful Gene Weygandt, who plays narrator Jean Shepard, and Margeurite Willbanks, sans corsage but avec sassy hat.
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After-party at the Hotel Hershey! Here are the ladies. Leslie Henstock, Karen Mason, Kirsten Wyatt, Lyn Philistine, Mara Newbery and Margeurite Willbanks.
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Of course when we got back to our hotel, exhausted but cheerful, the kids were STILL up, raising happy hell in the pool.
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My own personal Bumpus hound, Roz, says goodnight from the couch in my hotel room. Come catch us on tour this season in Tampa or Chicago!
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