Evita

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be portraying Eva Peron in CCMT's spring production of Evita. The complete cast has been announced announced on the website, and it looks like it's going to be a great show! I'm ecstatic about the opportunity to play a non-fictional character. There's so much research to be done, and so many opinions and myths to be sorted through. On how she got to Buenos Aires, alone, there are so many version of the story. She was called a saint before she was on her deathbed, and her picture sits, in many Argentine households next to a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This woman who created so much love and hate around her fascinates me, and Webber has created a musical which also looks both at the immense good that she did for her people, and the vast corruption under and during Eva Peron's rise to power.

Tickets are already onsale, and rehearsals begin February 1st. I hope you'll come out and see the show. This is the greatest role I've landed to date. In fact, possibly one of the greatest female roles in musical theatre history. Of course, this is only my opinion. But that just tells you how excited I am.

Into The Woods PR Shots

Hey everybody! Here are the pics I promised you!

The show opens on the 19th, with a preview on the 18th. We run for three weekends. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun! I'm finally in something that my little siblings can come see, and I think they're old enough now. My little sister likes to dress up like a princess, and apparently ADORES Cinderella. So that's going to be über cute! 

Mindy Lym as Cinderella

David Sattler as Cinderella's Prince & Mindy Lym as Cinderella

Nick Balian as Jack, Evan Boomer as Rapunzel's Prince, Lee Ann Payne as The Baker's Wife,

Paul Araquastain as The Baker, Mindy Lym as Cindrella, David Sattler as Cinderella's Prince & Elise Marie Cordle as The Witch

Paul Araquastain as The Baker, Lee Ann Payne as The Baker's Wife & Nick Balian as Jack

Evan Boomer as Rapunzel's Prince & David Sattler as Cinderella's Prince

David Sattler as The Big Bad Wolf & Alanna Pinell as Little Red Riding Hood

Into The Woods

Hey everybody!

I recently started rehearsal's for Sondheim's Into The Woods at Broadway By The Bay.  I'm playing the role of Cinderella, and it looks like an awsome cast!! We're having such a good time. For those of you who don't know, Sondheim is some of the must difficult music there is. So we have two entire weeks of music rehearsal. That's strictly music, 6 days a week, before we ever even start looking into blocking, and getting it on it's feet. It's fun. It's a great challenge, and everybody in the cast seems to be fully up to the challenge. Actually, the woman playing Jack's Mother, Linda Piccone, was nominated for a critic's circle award for the very same role. She and I worked on My Fair Lady together. She was Mrs. Pierce to my Eliza Doolittle. 

She and I are conspiring to start backstage gin rummy games backstage again. We went nuts in MFL playing rummy. It was so much fun! It was one of those throw-your-cards-down-on-the-table-and-curse-your-neigher-with-all-the-love-in-your-heart kinda games. There were a whole bunch of us that would play ritualistically every night, and it was non stop bickering, yelling, laughing, and cards flying off the table onto the floor. Good times. We'll see how this cast fares. :-)

So, back to Into The Woods. Our photo shoot in on Friday, so hopefully I'll have some PR shots up for you soon. They're taking shots of a few different scenes including me with my shoe. In this case, a golden slipper. Not the Disney glass slipper, but a golden slipper. 

One of the things that I love about this show so much, as that Sondheim and Lapine really did their homework on their fairy tales. They go back to older versions of the stories that are sometimes less well know to modern day audiences. For example, the tale of Cinderella may have originated as far back a the first century BC, in the tale of Rodophus, written by a Greek historian. There are so many versions of this story. There's a medieval Indo-Malay story of Anne De Fernandez, where the prince finds a golden slipper and traces it all the back to her. This story includes evil stepmother and all. For more history on Cinderella stories, go to the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella

Well, I need to eat dinner before I run off to rehearsal, so that's all for now. But please feel free to drop by the Broadway By The Bay website for more information on the show. It's gonna be a good one! The link is in the right hand navigation bar. Enjoy!

Illegal Images For Sale!

Funny to Google my name and find an image of myself rehearsing for sale on what looks like a Russian stock photo site. Definitely illegal. Great picture though! I wish I had a copy of it without all the words over it. I also wish they weren't trying to make money of my image without my consent. Anybody have advice on this?? Is there a lawyer in the house?

Enjoy the photo!

Opening Night

Boy, stage makeup is scary isn't it?? 

Well, we opened on Friday! It went well, all things considered. Saturday night was even better. This show is really a dancer's show. There are so many phenomenal dance numbers, and the choreography by Alex Sanchez is both stunning beautiful and intensely energetic. As the Conta Costa Times said, we have a "cast of nearly two dozen powerhouse dancers who leap and soar around the stage". They get applause during numbers every night!

That review overall is pretty funny, and really nails the production on the head. (See my side links). Seven Brides is not a musical you go to for deep emotional content, nor is it politically correct, realistic, contemporary or brilliantly written. However, if you can suspend your disbelief (as you often must in musical comedy), it's is utterly hilarious, silly, energetic and engaging.  We're having a blast!! The audiences have started hissing and cheering on different characters as they get further into the show. 

Woodminster is really a family venue, in every sense of the term. It is run by two generations of the Schlader family, and a large portion of their audiences are families that come in groups, with their blankets, food and warm coats for a beautiful night under the stars. 

I love this venue. Really. I LOVE it. It's so beautiful. From the seats, you can look over the proscenium and see the glowing lights of the San Francisco shoreline. The theatre itself is surrounded by redwoods, which happen to be my favorite tree. So I'm just in a little piece of heaven in this theatre.

Show closes Sunday!! 4 more performances!!

www.Woodminster.com

Let me know if you're coming out to see it.

Lots of love,

Mindy

"Seven Brides" Opens Friday July 11th!

Hey everybody!

Rehearsals are moving right along. It's been intense rehearsing outdoors. On weekends, we have daytime rehearsals in the blistering heat (literally... the soles of people's shoes are melting off as they dance). And on weekdays we rehearse at night. That's hasn't been so bad. We only had one really frigid night during the first or second week, when I would sing, and sustain a note, and streams of mist would come out of my mouth! It's great to be out in nature though! It's such a gorgeous venue. It's nestled into the Oakland hills, among the redwoods, and you can see the lights of San Francisco beyond the proscenium of the theatre! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

We just got our sounds system on Tuesday, and I'm making all the necessary vocal adjustments. Everything is sounding 10 times better! It's echoing through the hills. Because of the amplification, and the fact that I can now hear myself (it's a 2,000 seat, outdoor, uncovered theatre), I'm able to put all the finesse back into the sound. It's so gratifying... *sigh* All that hard work does pay off in the end. Yay.

And we're opening in two days!! I'm so excited!! It's getting better every night. Some of the cuts in the show are pretty awkward - but we're making sense out of them. I understand why they made them. When your audience is out in the cold, they can get antsy pretty quickly. Ah, outdoor theatre!

Here are some pics for you guys. They were all taken in broad daylight, and before the sets were finished, but they're still really fun. I hope you enjoy them!

Love,

Mindy

A Few Pics...

All of these pics are from rehearsal. The dress rehearsal was really for the women, so we wouldn't trip in our floor length gowns and heals. Hence the men in jeans, and women in evening attire... 

(l-r: Mindy Lym, Gregory Zema, Ben Jones and Katy Stephan)

This first picture is actually from the very end of the show. It's the moment we call "Chaos", where every person on the stage burst into a song they've sung at some point during the show, in whatever key they feel like; an overwhelming montage of ghosts from one man's past. I'll leave the cacophony to your imagination!

I'm really not sure what song this is... But I like the picture. Alas, I have to say, if I had know I was going to match the table cloth, I might have gotten a different dress. Oh well, things could be worse, right??

(l-r: Melody Moore and Mindy Lym)

This is an earlier rehearsal, when I was temporarily standing in for Sheri Greenawald. She wass sick, and having some vocal trouble, and didn't have an understudy. Eventually another local dramatic soprano stepped in for her for the performances, but it was fun singing "One More Kiss" with Melody. She voice is just incredible! My jaw dropped when she opened her mouth. Stunning.

(l-r: Darla Wigginton, Conductor Michael Morgan, Trente Morant, Gregory Zema, Mindy Lym, Ben Jones and Katy Stephan)

And a curtain call of denim and silk! :-)

Well, that's all for now. 

Thank you to the Oakland East Bay Symphony for these pics. They sent them to me free of charge! (Thank you Patrice! Very thoughtful!)

See? I told you I was a princess!

So. There's been a change in plans! I got a phone call from Broadway By The Bay offering me the role of Cinderella. Their artistic director had come to see me in My Fair Lady, and had, unbeknownst to me, apparently decided on the spot that she wanted me for the role. So, I will not be doing Pirates of Penzance with Woodminster this summer. I will being playing Cinderella in BBBay's INTO THE WOODS. I'm I'm delighted!!

I feel like I've been given an embarrassment of riches! I couldn't be more excited about this summer. Milly is such a fantastic role, and Cinderella is quintessentially one of my roles. It's something I could play for years to come. I'm thrilled. It was a difficult decision to make. I had to let down one company or the other. But when I'd finally made my choice, and I made the necessary phone calls? I was driving alone in my car, and I couldn't stop shrieking and laughing and giggling for joy and excitement. I am SO excited about this summer. I really hope you'll all come out and see me.

I'm not sure when the giggle fits will stop, but I don't mind! I keep telling Eric "See?? I told you I was a Disney Princess!! But now I'm certified!" Eventually he may start rolling his eyes. Thank God he's patient.

Lots of love,

Mindy

The Paramount Theatre

Wow. Can I just express for a moment what an honor it is to be included in a show like this? At a theatre like this?? When I showed up for the first rehearsal on Monday, I had never seen the theatre before. I walked by the front of the theatre as I was looking for the stage door and my jaw dropped, and my breathe got all caught in my chest - cliché I know, but it's true! I mean look at those lights! How could I not?? I'm performing in THERE!! God, what a glorious venue. And what a cast! It's an honor. And then I get inside, and everything is burnished gold and bronze, and carved - everywhere I looked. 

Rita Moreno rehearsed yesterday, and we just sat there onstage, and in the audience watching her. I didn't know what to say when she introduced herself, and then breezed on to the conductors stand, so I just smiled and introduced myself.  She's wonderful and hysterical! I just basked and reveled in her way of working. She just walked in and took over! Of course why wouldn't she, and why wouldn't anyone let her? She's about as high up the ladder as you can get.

So - the power of music: On Monday, I was a little overwhelmed just getting used to the space. It's always a little disorienting being in a new venue, because I don't know where anything is, and I don't know the ins and outs of the building. And in this building is so enormous, that the sensation was amplified a bit. But when the orchestra started playing - Oh. All that dissolved. It was so beautiful, as though everything that was scattered suddenly came back together again, fitting perfectly. It was so wonderful; as though I suddenly knew what I was doing here. I had a blast!! Or I should say, I AM having a blast. 

I'm so excited for the two performances (this Friday and Sunday!). I'm so grateful to be able to get paid to do this stuff. It's such a blessing. Sure, it can be a lot of work, but it's more than worth it. To sit and revel in the glory of music, and the brilliance of those around me, and then to be able to bring myself forward and count myself among them, and add to all that beauty. I'm not sure I could ask for a better and more fulfilling career.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Bliss.

That fine balance of bliss and active creation. 

Blessing, all! I'll see you onstage!

It begins...

Hi all!

Welcome to my new blog!

I'm excited to announce that I've been cast in the starring role of Milly in "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" at the Woodminster Amphitheatre this summer! I'm so excited to have another great role to dig my teeth into. It's so wonderful to have a full and lush arch to let go into night after night. It's a meditation in being present. I think one of my favorite things in the world is being ontstage and realizing that "Mindy" has been completely gone for a period of time, and that in that space, somebody else has actually had the space to show up.  

I had the experience a lot during My Fair Lady, and it was so wonderful. Of course, it helps to have such an outstanding leading man to play off of. Kit was so steady, consistant and present every day, no matter what was going on. I never had to worry about him, and that freed me up so much. We just fed off of each other! Anytime you have the opportunity to work with him, do it!

I'm also delighted to say that I'll be performing in a couple of weeks with the Oakland East Bay Symphony for the first time.  Actually, it's my first time performing with ANY symphony. I could get used to this! 

We'll be doing a concert version of Follies (as you can see!) and I'll be portraying Young Phyllis. Rita Moreno will be guest starring. We only have four nights of rehearsal, which is a totally new way of working for me. Talk about doing your homework!! I'm hoping that I'll get to watch Rita rehearse. I've heard so many amazing things about her. I doubt I'll have much contact with her at all, as she's doing a one song stint, and I've got a tiny role. But none the less: if I get to watch her, I am going to EAT IT UP!!! AH!

I'm waiting to hear back about a few more gigs, and I should have news about the rest of my summer before Follies opens. So I'll keep you all posted!