Road Concierge, an Altour Company

07/02/2022

Audiences are enthusiastic, but casts are vulnerable, as companies travel from city to city, trying to revive a key part of the theater economy.

21/01/2022

Tickets available now!

05/01/2022

Check us out!
New content coming soon!

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03/01/2022

24/12/2021

https://youtu.be/6ZQfq27wrhE

Everyone’s invited to the joyous Broadway musical that inspired the hit Netflix adaptation. New York Magazine calls it “smart and big-hearted” and The New York Times says the show “makes you believe in musical comedy again!” You belong at The Prom!

Jan. 4 - 16, 2022 at the Eisenhower Theater. Washington, DC

Big Broadway stars on a mission to change the world. And it's a musical?! Learn how to get tickets to today at ThePromMusical.com!Everyone’s ...

22/12/2021

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=500832014709978

Join Road Concierge in welcoming the cast and crew of Come From Away to the Stranahan Theatre January 4 - 9th in Toledo, Ohio!

29/11/2021

https://youtu.be/VwQcP5GYmIs

23/09/2021

It's all happening now! Toot! Toot! Hey, Beep! Beep!
https://thedonnasummermusical.com/

Official Website.

09/06/2021

It's all happening now!

The production, starring the Tony-honored and Grammy-winning Bruce Springsteen, will play a limited run at the St. James Theatre.

01/06/2021

Because it's June! Happy Leslie Uggams Day!

I'd sing this parody celebrating June 1, but I'm afraid I'll forget the words.

June is bustin’ out all over!
All over the masks are being doffed!
Folks are bustin’ outa houses
And are puttin’ on their blouses
To go meet with friends who’re tested, vaxxed and coiffed.

June is bustin’ out all over!
The feelin’ of freedom is intense.
Soon the theaters will be open
And the patrons will be hopin’
That the rules will all be based on common sense.
Be safe, it’s June! June, June, June!
Jest be safe, it’s June, June, June!

Happy , Everybody!

17/03/2021

This is how we feel...
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMVDN2wBnwp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

12/03/2021

There's Hope! Check out this great article from the Washington Post. Thank you Erin!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/broadway-tours-resume-covid/2021/03/09/84d7538a-80fd-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0_FysSdoIfm-wYQ8hQvAEp9YPXdxjDA9jqRx63OpfU4ApP47D-jnq6LBc

Performing-arts centers are already selling Broadway tour subscriptions, some starting as soon as September.

09/03/2021

Do I need a reason?
https://youtu.be/Jb9aamNfTLU

04/03/2021

Road Concierge is celebrating World Book Day by spotlighting "Broadway Baby" written by Russell Miller with Judith A. Proffer. A special hard copy edition can be purchased at the www.playbillstore.com and at local stores like Litt Home And Book in Callicoon, NY. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of the book will go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. While you wait for your very own copy to arrive by mail, enjoy this star- studded reading of the book!

A virtual reading for the new best-selling illustrated children’s book Broadway Baby, written by theatre operator and producer Russell Miller (Guys & Dolls, ...

01/03/2021

29/01/2021

Throwback Thursday: Memories From The Road.

A TRUE Road Story - by Billy Johnstone

Ahh…the good ole days! To be 24 years old on an Equity national tour of a hit Broadway musical is something I will never forgot. When airplanes and busses were one’s primary means of travel, hotel rooms were home and diners and chain restaurants were the only source of food (So many memories both good and bad).

One that particularly stands out to me would be from when we were in Memphis…or was it Cleveland…St. Louis maybe? (Um…It’s been a LONG time so let’s just say it was somewhere in the country). On the road we would do 8 shows a week with the dreaded 5-show weekend schedule (which made you question why you had stars in your eyes in the first place). When the Sunday matinee arose you would be begging for mercy! Given the arduous weekend schedule I would rarely participate in the usual fun activities that would be associated with a Saturday night.

In this one particular city it was quite different. A group of us decided to go to a popular nightclub after the Saturday evening performance. I can remember walking into the dark club with loud music and thick cigarette smoke, two things I have never been a fan of. After ordering a vodka cranberry I realized there was an outdoor patio. Being that it was the middle of summer I made a b-line to the door to get some fresh air. To my surprise the patio was virtually empty except for one couple kanoodling on a wicker love seat across the way. I remember thinking to myself …It’s a beautiful night. Why aren’t there more people out here? That is when a barmaid approached and asked if I’d like another drink. I said YES thinking how badass I was on a Saturday night to have two drinks before a two show Sunday.

Two drinks led to three and that’s when I decided to explore the grounds. It turns out that around the corner on the patio was a big pristine swimming pool. It was hotter than hell (so it must have been St. Louis). I got so excited and dashed inside the club to find my fellow castmates, dragged them outside and said…let's jump in! They were all for it but a local said…nobody goes swimming here. Well with vodka being my guiding force I said…not until tonight! I uninhibitedly stripped down to my briefs and jumped in. My colleagues followed my lead. This debauchery led to curious locals coming out of the club and slowly joining the pool party. I felt like I was leading an aquatic revolution (and figured I’d never see these people again so who cared).

It was probably 3am before we called a cab and took the damp ride back to our hotel. Cut to Sunday morning. The boy who would normally have cookies and milk and go to bed at a responsible time on a Saturday night on the eve of a two show day was NOT a happy camper. I thought to myself… how am I going to get through this today. But I thought the show must go on! I dragged myself to the theatre (Oh YES! It WAS St. Louis because I remember playing the Fabulous Fox), headed to my dressing room and began getting ready. I made my way to the hair room to get my wig on and the hairdresser , through a naughty grin says…well if it isn’t our own little Esther Williams.

WOW… word travels fast in the land of touring. The show begins and as I’m franticly spinning around during the opening number I thought for sure that a lot more than a hairball was going to come up. It comes time for my big number and my head was foggy. It was only later that I found out that our musical supervisor from NYC was in attendance and was plugging into our microphones at the sound booth from the back of the theatre. He never caught on that I was out of sorts. Ahh…YOUTH! Moving ahead to many years later I was chatting with a young actor who just got off the road with a show and mentioned the incident. He said that he and his fellow castmates went to the same nightclub after their show only to find all the locals splashing around in the pool with cocktails in hand regaling the story of how the legendary tradition began many moons before

29/01/2021

It's that day again... Throwback Thursday: Memories From The Road! Today's special guest is Billy Johnstone. Billy is a director/performer/arts educator whose 30 year career has seen him working nationally and internationally. He appeared in both the record breaking and final company of the musical CATS. Post to follow!

21/01/2021

Throwback Thursday is here! Another story from tours gone by while we wait to hit the road again!

This week is presented by Marya Grandy. Marya is a Chicago-based actor who has performed on Broadway and regionally, and is counting the days until she can get back to work.

Here is Marya's story:

I was in a regional theatre production of 9 TO 5, playing Roz, Mr. Hart's slavishly devoted assistant. My costumes and wig were unbelievable. Red hair with a huge white streak going through it, enormous round glasses, and shoulder pads for days. I looked like if Bonnie Raitt, Susan Sontag, and Sigourney Weaver in "Working Girl" had a baby (just go with it). It was awesome. It was in no way attractive, but it was awesome.

The stage door of the theatre fed directly into the lobby, meaning there was no way to avoid being approached by audience members. One night after the show I was chatting with some friends in the lobby, when I noticed an older married couple peering at me. The following is the verbatim exchange I overheard between them:

HUSBAND (staring at me): Was she in the show?

WIFE (rifling through her program): Lemme check...yes! Here she is. She played Roxie.

HUSBAND: Huh.
She's not so bad close-up.

Blackout.

14/01/2021

Another Throwback Thursday Installment

Kansas and Ditches And dogs, oh my!
By Marc Ciemiewicz

As the Company Manager for the Finding Neverland Tour, I was also charged with driving the doggie van for Oscar, the loveable pooch who played Porthos. Each week a different cast member would volunteer to accompany me in the van. Along with me for the trip I’m about to describe was cast member Kirk Lawrence.

It was a beautiful winter day. We were driving through Kansas on our way to perform in Hays. We were headed up US-183 when I missed a turn. We may have been belting out some Tom Jones tunes (can’t remember exactly!). GPS rerouted us.

All was well until we made the 2nd left that GPS had instructed us to take and we ended up on a gravel road. Then the tires started to slide a little. Under the gravel is mud. The van started to slide even more and we ended up in a ditch. There was no getting out of this by ourselves.

We called AAA and we were told it would be 90 minutes before anyone could get to us. Oscar started to whine because he needed to go out. The van was surrounded by mud so I lifted the little pup (60lb Goldendoodle) out of the van and carried him to a dry area so could do his duty.

90 minutes came and went. The only other person we saw while waiting was a man who drove past us and said, “looks like you’re in some trouble.” We called AAA back and we were told that the tow truck driver tried calling us and since we didn’t answer, he cancelled the service call. Neither of us received a call. Another driver was scheduled.

60 minutes later the tow-truck driver called and asked us to confirm the details to which he replied, “Oh. I can’t get you out of there. There’s only one guy in the area that has what it’s gonna take. I’ll call AAA and let them know to request him.”

It was obvious that we were not going make the show. I called the Stage Manager and told her she was going to have to put the understudy on for Kirk and that it was going to be a “no dog” show.

The sun started to set. A woman drove past, the 2nd person we’d seen all day, and said, “It’s starting to get dark out here. You’re not in a very safe place to be, there’s some crazies out here.” Kirk and I got in the van and locked the doors!

Still no word from the third tow-truck driver. On the phone again with AAA. “He tried calling you. You didn’t answer.” We begged AAA to give us his number so that we could call him. They relented. We called him. He answered! The call went something like this:

TTD: I’ve been trying to call you and you didn’t answer.
Us: Neither of our phones have rung!
TTD: Well, I called!
Us: What number did you call?
TTD: 555-5555

(Not the real number but you get the drift.)

Us: Did you dial the area code first? 917?
TTD: Oh! No! I didn’t realize you were from out of town.

(Stunned silence.)

Us: Can you please get us out? We’ve been here for almost 5 hours.
TTD: Sure. Where are you?

30 minutes later he showed up. Let’s call him “Bob.” Big-bellied man wearing overalls and a greasy white t-shirt.

Bob: Yeah, you’re definitely stuck. But I can get you out. You can tell everyone you met a redneck today.
Us: You’re definitely not the first redneck we’ve met!
Bob: I’m gonna pull you out.

(He Does!)

Bob: Follow me down the road. I’ll wait until you get back onto the paved road before I head out.

We followed our redneck knight in shining tow truck down the rest of the gravel road with no further issues. He waved goodbye and we finish our trek to Hays, KS. We made it out unscathed albeit covered in mud and the show still went on. At least it was a beautiful place to get stuck!

14/01/2021

We're back after a little break for the holidays. Today's Throwback Thursday: Memories From The Road post is contributed by Marc Ciemiewicz.

Marc is the Resident Company Manager for Prather Productions/Prather Touring and has toured as an Actor, Stage Manager, or Company Manager in National Tours of Kopit and Yeston’s Phantom, The 10th Anniversary Tour of Footloose, The Wedding Singer, Finding Neverland, Chicago, and the National and International Tours of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Wizard of Oz.

Check back later for the story!

17/12/2020

Throwback Thursday: Memories from the Road. This week's submission is from the amazing Nandita Shenoy. Nandita is an actor-playwright based in New York City who loves to hear an audience laugh.

A Taste of Home
By Nandita Shenoy

My first Thanksgiving on the road was spent in Salt Lake City, UT, with the first national touring company of Broadway’s “The King & I.” Traveling with a cast of forty other Asian people had led to some curious adventures along the way, but this was the first holiday that our company was spending together. Our company manager arranged a lovely dinner for us at a restaurant called La Caille just outside Salt Lake City. The restaurant looked like a French chateau in the Rocky mountains. There were swans on the lawn, and the servers all dressed in medieval garb. We were seated family style around large round tables and served from huge platters. It was one of the nicest events organized for our cast during that tour, but also one that was filled with apprehension. For most of the company, it was their first major holiday away from home. A semester abroad in college prepared me for the unique melancholy of spending Thanksgiving away from family, and I realized that there were a few steps I could take to make it feel less lonely. One of those steps was making Camille’s Sweet Potato Casserole.

I’m the child of immigrants, and so my experience of American holidays is that of always trying to figure them out. During my childhood, we were four hours away from the closest temple and certainly did not have days off for any Hindu holidays. So my parents tried their best to participate in whatever holidays they observed being celebrated around us. We celebrated Christmas and Easter as interlopers, practicing the traditions that my mom deemed “not too Christian” which always included the foods and presents but nothing involving the cross or strangely, trees. But Thanksgiving was a holiday meant to commemorate the Pilgrims giving thanks after their long and arduous voyage, and for my family, that was a holiday that we could relate to. After all, my parents had flown to Buffalo, NY, from Bombay, India, with $16 in their pockets and the promise of a medical residency in radiology for my dad. They made a life here for themselves and us, their children, and every November we got together to celebrate it.

One year, my mom had a sweet potato casserole in the UB Dental School cafeteria brought in by a waitress named Camille right before Thanksgiving. It was unexpectedly sweet and covered in a crunchy streusel topping that seemed out of place before dessert. My mom liked it so much, she asked Camille for the recipe. Apparently Camille got a lot of requests for that recipe, and she very kindly shared handwritten copies of it on lined paper with everyone who asked. To this day, my mom swears that most of the faculty of UB Dental School eat this casserole at Thanksgiving. My family has served it every year since I can remember. When I graduated from college and moved to New York, my mom gave me a notebook with a few family recipes in it, including one for Camille’s casserole. To me, its sweet starchy goodness is the taste of Thanksgiving.

So that Thanksgiving on the road, while I was happy to have a place to go and people to share the day with, I also knew I needed my sweet potatoes. I baked Camille’s casserole in our cast housing with the unfamiliar crockery of a corporate apartment the day before we boarded the buses for La Caille. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but I hoped that on a holiday focused on food, someone would understand the significance of eating a special dish. And when we arrived and were seated, one of the serving maidens whisked my casserole away, replated it, and served it on a grand platter with the rest of our meal as though it were part of the menu. Everyone at my table had some, and Thanksgiving felt like Thanksgiving.

Since then, I’ve spent a fair number of Thanksgivings away from family, most notably this year when all of us Zoomed instead of traveling to share a meal. Camille’s casserole is always my anchor dish. I’ve made that casserole for many friends and casts over the years and have shared the recipe freely. It is always a hit. And now some of my friends make it for their Thanksgivings, but they call it “Nandita’s Sweet Potato Casserole.”

04/12/2020

Life Off The Road:
How To Make Pandemic Lemons Into…Pretzel Day!
(By Lauren Lovett)

Shappy Pretzel Company, is a faux enterprise that started out as one of Adam Shapiro’s many social media amusements.

You may have spotted Adam’s curly pate in one of a dozen film and TV projects, not to mention Broadway, over the past few years — The Affair (Showtime), Steve Jobs (Universal), and most recently Never Have I Ever (Netflix) as the desk perching high school teacher who shares his name, Mr. Shapiro.

Adam and his wife Katie, whom you may know as Quinn Perkins on the super popular Shondaland series, Scandal (ABC), are stuck in the thick of the pandemic with the rest of us, wondering when production will start up again.

When I met Adam a few years back, he seemed like one of the most positive people I’d come across, especially in a business where folks take more than their fair share of gut punches.
“I never really think of it as being positive, it’s just my nature.”

Adam’s philosophy is of a laid-back-good-vibe, allowing but not attaching sort, which seems refreshingly light-hearted. He says he used to think if he asked people for things or really wanted anything, it wasn’t going to work. Presently though, as a father and a homeowner, he has updated his practices a bit:
“If I want certain things in life, I have to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Enter Shappy Pretzel Company? Not exactly.
Pretzel making was just another social media story through which Adam had been entertaining his followers. He’s a kid from the outskirts of Philly, so among the many prankish stunts meant solely for laughs, like his Oreo podcast, Shappy Pretzel Company didn’t actually exist.

“I started to learn how to make pretzels. I finally figured out how to make Philly ones and made my own recipe. It was just fun for me — just a story people were following on my Instagram.”

And then one morning when Katie was guest hosting with Ryan Seacrest on his morning show, LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, both broadcasting from their respective houses per COVID protocol, Adam had an idea to have a branded bag of freshly baked soft pretzels delivered to Seacrest’s home during the show as a perfect button to his Instagram-driven soft pretzel journey. The label read Shappy Pretzel Company borrowing from his childhood nickname, “Shappy”, and was done on the fly.

“It was the end — I didn’t realize it was going to be the start, you know, but he kept talking about the Shappy Pretzel Company. We even said on the show, ‘No, no, that’s a joke — we made that label for you, Ryan. That’s all for you.’ But it didn’t matter. He just kept talking about it throughout the rest of the show.”
So at six in the morning while his wife was shooting a national broadcast from their living room, he was the next room on Squarespace making himself a little website in case someone wanted to reach out about the pretzels. There was no business plan.

“I woke up the next morning and there were 400 emails.”
Unbelievably, that was in early August. Shappy Pretzel Company has gained a few more assets, like a properly branded apron and clipboard, and has bragging rights for over five-thousand pretzels twisted and baked with love right from Adam and Katie’s kitchen. (UPDATE: Since this story first appeared, Adam is sharing space with a local bakery in his neighborhood.)

“It’s fulfilling a part of me that I don’t think acting fulfills.”
His wife says that she finds him to be one of the most positive, social, optimistic, fun loving people in the world. He gathers his energy from other people. It’s different from acting, she tells me, from playing a role. It’s him.
“Watching him in the middle of our street with his Philly hat on, and his Shappy Pretzel Company apron on and his gloves and his mask and bringing his Philly soft pretzels to people is such his authentic self.

Away at sleepover summer camp, perhaps before he was altogether ready for it, Adam was fairly miserable. It was a kind camp counselor who took Adam under his wing and helped to create the Shappy alter-ego:
“He’s like, ‘Listen, Adam is homesick and this is a lot for Adam, right? You miss your family and you’re not making friends that easily, and you’re really sad and everything reminds you of home. But I’m gonna start calling you Shappy. You can be Shappy who loves this place and see how it feels.”

Years later, Adam/Shappy has integrated into one talented, joyful husband and father who’s able to twist one thousand pretzels in a single day, greeting friends, family and Instagram followers with a taste of Philly and a soft and salty distraction from the anxieties of our time.
“I always say that I’m not just selling pretzels, I’m selling like, a hug from home…”

UPDATE: Katie and Adam just welcomed a little girl named Vera Fay into the world on 11/22/20. Another thing one can do during a pandemic…
Links: Shappy’s Pretzel’s: https://shappypretzel.com/
Full Article: https://medium.com/

04/12/2020

Today we launch our “Life Off The Road” series. This is a “two for one” special. I reached out to the fabulous Ms. Lauren Lovett (Juilliard Drama graduate, then a professional actor, now an acting, voice and public speaking coach and Somatic Experiencing practitioner in LA.), to see if she would share a story with us. She promptly sent me an article she had written during the pandemic about what another actor is doing while unable to work in the performing arts! Lauren assures me it’s alright to republish an edited version of her article here. Stay tuned. We'll be posting the story later. As a teaser:

26/11/2020

Throwback Thursday - Memories From The Road:
San Angelo, Texas
Mushrooms, Tiki Mugs and Farewells

Home to Leddy’s Boots…and not much else.
However, back in 2011 it did lead to several notable moments on tour.

The hotel we stayed in no longer exists.
However, at the time, the hotel Sales Manager was very happy to upgrade my room to their newly renovated VIP suite. I was the first occupant in fact. For San Angelo standards it was quite nice – spacious, fresh and new. Upon the morning of check out however, I noticed that in a corner of the room near the wet bar area, that several mushrooms that had grown and reached heights of several inches. They definitely not been there when I had checked in two days before. I guess the newly installed wet bar had a bit of a leak that created a wet spot in the carpet. I asked the Sales Manager to come to my room to check it out. Not to complain…but just in amazement as to what was growing in my room.

Other notable memories of San Angelo were the Tiki Mug that my husband purchased for $5 at a vintage store – which he later sold for $600. A rare & vintage tiki mug from Ren Clark’s Polynesian Village in Fort Worth. That sale paid for our summer trip to Tiki Oasis in San Diego.

And….sadly…this was the town in which our Head Carpenter was arrested for smoking pot during load out at the San Angelo Coliseum. As this was already beyond his third and final warning…..we left town without him.

Memorable times.

Someday I hope to return to San Angelo to visit those great vintage stores again.

Erik Birkeland, Company Manager

26/11/2020

Happy Thanksgiving. We, here at Road Concierge, are so grateful to do what we love. We get to work with the best of the best. We strive to make life on the road a little bit less stressful and a lot more comfortable for those traveling.

While we wait, impatiently, for the tours to hit the road again, we are going to devote throwback Thursdays (is that even still a thing?) to sharing stories from the road, brought to you from the company managers, performers, production team and us. Here’s to the people who bring theater to the world!

Check back later today. Our first story is from Company Manager, Erik Birkeland.

17/11/2015

Our client, Matilda The Musical on Broadway National Tour, opens tonight in PHILADELPHIA, PA! Check them out through November 29th!

10/11/2015

Our client, Matilda The Musical on Broadway National Tour, opens in HERSHEY, PA tonight! Catch them through November 15th!