BWW Blog: Patti Murin of Goodspeed's HOLIDAY INN - An Old-Fashioned Walk

"An Old-Fashioned Walk"

or, I cheated on this title a little because I have a car

Good day, friends! This week, I would like to take you through a week in my life at Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, currently playing at the Goodspeed Opera House. I call this "An Old-Fashioned Walk" because a large majority of the company do not have vehicles up here, so they are old-fashioned walking everywhere. Also, since everything seems to be a 20 minute drive away, we old-fashioned walk to the theatre every day. And to 32 Main, the coffee shop up the hill. And to the liquor store across the street. Plus, I old-fashioned walk my dog, Milo, every single day, like 47 times a day, so my whole life seems to be old-fashioned walking. Thank goodness I have a FitBit to tell me if I'm old-fashioned walking enough every day!

The week began with a disgustingly rainy day, which was even more unfortunate as many of us were driving back to CT from New York City for our Tuesday matinee. Luckily, I managed not to kill Gavin Lee, Jeremiah Ginn and Abby Church in the process, and we made it safely back just in time to put on our first show of the week for a half-full house, as local weathermen were imploring everyone to stay home. Still, it was a wonderfully appreciative audience, and with that, we were done working for the day. A celebration at the Gelston House was tentatively planned, as it was: A) Charles MacEachern's birthday, B) we were welcoming Gavin Lee officially into our company, C) three of our cast members got their Equity cards officially this week (yay Darrell T. Joe, Karl Skyler Urban and Caley Crawford!), and D) I got engaged - but at the very last minute, I received a text that said "Last minute Pimps and Hoes party at the Lawton at 8:15." Obviously I thought this was a joke, but nope, this was really happening. So around 9 I walked Milo over to the Lawton and entered into a world of wife beaters (the shirt, not the personality type), short shorts and Flip Cup. It should be noted that I was wearing my fuzzy striped PJ pants, a hoodie and my glasses. VERY hoe-y. All in all, it was an early night. For me, anyway. (It should be noted that we have a very bizarre schedule of mostly matinees until we close. People around here like to see shows early, and in the daylight...if you know what I mean.)

Wednesday was slightly less rainy than Tuesday, and I began the day with a 30 minute Physique 57 online workout (who AM I?) and another 2 PM matinee. Tally Sessions, Hayley Podschun, Noah Racey and I completed the "Planksgiving challenge" in November, where every day you plank for longer and longer, until you're basically dying and have abs of steel-ish by the end of the month. So this month, Hayley, Tally and I restarted, and are in the middle of "Plankstmas," which we do every day at half hour. After the show, I headed over to Pearls and Plaid, which is maybe the cutest store in the entire history of the world. It opened less than a month ago right in our little village, and the owner, Caroline Lemley, has the best taste in jewelry, scarves, candles, clothes, you name it. Basically every female in our show has the exact same wardrobe now because we go there 17 times a week. Today, it was Caley, Abby and I wandering around, and I came away with an adorable holiday sweater. Online shopping, out. Pearls and Plaid, in. Later that evening, we headed up to 32 Main for a surprise party for one of our spot ops, Shannon Esslinger, which was a huge success.

Some of the cast gathered at House J after for a screening of "Love, Actually," while the night found me running though the Village in my pajamas (I wear real clothes less and less these days) to Hayley's house to get a glass of red wine. I capped off the day watching "Nashville" with Hayley and Tally (you know you love it, Tally).

Thursday started COMPLETELY normally, as I participated in a media conference call with Chris Soules, the newest Bachelor for ABC's upcoming season of ...you guessed it..."The Bachelor." I will be recapping the series weekly for Broadway World starting January 5th, so if your Christmas wish is that I will write more blogs, yay! Your wish has come true! I found out that Chris has indeed seen a Broadway show, though he does not recall which one it was. Just that he liked it. Oh, Chris. But he DOES wander around singing "Let It Go" a lot, so that's a point for him. After the conference call, I realized it was Thursday, so I listened to the newest podcast episode of "Serial" so I could be sure to talk about it with Amy Van Norstrand and Susie Mosher at the theatre. After our matinee, Susie and Gavin and I went to a lovely dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the world, The River Tavern. This restaurant is good. Like, really good. Like, I will probably travel up from NYC to eat here, and shop at Pearls and Plaid. It's that serious. Another early night for me!

Friday morning arrived, and I found it necessary to stay in bed until noon. After I got myself together, I headed over to Valley Regional High School in Deep River, where their drama club is putting on a production of the musical "Band Geeks!", which I was in in 2010 for Goodspeed at the Norma Terris Theatre. I absolutely love talking to students who love theatre, and are on the precipice of deciding whether or not they want to do it forever. I got to answer questions, sang a song from the show, and then I got to see them do the opening number from "Band Geeks!".

It was incredible, and brought back so many memories of Jared Gertner and Tommar Wilson and all of the great friends I made during that time. Some of whom I will reunite with on January 18th at 54 Below for a "Band Geeks!" Concert Spectacular! Ugh, I'm like a big advertisement for myself. But come see it! Needless to say, I had an absolute blast with the kids, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

After that, it was back to East Haddam for an 8 PM performance. After the show, a bunch of the cast and crew went out to the local Italian restaurant (like across the street local), La Vita Gustosa, as it was live music night, but as I am boring and wear pajamas as day clothes and have a dog that likes to snuggle, I went right home.

The weekends here are pretty routine, as we have two shows Saturday and two shows Sunday until we close, so I skipped out on any fun that happened and basically just ate, slept, and performed for two days. Milo DID have an excellent playdate on Sunday morning with Alissa Alter's French bulldog, Walter, which mainly consists of Milo tormenting Walter because he can jump over him, and Walter getting revenge by finding the best sticks and not sharing. The Sunday matinee was actually our 100th show, so we took a great picture and marveled at how long we have been here.

And that's about it! My final blog will be next week, as we wrap up our time here in East Haddam. Now, off I go to a random Tuesday matinee!