The Midnight Train Crossing

There were adventures before the show even started, as everyone in our entire row had to sneak past us, and this one woman kept going back and forth past us. It was getting silly.

The set was simple, the show does take place on a stage after all. There were mirrors on the back wall of the stage that would turn, so they would either be mirrors or blank wall. I thought that it was sometimes minorly distracting when the mirrors were in the back, and the people weren't all dancing around. I could see the balcony and the exit sign reflecting in the mirror.
But, the mirror was cool during the scenes where everyone was onstage dancing - the mirror made it look like there were twice as many people dancing around on the stage.

The opening scene of the show is a bit disorienting, as Zach (Kevin Neil Mccready) is directing the auditioners through the dance movements. It's especially confusing to someone who's never done dance. He was being assisted by Larry (Brandon Tyler) as he tries to find the right people to cast in his show.

I think that the costume designer did a good job - the auditioners did have different colors on, but they were all dull colored, or dark colored except for Cassie, in bright red. This signals that she is important. I also liked Greg's costume, all in black, and I like how he would pose. Diana also had a nice costume - her shirt looked velvety.
And at the end, they come out with sparkly gold outfits, which are very sparkly.

Sometimes, during the show, the music would drown out the singers. I also had a hard time understanding them when they were all singing together, but this may come from not being familiar with the show. It's much easier to understand singers if you know what they're supposed to be saying.

So this is the second time seeing the show, and my favorite songs remain my favorite songs.

I like the song "I Can Do That" and I still do. Mike (Clyde Alves) did a good job with the song - with a lot of impressive acrobatics. I also liked how he'd periodically blurt out things that annoyed him. ("Four dance lessons and they called me twinkle toes") in a stereotypically Italian accent.

Another favorite song is "Sing", by husband and wife duo Al and Kristine. Al was played by Colt Prattes and Kristine by Jessica Latshaw, both of which signed my program. They worked really well together - and I like how he keeps finishing her sentences for her. Since Kristine can't sing, which was demonstrated very nicely, Al does the singing for her. He had a pretty nice voice, and she did a good job on the terrible voice.

Diana, played by Rebecca Riker, had a killer voice , both in "Nothing" and in "What I Did for Love". I already liked her outfit and her attitude at the start of her part, but I was very impressed when she started to sing. And she signed my program too.

"Dance: Ten; Looks: Three" is just a funny song, sung by Val, who was played by Mindy Dougherty. She had a good way of strutting around. The song is about how she had a lot of plastic surgery to improve her physical appearance, and she was good at displaying her assets. It also occurred to me that the last time that I saw the show - in a production by students, they changed this song a bit, made it a bit more G-rated. I also got her autograph.

Part of the reason for seeing the show (The reason for getting better seats) was Cassie, played by Robyn Hurder, who to me will always be Wrench of US Starlight Tour fame. I didn't get to hear her sing very much in Starlight, since I only ever saw her as Wrench, but I knew that she was a pretty good dancer on wheels. She's a good dancer off of wheels too. Her big song is "The Music and the Mirror" which is a combination singing and dancing song. She has this whole big scene where she talks to Zach about why she is auditioning. She's the only one on stage at the time, since Zach is offstage, presumably out in the audience. I was impressed with her acting, when she had no one else on stage to play off of. That always impresses me.
There were more mirrors lowered down in a semi circle around her, so that there were lots of Cassies dancing around on the stage. I was impressed by her dancing.

Another major scene where someone is alone on stage is when Paul (Bryan Knowlton) talks about growing up and working at a drag show, and his parents finding out. He gets very emotional as he gets into it. Again, I was impressed because he had no one else onstage to play off of.

The show is two hours without an intermission, and it just flew by. There aren't really any slow points during the show, and all of the auditioners are onstage for almost the whole show. There are just the few breaks where Cassie and Paul take center stage.

STAGE DOOR

I don't usually figure out what I'm going to do at the stage door until after I've been there for a few minutes. The performers all came out in clumps, so I decided to pass my program around and ask people to sign while I waited for Robyn to come out. As usual, I was a bit paranoid that I wouldn't recognize her - but that was foolish of me, 'cause I recognized her when I saw her.
She got swallowed up in a clump of people, but I went over to her and greeted her. She remembered who I was (even got my name right ^_^) and led me off to meet her husband.

I kinda like it when the Starlight actors explain to other people who I am. I saw Starlight many many times, and I'm the one who made her Wrench Bear for her. I made bears for almost the entire company, and we recapped all the places that I saw Starlight.

Robyn Hurder and Clyde Alves (Cassie and Mike)

I was glad to see her - I really enjoyed the show, and stage dooring is fun, but I miss Starlight, even if it has been five years, so it's cool to see somebody from the cast again.
We talked for a little bit, but not too long since they had to go. I don't blame them, after all that they did on stage, I wouldn't want to stick around that much either.