Well yesterday was my birthday. I slept in yesterday and when I was woken by David Dorman and escorted into the living room, the entire cast had me my favorite breakfast drink (Latte) and a delicious slice of Starbucks pound cake with a candle in it; which I blew out after their rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to You! It was very sweet. I then opened my cards and presents. I got a Magic Eight Ball, a puppet and Sam got me the cutest NYC apartment doggy (stuffed, so don't worry Barry). He has been named J.Jeste or J.J. for short. Another surprise was Barry came up a day early to surprise me for my birthday as he was suppose to come on Saturday to only have to spend one night with all seven of us under the one roof. But I was so glad that he did, it's great to be back in his arms. I slept so well last night.

On the 16th, after I blogged, that love letter came out on nytheatre.com and it was AHMAZING. It energized the cast and we have had two days of great shows, crappy time slots. But I would like to say congrats to the “ladies” for making it through without killing each other. Today is our last show and then we have to strike and get the wheelchair back to the condo before its sojourn south.

Last night for my birthday we (me, Barry, David, Doug and Sam) went to see Xanadu and we sat on the stage. It was soooooo much fun. For anyone who groans when you read Xanadu is the very person that needs to see this show. This reminds me so much of a Wanzie spoof and is pure fun start to finish. Not to mention Cheyenne Jackson, in my humble opinion, is the most perfect man to ever grace the Great White Way AND Kerry Butler is unbelievable. Afterwards, to top off my birthday, we met Michael and his longtime friends from CT, Donna, Ken, my new good friend Debbie, et al, as well as Orlandoian Brian Geiger at Don't Tell Momma, my fav piano bar, where we sang the remainder of the evening away. Then off to Lucky Burger, yummy yummy, then bed. Thanks to all for making my birthday so memorable.

Today I am taking a lot of people back to the MOMA before heading to Central Park for some outdoor fun in this amazing high of 76 degrees weather! Finally! Talk to you soon! !

To blog or not to blog, that is the question. After deciding not to blog, I have now changed my changed my mind back to blog (those who know me will be shocked I know, but anyway…). We have had three days off but the Ladies are getting in their drag as we speak for the 6:15 curtain. You can barely walk through the condo without collecting either Sammy's back hair or Ultra Hold hairspray in your mouth. We are trying desperately to find a place to buy extra oxygen masks, but until then we will have to suffer…”and I'll suffer it gladly, thank you”.

Yesterday Michael, David and I went and saw a fringe play called The Commission. I chose that play because it was written by the man who wrote the screenplay for The Woodsman, an amazing movie starring Kevin Bacon as a recovering pedophile. The movie is brilliant and I urge anyone reading this to run right out and rent it. However, should some theatre where ever you might be mount The Commission in its current state? I would have to suggest you pass on the opportunity. The story was intriguing, but the actors were not emotionally tied to the script at all. Engaging on their own, yes, but if the writer's intent was to connect them in this tale he did so very scantily. I was very disappointed, but hey it's fringe. It made me think of Joe Swanberg. He would have had a blast at this show. Miss you Joe.

Our review came out at Time Out New York online. With 3 out of 4 stars we can't complain. A little disappointed in the “regrettable” being used as I believe that to be the catalyst of the piece and stops us from just being a “Mad TV” skit. It also said that they believe our amazing cast is very good at it…but hey…to each his own. I will say we have a new found respect for Maupin and her blogs. She is miss get-it-up-on-the-web-quick. “Time Out” saw our show Sunday night and the review went up today. So, once again, good job Betsey!

Tonight after the show from 11pm-1am the “gay shows” at the fringe are having a “gay press” mixer at Club 13 down in Alphabet City and the Ladies are making an appearance. As Ruby says, “we are going to have ourselves a shared expuriunce”.

Things here are tense. David just threw a barb at Tommy to which Tommy replied. “You are so lucky there is not a balcony, or it would be ... Hey Look ... Flying Realtor.”

I must go. Have a great day. Happy Birthday Madonna! (Mine's tomorrow ... on Elvis' death day ... great!

Well, so sorry for the delay in posting another blog. I was back to Orlando to see my nephew become a man in a wonderful weekend of ceremonies, dinners and parties. I gave a responsive reading at the synagogue and although I always get nervous I also felt privileged to be asked. It was great to spend a whirlwind thirty six hours in Orlando visiting the Miller Clan. Congratulations Ari!

OK, on Sunday back to NYC I went for the show that night. I had an 8am flight and was back in the city by 11:15. (Made it from Newark to the condo in 21 minutes, it was fantastic). Then it was the day of our second show. We all ran some errands before they settled into their makeup chairs. The show was at 9:30 and went very well. We now have 3 whole days off!!! Yeah!

Yesterday David, Peter, Frank and I went to the MOMA. It was fantastic as usual. We then went to see Spring Awakening (my third time) and it was my favorite time yet. It is the most amazing show I have ever seen. I now officially like it better than Billy Elliot. Sam was so moved that he left the theatre sobbing and found the nearest alley to collect himself.

We all came back to the condo, Tommy and Boom packed up to stay with a friend for three days. Michael went to a late night sock convention. Rich, Brian, Sam and I headed to my favorite local watering hole “Posh”. We stayed there for awhile and had a very nice conversation. Also I drank BEER (for those of you who know me, know how unlike me that is). It was Monday night beer blast and beers were $3.00 (which is a bargain here in the city). Anyway, everywhere we turn Sam knows someone so we always had people to chat with. He has introduced me to many people (all of them fabulous). We came back, met up with Doug and Michael, had a nightcap and went to bed.

This morning Michael and Sam made a great breakfast of cheesy eggs, biscuits and French Toast. Yummy. I have mandatory ACR Training today, which is funny seeing as we only have 3 shows left. But whatever, I will happily go to Fringe Central and participate. It will give me a chance to hand out more postcards. Talk to you again soon.

Okay, first let me apologize for the delay in updating my blog. But in a nutshell, here was our morning. 7:00 am wake up, and I never would have guessed it, but the morning person of the day award goes to Boom Boom. He was a calm in the storm this morning and just so peppy you would have wanted to push him the window, but it was kinda fabulous. Anyway, at 7:30 Scott, myself and Boom left for U-Haul, in what can only be described as Tropical Wave conditions. People, I am talking just shy of sheets of rain. But we pick up the U-Haul, Boom drives us back to the condo where we all load the boxes up and head in one U-Haul and two taxis to the Theatre. We luckily we got in 30 minutes early. Had we'd not been able to our empty fabulous boxes would have just become a big ole wet pile o'cardboard. But we did and the theatre is nice and we had to make a few changes of exits and entrances, but the tech experience as a whole went great. The cast was stellar and David Dorman at the Sound/Light board did an amazing job (as usual).

The only bad part was that the second and I mean second it was over, I kissed them all and told them to break a leg and jumped in a cab to Newark to catch my Bar Mitzvah express flight back to Orlando.

I was picked up at the airport by Barry with clothes that I changed into in the car and went directly to Friday Night Dinner at the Resnick's house in honor of our Bar Mitzvah boy and recent condo resident Ari Miller. It was really nice and the “Ladies” fans of the group, and there are many, send the guys their love.

Tomorrow I have service from 10-12, so after 10am, I won't get to speak to them until they have made their splash into the FringeNYC pool. I know they are in good hands and are prepared. I do look forward however to catching my 8am flight Sunday to see the 2nd show, but right now, I am signing off to spend some QT with Barry, Justy, Feste and Jake.

But, if like me you are unable to see the show tomorrow and feel so inclined, think of the “Ladies”…you won't be alone. TO Michael, Sam, Doug, Tommy, Boom, David, Scott and Rich…Break a Leg you dear amazing crazy lovely talented people that I am honored to call friends.

Good Morning from the Locksdale's home away from home on the lovely 52nd Street and 8th Avenue! Last night the lovely and talented Arwen of NYC and formal Orlando residence came by and helped Michael and I drink until the arrival of Tommy, Doug, Sam, David Dorman, Scott Penyak, and the incomparable Boom Boom. They arrived in their limo (thanks to our sponsor David Dorman) about 9pm, just 4 hours later than originally planned. As they spilled out of the limo with luggage that would be appropriate for a month long trek through Europe, we had hugs and kisses right there in the street. Of course, if you've been reading these blogs, you know they started drinking at one pm while stranded at the OIA Airport, which apparently continued on the plane and on the limo. I then introduced the boys to the staff of the building and off we went.

We then came upstairs in two elevators and spilled into the condo. I had put out a little spread of veggies and cheese, etc. and we toasted and drank, ate Ray's Pizza, drank some more and it went well into the late night. A group of us went down to smoke so much that the concierge, bless her little soul, shook her head more and more with each passing trip.

Michael beat me to the wake up music this morning, so we listened to a rousing, and I mean ROUSING rendition of “Oh what a beautiful morning!” Harvey Fierstein has nothing on him. Shortly after that, all, well I was going to say bright-eyed, but that would be soooooo untrue. Tommy and Boom are off to eat breakfast, I am waiting for the punch list guy to come up to the condo to install our mirrors and Monique Byrnes and family are on their way here to meet us all. We have a meeting today and then tech tomorrow! Talk to you soon.

Fringe Heart Attack!

Imagine if you will, waiting for our cast to actually leave OIA, late, but still in time for tomorrow's tech. Hate delays!!! HATE HATE HATE! But add to that David Dorman's alarming phone call from said Airport stating, “the venue tech has just called me and said our tech is RIGHT NOW”. Now people ... I have certainly made my share of silly and yes, sometimes downright costly mistakes, but I have tried to remain as focused as I possibly could and paid crazy attention to detail when it has come to matters of this FringeNYC thing.

David tells me that he knows I'll handle it and that the tech guy will be calling me and he needs to get back to his cocktail. I am now crazy searching through my emails as the phone rings. The tech does not sound happy. But just as he is about to express his disappointment, I find the email and low and behold, praise jesus, hallelujer! It says “ Your tech time is 1-4 AUGUST 9th.” Unfortunately, speaking with Dan, it was indeed a typo on his part and he has techs already scheduled from 10am - 11pm for tomorrow. But, Dan has been AMAZING and communicative (before and during this above incident), and we have already worked out a solution. Our tech is now Friday morning and I will fly back mid day Friday and still be at the Resnick's for Bar Mitzvah Dinner.

All I can say is OY VEY!

Well, we actually did it. After just working on correspondences yesterday, Michael (his back much better) and I left with posters and postcards in tow and went down to Christopher Street and Bleeker Street to put our marketing materials anywhere were allowed. Our first stop was the Duplex. We put our postcards in the rack right by the door then went and sat at the bar. There were six people in the bar including the pianist, the bartender, and the bartender's 12 year-old nephew. The pianist was playing like the greatest hits for women from the 80's while The Singing Bee was on mute, but close-captioned above her head. After a few drinks I excused myself to have a smoke only to come back in to Michael saying, “Get in here Kenny, we're going to play “Singing Bee”. Apparently, in my absence, she had expressed an interest in knowing how to play Singing Bee as it had been requested from her before, however it was so busy at those other times she couldn't stop to have it explained to her. BUT, Michael informed me he just explained how to play. So, off she goes with some ballad. I know parts of it, but can't remember the song right now. Well ... she never stopped the music. She just kept singing and singing. Then she started looking at us like we were dumb and towards the end of the first chorus, she says after singing the title. “This is the title” and would say that like three more times, before we understand what is happening. We then stopped her and explained this isn't “Name that Tune” its spelling bee and you have to stop playing in order for US to sing the next line. She said “Oh that explains why you guys were looking at me so strangely.” It certainly did. But then she got the hang of it, and because there is a two drink minimum at the Duplex, we stayed for about 30 minutes with her. We could have stayed much longer, but after all ... we were working!

We then head next door to the Stonewall Inn. Here we dropped off a poster for management approval, put out some postcards and it was pretty uneventful. We did pause there and have one drink to toast all the queers who came before us and fought that fateful night. We then toasted to Stonewall and its place in gay history and for being the inspiration behind Lion Queen. We love Stonewall!

Next we had dinner at some restaurant David Lee use to work at (according to Wanzie), then proceeded to Arthur's Jazz Club, ending at Marie's Crisis, where Wanzie and I sang at the top of our lungs, which unlike many other places we go, is actually encouraged. We happily obliged. Then we came back to the condo but not before leaving a trail of postcards.

This morning, I was up before Michael and chose the wakeup music. Today it was Sutton Foster singing “Astonishing”, then Idina Menzel singing “Coffee”. Clearly I am going through Becky Fisher withdrawal. Between me being up here and her out of town with Menopause ... we just can't seem to connect. Miss you Becky! Kisses from NYC.

It's only been 8 days since I left Orlando, but I am so looking forward to coming back this Friday for the 48 hours I'll be there to see Barry and attend my nephew's bar mitzvah. Love you honey. Give the smoochies my love.

The LADIES are gathering at OAI as I speak, so I must go back to cleaning like a crazy person. Let the games begin!

Hello Again! Thanks Betsey for the shout out. Wish you were up here! Before I report on our happenings, I have to correct something said yesterday. I got an email from Karen Good, telling me of my error in spelling her name. "There is no E, don't forget it". So, my apologies for the error, we wish nothing but good for Ms. Good. She also informed me that Marle and her not only dated, but they were engaged. Little did I know how much information one could gain when writing a blog. Exciting!

So, unfortunately Michael had an issue with his back (he'll be fine) which put the kibosh on our plans to flyer the Village last night. That's been rescheduled for tonight. So, we went to the Amish Market, bought some turkey, then went to blockbuster and rented "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and went home. Michael's new interest in the Tyler Perry movies is because another blogger here in NYC, when speaking of our show said, "Move over Tyler Perry". So Michael wanted to know what that meant. Now he does and is… I believe, flattered.

We woke up to a knock at the door and another huge stack of boxes from our building's staff. No one there, just boxes. I then quickly got dressed and ran downstairs to inform them that we had officially met our quota on boxes and to thank them for their diligence in delivering them to us. This morning was nice because I got to choose the wakeup music and I had a hankering for Amy Steinberg's Must be the Moon CD, which I highly recommend for the few who aren't familiar with her. It's available on I tunes. [Editor's note: this CD is also available at CDbaby.com] While listening we were able to find out more about our venue through email and coordinate our U-Haul pickup on Thurs to haul this crap down to the West Village/Soho.

While Michael conducted a phone interview with Backstage, New York's stage version of Variety, I ran down to get onstage tickets for Xanadu. Tommy requested to be as close to Cheyenne Jackson's thighs as possible. On the way back I picked up Michael a rare roast beef sandwich and some cherry juice. I walked in on the interview and it seemed to go very well. It will be available on Thurs. 8/16, but more on that later.

Now we are just working away, passing the time till Happy Hour so we can start passing out our stuff at local gay bars, hopefully ending at Marie's Crisis. So anyway, y'all be GOOD! No E, don't forget it!!

Hello from NYC!!!

I've been up here for five days, the first four were spent with my nephew, who has now flown the proverbial New York coop and gone back to Gatorland in Gainesville. Then ... Michael arrived on the short bus yesterday ... literally! He was sitting in the hover round and rolled out on to a little elevator and rolled right past me dragging his carry on beside him, into the elevator. I was laughing so hard I could barely speak. Luckily, I had forewarned the concierge and door staff of his antics, so they just laughed and greeted him warmly.

After dumping his stuff off, we proceeded to the Farmer's Market (4 bldgs down from our block), where he did exactly what I did the first time...picking up tomatoes..."This is half the price at home"...or limes "10 for $1.00!!!" After getting the necessary items we came back and relaxed and drank a few cocktails before going to see "Legally Blonde". Most of you know that I liked it. But so did Michael. Like I've said. It's not going to change the world, but it is slick, heartfelt, cute entertainment. We then came back to the condo and sat for about an hour with the lights off and no TV just watching other buildings. Michael tried the telescope but quit once he read a sign on someone's fridge. Said he felt weird, which I thought was weird, of all things that could make him feel weird. He didn't feel weird talking about it to the listening audience of REAL friggin' RADIO! Then we watched Medea's Family Reunion and gawd, talking about overacting. But it's a great one to watch with the remote close by, because those Medea scenes are hysterical. "I never did understand that Algebro!"

Today Michael chose the wakeup music which was the opening of "Tap Dance Kid" luckily I was already up. We than began the first day of the "Ladies" press junket, which consisted of a radio interview at WBAI ( I think) on a show OUT Fm) We were joined by another queen down at their Wall Street Studio. [EDITOR'S NOTE: You can hear the interview online here. After the file fully loads, go to about half-way to the broadcast as the interview was 30 minutes into the program.] Marle Becker our host was very nice and knew Karen Goode, actually DATED her before he found out he was gay. Michael's tongue was bleeding when that piece of news come out, but he showed TREMENDOUS restraint. We were live on air for about 30 minutes not even a hint of an FCC infraction! I was very impressed with that, seeing as there were signs all over the studio listing the words you can't say.

We then went to do the last minute show shopping at Kmart on 34th. Three stories of bargains. Never been in a Kmart with so many escalators. Which we went up and down 3 times each on Michael's never ending pursuit of buttons. I'll let him tell that story as I finally stood next to the escalator and said come back and get me here, when you finally found them, which after 30 minutes, it was determined that they don't carry friggin' buttons.

Now we are hanging out at the condo and plan to go down to the village tonight to unload hundreds of "Ladies" postcards at local gay bars. It's tough work, but someone has to do it! Then tomorrow is day two of the "Ladies" press junket, as Michael is being interviewed by Backstage magazine! So I'm sure there will be more to report tomorrow.

Have a great night!