After two weeks of holidays between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, with both days falling on a Tuesday and a closed office, WE’RE BACK! I hope there has been the best of the season’s sweetness and love in your life! Once again at Paramount, for a third year in a row, our holiday show welcomed over 80,000 theatre-going friends into our Grand Gallery festooned with a giant holiday tree, wreaths, ribbons and lights! On Sunday evening, The Wizard of Oz took a final bow after an incredibly joyous run of packed houses on their feet clapping and cheering in a production folks will cherish for a lifetime. Director/Choreographer Amber Mak, in so many surprising and inventive ways, moved everyone here to see it.
The stunning production and its flawless cast and orchestra captivated all of us with the story’s warm and wise message to look within and in your own backyard to find your heart’s desire. (I can’t help but hear the echo of Legally Blonde‘s “What you want is right in front of you!”) Setting out from the start to capture the childlike imagination of every generation, Amber artfully succeeded in all of us rediscovering L. Frank Baum’s beloved tale as if we were seeing it for the first time!
New year! New show! I’m running this morning to our first day of rehearsal for The Producers! Nervous and excited to get everyone together under one roof! So much planning has gone into this blockbuster of a musical and after sharing it with our starry company of actors, it will come to life! With much adulation for the comic genius of Mel Brooks, we’re off and running! What I have been learning from listening to and reading interviews with the great master, is that we just have to keep laughing!
Love & thanks,
Jim