NCL Spirit Fall 2009

I returned on Friday from a week of intense show installs on the NCL Spirit. There are three shows (2 of them brand new) going out there so this cast had their hands full. We all went out and for a week worked around the clock trying to get the shows up and running. Thanks to Jason, lighting designer from Nine Inch Nails, for the amazing light design. Thank you to Gavin who did the sound design. Thank you to all the wonderful costumers who came to the ship and worked so hard...Lee Ann, Rose and Julie. Thank you to Angi who was a fantastic production manager. Thank you to Paul--their very gracious and kind cruise director. And, thank you to Robert Hertenstein at NCL for his presence and keen eye.

The cast did an amazing job. Kudos to Jenna, Becca, Ryan, John M, John S, Tobin, Michael, Cass, Kristen, Jessica, Lauren, and Carlos.

The ship's itinerary was really beautiful--although none of us were able to get off the ship all week. We went from Boston to Maine, up to Nova Scotia, and around into Quebec City, CA.


The cast...at the end of the week as we celebrated the successful opening of both shows.

L-R: Robert Hertenstein (NCL Entertainment), The Spirit's stage manager, Rusty, Angi Weiss-Brandt-our production manager, Jason Bullock (lighting designer) and me.

Jessica, me, Cass, Lauren, and Ryan

We made these motor cycle fronts for the rock show. They were really cool! Great job, Gary Musick Scenic!

"Life in the Fast Lane" from Soul Rockin' Nights

Ryan--country section of "Soul Rockin' Nights"

Jenna--country section

Becca sings "Last Dance"

Ryan sings "Love the One You're With"

Pinball Wizard from Soul Rockin' Nights

The theater on board the Spirit

The cast also did a show called "On Broadway". It features sections from Mama Mia, Wicked, Movin' Out (the music of Billy Joel), Swing, and Hairspray. It's a fun show!

One of the difficult parts of show installs is not only working out the staging of the show, but also adding lights, sound and costumes. They were all very patient with their costume fittings. It can be very tedious but our costumers make it fun.

costumes for Mama Mia

Jenna and Becca as Glinda and Elphaba from "Wicked"

Jessica and Kristen in their "Wicked" costumes

singers...Becca, John, Ryan and Jenna in their "Swing" costumes

"Hairspray" costumes

Jenna, Becca, Jessica and Kristen showing some "Hairspray" attitude

Opener of "On Broadway"

rehearsal of "One Short Day" from "Wicked"

"Hairspray"

This was taken in Nova Scotia...it looked beautiful but cold. The deck was as close as I could get to land with our rehearsal schedule.

"Soul Rockin' Nights" opener

"Cloud Nine" from "Soul Rockin' Nights"

"Dance to the Music" from "Soul Rockin' Nights"--the cast was having a great time in rehearsal. This number in the actual show was really awesome and the audience loved it!

"Life in the Fast Lane" from SRN--these are the bikes from the earlier picture. Really cool.

"Fire and Rain" in SRN--John has seen some fire and rain in his own life. He is a great guy and his own experiences made this song really come to life in the show. And HOW had I never heard the real story behind James Taylor's "Fire and Rain"??

part of the Folk section of "Soul Rockin' Nights" rehearsal

Pinball Wizard..."Soul Rockin' Nights"

ZOE Conference 2009 "Inside Out"

I made it home from the NCL Spirit (I will post some pics and video later from that trip). I came back just in time to finish out the 2009 ZOE Conference. Friday night we had several families over for dinner. It's always such a great time to see special friends.


Two of my very best friends and our sons...Peter and Brayden, Sam and me, and Josh and Noah.

Baby Brayden and Lindsey

Pete and Sam

Maddie and Brayden (the kids were enthralled with Brayden)

Philp Organ, Kevin Penna and Peter Wilson...waiting to sing with ZOE at the conference

Amy Westerman and Karin Hensley preparing to sing with ZOE

Greg Taylor served as the MC for the weekend at ZOE

Josh captivated the audience yesterday afternoon. I love his heart. He's a good man and a good friend. I've learned a lot from Josh.

Rich Smith teaching at the ZOE conference

After the conference, we went out to celebrate. There's a new Texas BBQ place in Brentwood called Judge Beans. INCREDIBLE!! It was like a little piece of home in Tennessee. I've lived here 14 years but still consider TX home.

Family! Zach, Peter and Lindsey, Sheryl and me, Taylor and Bruce

Ella really loved holding Brayden. She loves babies but really LOVED Brayden.

Peter and Sam.

Bruce and Taylor stayed with us for the weekend along with Sam and Scott Souder. I didn't get any pictures with Sam and Scott. It was so awesome having all of them in our home.

This morning we stayed in and had our own devotional here with The Morgans, Wilsons, and Souders. It was a very special time. Afterwards, Taylor made the most incredible breakfast. I am so grateful for them and how they've blessed our lives over the years.




Bruce and Taylor are so great with our kids. Bruce won them over a couple of years ago when we were all at the beach together in Malibu. Bruce helped them rehearse for an afternoon "show". The kids ate up every second of it.

Sam made up the words to this one. He likes to sing it...a LOT. It is the song that never ends....yes it goes on and on my friends...!

Though I missed most of the weekend, I was so thrilled to get some time with all those who were here for ZOE and to get to worship with everyone at in the Saturday sessions. It was a great day! I am exhausted this afternoon and ready for a looooooong nap. I have a lot to process from the weekend and a LOT to be thankful for!

To everyone who came to the conference--God bless your travels home. Hope to see you next year!

NCL Spirit

"Soul Rockin' Nights" opened to great reviews on the NCL Spirit last night. The cast did a great job! The lighting was amazing (thanks to Jason--lighting designer for Nine Inch Nails). Congrats to everyone! No rest for the weary--we're back in the theater all day today getting ready to open the Broadway show on Thursday.

I fly home Friday from Quebec City to Montreal to Toronto...finally into Nashville. Please pray all flights go on schedule so I can make it back for the last half of the weekend. Looking forward to ZOE!

ZOE Inside Out

The countdown to the 2009 Nashville ZOE Conference is underway...just one week from today! How many of you are coming? The CD released this week. I am anxious to hear feedback from those of you who are blog readers. Please let us know what you think!

I leave in the morning for the Norwegian Spirit...taking out a brand new cast and 2 new shows along with Robert Hertenstein from NCL and Angi Weis (production mngr from Gary Musick). The cast has worked very hard to be ready for their debut. It will be a tough week. Please keep all of us in your prayers.

I am looking forward to seeing some of you next weekend at ZOE. I will be late, but I'll be there.

PS: Palmer Richardson

I meant to include this in the earlier post...please pray for our friends Scott and Lori Ann Richardson and their family. They are in Dallas tonight preparing their teenaged daughter, Palmer, for hip replacement surgery tomorrow morning. Palmer is a cancer survivor but her body will need a lot more fixes before it's all said and done. This is Prentice Meador's grand daughter. We love this family. The Richardsons go to Fellowship with us in Nashville and Scott has been a great friend and brother. Please pray for their peace of mind tonight and that Palmer's surgery goes well tomorrow. We love you guys!

Eventful Weekend

It's been a very full and good weekend. We spent time today with ZOE refreshing our minds on all the new music we recorded over the summer in preparation for the ZOE conference in 2 weeks. We're looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible!



Ella captured this picture as we were singing downstairs. If you'll notice...Sam is curled up in a ball of remorse. He had just confessed to Sheryl that he had dumped his chicken fingers in the trash and grabbed a fruit roll up. ;)

Friday night we went over to the Penna's house for dinner (thank you, Kiki and Kevin!) and the kids were all over Gracie. She's such a cutie!

Love this of Gracie. And of course...I am sporting my Texas shirt. The game was INCRDIBLE last night! Both QB's were from Abilene...Potts and McCoy. Colt's uncle was my roommate for a bit here in Nashville. His grandmother and my mom pledged together back in the day. Love that family. It was cool to hear the announcer on ABC talk about how both QB's grew up in Abilene and went to church together. It was an awesome game! Hook 'em HORNS!

This morning we continued through our Discovery 1 & 2 classes at Fellowship (2 Sundays left!). It has been really amazing. This morning Doug said, "Community is a lot like life on Noah's Ark...it can get pretty messy at times but the alternative is to jump overboard and drown." Love it. So true! After class we went to the worship segment of 3rd service and then went home to get ready for the ZOE's who were coming over for rehearsal. We sang "No Sweeter Name" and "It's All Because of Jesus" this morning. Both of those are on the upcoming ZOE CD which should release this Tuesday! I love both of those songs!

After ZOE left we gathered up the family and drove over to the rehearsal studio for a run of the Spirit Broadway show. I have been working with this cast for several weeks. We leave Friday.

John and Jenna sing "The Winner Takes it All" from Mama Mia

Jenna and Becca sing "One Short Day" from Wicked

Claire Williams who I have worked with for a couple of years was there with her son, Jack. Claire has been a dear friend. She's one of our choreographers and is awesome. For Ella's birthday she came and taught all the 6 yr old ballerinas some movement to "The Nutcracker". Claire is from the UK and has a proper British accent. Ella loved having her at her party. She brought Claire some original art that she had made for her today.

"No One Mourns the Wicked" from Wicked

"One Short Day" from Wicked

"Popular" from Wicked

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked

And...over the weekend, my kids pulled out an old video of one of my shows at Six Flags Over Texas from 100 years ago. CRAZY! It was fun seeing all those old friends and re-living those memories. I'm ready for Christmas!

Have a great week Blog family!

Wicked/ Super Hero Birthday

Last Wednesday we saw an incredible performance of "Wicked"--the Broadway Tour. I had several mutual friends in the show and it was an amazing cast. I loved it more than the cast I saw in London. If you're in Nashville, please got try the ticket lottery. There's still a chance.

Thanks to me sweet mom she took us all to see Wicked. We all LOVED it! Thanks, Mom!
I'm serious....drive and see this show.

Sam had the time of his life today at Lee and Kellie Beaman's house celebrating his buddy, Jackson's birthday. It was seriously like a Disney World for Super Heroes.

This was all in their backyard....

Sam spotted Spidey before anyone...and never let him out of his site the rest of the night.

Sam and Spider Man

Sam and his buddy, Batman. I am pretty sure that throughout the duration of the party, Sam was never more than 3 feet away from either Spidey or Batman. At one point I am pretty sure he thought he was there to perform WITH them.

Sam is SO strong. Yeah...he gets that from his dad. mmm-hhmmm.

My favorite picture of Sam. SUPER SAM!!

Sam holding a water balloon. You can see the pool house in the background.

All the kids gathered at the end to wish Jackson a happy birthday. It was such a blast!!

Happy Birthday to Jackson Beaman! Thanks for such a totally fun party!

Labor Day Weekend

Why can't every weekend be a three day weekend? Sheryl found is this awesome clay on sale at Walgreens and the girls had a blast making clay creatures. I took a picture of some of them. I thought they were so cute and creative.

Maddie and Ella's desk where they work on homework and create special things for us.

Maddie's "creatures"

Ella's "creatures". I love the turtle in the middle and the owl on the end.

We had a great lunch at my mom's yesterday after church. It was a typical Judy Thomas feast. Our kids love going over there. I am so grateful that she lives here and is such a constant part of their lives.

Sunday night we went out to Arrington with some friends for the Loggins and Messina concert. I have always loved Kenny Loggins. Beth and Byron Williamson, Ryan and Sarah Williamson, Tim and Beth Mangrum and Sheryl and I all went and had a blast. Thank you to Byron and Beth for such a perfect night!

Sarah and the girls brought a delicious feast!

Sheryl (and Beth Williamson in the background)

The concert was at the foot of the hill out at Arrington. It was a gorgeous night.

Ryan and Sarah Williamson

Sheryl, Beth Mangrum and me

Sarah and Ryan Williamson and me

Today we spent some time with the Batsons who let our kids spend the night last night. Thank you, Batsons!

Back to work, back to school and all that fun stuff. These weekends are such a blessing! Thank you God for good friends and time with family.

Crazy Week!!

The last couple of weeks I have been going at break-neck speed. As I wrote in my last blog entry, I had been consumed in planning and producing the "Third Rail: Cost" health reform summit at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. The planning stage was definitely a busy time.

The week of the conference I traveled to NYC with several other Gary Musick team members to conduct auditions there for singers and dancers. It was a whirlwind trip (we did get to see Burn the Floor on Broadway though). We saw over 100 singers each day and at least 50 dancers each day.


First thing in the morning, everyone was lined up and ready to get registered.

Dancer group 1 warming up for the audition. Our head choreographer (Bruce Stegmann) led them through a challenging combination and narrowed the auditioners into a final call back group.

Jennifer Pippin, Gary's admn. assistant and all around wonder girl, made the day breeze by organizing all the auditioners. Kirk Hunkler (who has worked for us many times as a singer) assisted her in the process.

We saw some great talent and I came back ready to hit the ground running. It was a sprint to the Third Rail conference that loaded in 2 days later.

The Schermerhorn is a beautiful venue for just about anything. It made a great back drop for this conference. My job as the producer of the event was to manage all of the elements of the day (everything from parking, valet, off-site busing, catering, security, signage, stage set, production equipment, staff and interacting with all the sponsoring groups). It was made much easier by wonderful people like Danelle Cain at Vanguard Health Systems, Heather Martin from the Schermerhorn, and Tess Coody from GDC Public Relations Firm in San Antonio. Of course, our Gary Musick staff were all-stars as usual and were the real meat behind all of this--Gary, Jonathan Yeaworth, Jim Sheridan and many more. Thanks, guys!

Here are some pictures from the event...(I really loved how the screen surrounds looked in that room)

Governor Phil Bredesen was an important part of the day and a very nice man. He opened the conference and then moderated one panel and participated in another.

Julie Gerberding (Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2002-2009)

No matter what your view of health care reform may be, this was a conference for everyone. It addressed the less popular but maybe most important component--cost. It was a non-partisan discussion and very interesting to observe. You can watch the sessions online if you're interested at http://www.thirdrailcost.com/. Our guys taped it and we had a live web stream that day. It is still available in sections online at the website above. Thanks to everyone who made that day such a success!

I am into rehearsals now with the new NCL Spirit cast. This holiday weekend, however, is family time. LOVING IT!! Tonight we're hanging out with Jeff and Anna Berry and tomorrow night we're going to see Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina in concert out at the Arrington Vineyards with our friends Ryan and Sarah Williamson and Beth and Byron Williamson. We're so excited about it!

One last thing to share...this morning Ella cracked me up by saying, "Daddy, do I have to wait til I'm older to get baptized? I mean, I can already swim in deep water, and hold my nose and EVERYTHING!" Love it!