Fayetteville, AR

We arrived a week ago in a little town in Arkansas called Fayetteville. And to our delight we encountered Fall weather! Once I got over the not so great hotel situation, I let myself appreciate how pretty this area is. The trees are all shade of fall colors…bright orange, deep red, pale yellow. The area is surrounded by little shops and small businesses. It’s actually nice to see an area like this not flooded with chain restaurants and stores. It’s a college town so there are many bars (lots of random karaoke singing spills out from most of them at night lol). But the architecture is beautiful and very quaint. Common Ground has become a favorite coffee shop (great vanilla lattes) for some of the cast and Waffle House has saved the night many times when we’ve come out of a show starving.

I bought my Halloween outfit from a cute store in the style of Urban Outfitters called Riffraff.

I love it and I'm looking forward to wearing it on Monday, which is going to be a long travel day to our next destination. This has been a rough week with the travel and not feeling quite settled into the new place. But Ross (Tony) and I did have a pretty painless day of press on Tuesday with two radio show interviews. The first one was quick and fun and the second one was more in depth for KUAF 91.3, an NPR affiliate. Thursday I had three phone interviews back to back for newspapers in upcoming cities. The publicity part of the job can be fun but also tiring at times. Our company management made this week very special by buying pumpkins and decorating the office with fall and Halloween decorations! They even bought pumpkins for us to carve. It was my first time carving a pumpkin!

Tomorrow is our last show day here and then we’re off to Charlotte, NC on Monday!

PS Our publicity shots came out this week! Here’s a snap shot of “I Feel Pretty”.

Dallas, TX Part 2

So my time in Dallas has come to an end. I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. Last week I finally did the tourist thing…the aquarium, a local fancy restaurant with live music called Sambuca (thanks Vicki for that recommendation!). And Chris came to visit me! He even had the band at Sambuca (Big Daddy Dallas) sing Extreme’s “More Than Words” for me. A cheesy song, I know, but I love it! Overall , the atmosphere was sexy, the food tasty and the live music such a treat. If you like acoustic music/blues its a great “date night” place.

Before homesickness could really take over when Chris left, my Mom and the girls came for the weekend.

Mom bought a bling cowgirl hat that she wouldn't take off lol, and we had a fun night with yummy pizza at the Pizza Lounge across from the theater. Tasty food, good music and relaxed vibe. And they're open until 3am!

Dallas was wonderful to me. I met such kind people and I’m lucky to have had an incredibly positive opening. Everyone at the theater, especially my dresser Vicki was so supportive. She helped me thru the show with comments like “that last note was extra floaty today.” No wonder why Sutton Foster cried about her dresser leaving her! I cried just saying goodbye to mine after only 3 weeks!

The reviews came in and thankfully they were all positive. Thank you Dallas for a wonderful opening! I’m leaving with wonderful memories!

Dallas, TX

This has been a crazy week so far! We opened on Tuesday and the show for the most part went very well. Thankfully that’s when the critics came to see the show. So far we've received rave reviews! The next two days were a little rougher but I’m getting into my vocal groove. I can’t believe we put this whole big show together in 3 weeks! All of us are working very hard and sometimes need to be reminded of all that we have accomplished so far. As for Dallas…the hotel is great…except for the fact that everything shuts down at 11pm. With so much rehearsals I haven't had the time to explore Dallas yet but that's going to change this week. On the to-do list: the aquarium, zoo, BBQ restaurants, the West End area…I can’t wait to get going! The people here have been so welcoming and I love the accents. My dresser backstage endeared herself to me the moment she spoke. On opening night a party was held for us at a huge mansion. We felt like celebrities! They even brought out a huge birthday cake for the Tony and me!

My good friend Marvin Avila visited me on Wednesday and like a movie star made an appearance for a day. With limited local options he took me to Denny's for a birthday lunch and then off to the Texas State Fair we went. Basically FRIED everything. And car shows. And live stock. And vibrating foot chairs.

The goal for this week is to explore the West End and find the perfect belt buckle!