Hello! I’m back from my holiday. Can’t say I had a lot of R&R. Just the opposite! But I am more than ready to buckle down and do some more painting! This is a set that I did before I left which I hope would help ease me back into the groove of things again. Jet lag be darned!

One great thing about having to commute into Manhattan for high school was that I was only a couple of subway stops away from the Broadway district. I’d nerd out in theaters after school instead of getting into all sorts of no good with friends. All my allowances were earmarked for theater tickets, which, back in those days, were reasonably priced—especially when accompanied with a student ID.

One musical I never got to see the first time ’round was “A Chorus Line.” It’s one of those shows that’s been around forever and you didn’t think it would ever go dark. But alas, it did and the tickets were really hard to come by for the final performances. My Dad scored a pair, but alas, he used it to entertain a friend instead of his own daughter.

Nevertheless, there was a revival of it years later and you betcha I was the first in line to snag a ticket! Even better—there were no changes to any of the lines, choreography, and costumes, which made it an icon all in itself.

I got a little homesick and absolutely had to tap into my inner B’way nerd. The Gold Coast isn’t exactly a hotbed of culture. Any live theater is strictly limited to Dracula’s Haunted Castle by the convention center. I have a feeling there will be a bunch of B’way related sets in the near future.

In the meanwhile, I’d like to give a shout out to my friends for letting me use their photos as head shots for this set: Melissa (as Cassie, a once successful dancer but now down on her luck), John (as Richie, who was going to be a kindergarten teacher), Po’Trowski (as Val Clark—who sings that delightful number “Dance 10 Looks 3”), Pacheco (as Paul San Marco, who had that heart-breaking monologue), Jean-It (as Morales, who is my favorite character in the show), Anthony (who graciously allowed me to use his picture as Al Deluca), and Melody (as Connie, who was ageless). It rocks to have such beautiful friends—on the inside and out!

This was the advert that stuck with me from my childhood.