Help Needed - Urgent!!!

Alright, I saw The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Marriott Lincolnshire on Sunday, and it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cast was perfect and the in the round format allowed for better blocking and choreography for this type of production than the Drury Lane Water Tower did (not that that was a bad production, but this one was even better). A good portion of the cast were graduates of that production and their experience really showed. I recognized some of the jokes from the previous productions, but there were also some new ones (or at least ones that I didn't remember) as well as the improvised lines, my favorite being that their normal celebrity pronouncer, Senator Roland Burris, was unavailable this year but they expect him to be free again soon. They did tone down some of the more off color ones for the suburban audience (the most disappointing absence being Dengue as a word and using it in a sentence, try to youtube the 2005 Tony Awards performance to see how it was used), which was a little disappointing although understandable. This was the first time out of all the shows I've been to there that the theatre wasn't completely packed (it wasn't totally empty either but the empty seats were noticeable), so they don't want to alienate their core audience. As I mentioned in my last post, they did have an intermission, it came after they eliminated the final audience member contestant (a young girl who did surprisingly well, they had to break out the difficult words for her to much audience applause), but the second act started then with Chip's song, My Unfortunate Erection (simpy titled M.U.E. in the program, again to avoid offending the suburban audience), there was no performance of We Love Spelling, but that was ok as the show was so good I didn't miss it. It came in at exactly 2 hours, leaving us plenty of time to get dinner and get home at a decent time.

Now, here is where the help is needed. Through midnight tonight (June 30), the theatre is letting the general public vote on which productions they would like to see next season. So, if you are reading this and it's still June, please, Please, PLEASE, click over to:

http://www.marriotttheatre.com/

and scroll all the way to the right (the site doesn't automatically resize to fit the screen), and at the top of the right column is an icon that says "Vote on our 2010 Season." Click on that and it opens a survey in a new window. Don't worry, you don't have to register or give any personal information, it stays completely anonymous. It asks you a couple questions about if you subscribe and how you chose what you want to see and then it gives you a list of about 10-12 shows and asks you to check off the 3 you would most like to see. Feel free to do that, I wasn't ecstatic about any of the choices, they were all pretty suburban and mainstream (I selected Chess, Titanic, and The King & I), but in a bad economy they need to produce what people will pay to see. However, the next question is the important one. They give you a text box and allow you to submit one name of a show that you would like to see that was not on the list. Go to this question, and type in "Carrie: The Musical" in the box. Do this as often as the site will allow. This is the best chance we're likely going to have to get another production mounted anywhere in the country. After this question there's a general comments section, this could be a good place to remind them that if they do the show, not only will it attract about 20 years' worth of frustrated impatient audiences who have been dying to see what all the fuss was about, it could also be an opportunity for them to expand their business and offer a world premiere cast recording, although this is not as important as just getting the show on their radar in the first place. Seriously, if they do Carrie, I will go multiple times. They've already got the gym decor from their current production that they can recycle. If we can pull this off and get them to do it, I will seriously do something for my readers, maybe have a drawing to meet at intermission for drinks or something, on me of course. Vote early and vote often, we only have until midnight tonight.