Kip's Korner

Y'all seemed pretty excited when you arrived at Mean Girls this past weekend and I was flipping through the iconic "Burn Book" to see if your name was indeed in it (hehe). But I was even more excited to see so much pink walking through the doors of the Concert Hall. That was so FETCH!        It was an excellent week to be a high school theater kid in Huntsville! We had two cast members from the Mean Girls tour teach workshops to 40 students from the Tennessee Valley area. Ryan Vogt taught them choreography from "Fearless" which is at the end of Act I. And Lucas Hallauer gave them individual coaching on a short song of their choice. What a treat for these high-schoolers to work with actual cast members from this national tour! These two guys couldn't have been nicer and more positive sharing their gifts with the young talent of Huntsville.          Ryan & Lucas        And of course we can't forget our homage to Mean Gir...

  Happy Feel-Good Friday y'all! And since this is my last "Feel-Good Friday" of the year (we're closed next Friday), I just want to say that it's made me REALLY happy reflecting on this every week with you. So without further ado, here's my top five that had me smiling this week: I'm STILL smiling from seeing the thousands of patrons wearing Pink as they entered the Concert Hall to see Mean Girls . I mean it wasn't even "Wednesday" but nonetheless Pink was the great galvanizer for our audiences and I loved it! On Tuesday night Hamilton certainly made a splash in the Broadway news! I can't state it more succinctly than Playbill so here you go: "The performance started with Alexander Hamilton standby Marc delaCruz on in the title role. Kyle Scatliffe was in his regular role as Marquis de Lafatette and Thomas Jefferson. By intermission, Scatliffe was forced to go home due to sickness. And who happened to be the only person in the bui...

    Happy Feel-Good Friday y’all! I’ve decided to send out a blog post every Friday about the things that made me feel good this week. No big explanation. Just a list of things that brought a smile to my face. Here’s my top five that had me smiling this week: “It’s the day of the show, y’all!” This line from the 1990’s movie about community theatre, Waiting for Guffman , always makes me LOL. Parker Posey’s earnestness as Libby Mae would make the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes. Also Mean Girls is opening tonight at the Von Braun Concert Hall, so “It’s the day of the show, y’all!” We know that Mean Girls the Movie Musical is coming out in January. But today Reneé Rapp (as Regina George) and Megan Thee Stallion released “Not My Fault” from the Mean Girls Soundtrack. Click here to take a listen à https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xSFknXcKYY4 If you’re a fan of Jeopardy! and musicals, then this really is a Feel-Good Friday for you. You must check out this round of Final Jeo...

    We’re literally counting down the “TWO DAYS” before Mean Girls (the Broadway musical) starts performances at the VBC Concert Hall. It’s going to be so fetch! “Gretchen, stop trying to make “fetch” happen. It’s not going to happen!” – Regina George Anyway, we thought it would be fun for all of us here at BTL to share with you a little bit of trivia from our high school days. “Grool. I meant to say cool but then I started to say great.” – Cady Heron So, without further ado and in order of seniority: Andrew Willmon Where did you go to high school and what year did you graduate? Washington High School in Illinois; 1986 What was your senior quote in your yearbook? “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde What activities were you involved in? Drama Club, International Thespian Society, Speech Club Would you categorize yourself as being in a certain group in high school? Theatre nerd   Pennie Wood Where did you go to high school and ...

  Happy Feel-Good Friday y’all! I’ve decided to send out a blog post every Friday about the things that made me feel good this week. Just a list of things that brought a smile to my face. Here’s my top five that had me smiling this week: SIX: The Musical on Broadway welcomed their new queens this week: Khaila Wilcoxon as Catherine of Aragon, Storm Lever as Anne Boleyn, Jasmine Forsberg as Jane Seymour, Olivia Donalson as Anna of Cleves, Didi Romero as Katherine Howard, and Gabriela Carrillo as Catherine Parr. SIX is currently celebrating its 2 nd anniversary on Broadway and is 80-minutes of nonstop electrifying music and ferocious dancing! “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the microphone to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a Euphoric Celebration of 21 st century girl power!” If you’re a fan of Waitress: The Musical then it’s your lucky day(s)! They filmed the hit B...

There are certain actors in the Broadway community that everyone adores, and that you are genuinely excited for every single success they have in this business. Catherine Brunell is absolutely one of those people! I am very grateful to be able to call her a good friend and to have worked with her back in the day. I’m also pretty sure I have a picture of us dressed up as a banana and a honeybee, on tour in San Diego circa 2004. If I find it, I’ll include it at the end of this post. Catherine was most recently seen on Broadway in Mean Girls ! Yay!  And for the rest of her impressive Broadway credits let's just look at the first paragraph of her bio: Catherine Brunell starred in Broadway’s Mean Girls where she played triple duty as Mrs. Heron/Ms. Norbury/Mrs. George. Prior to Mean Girls she starred as Portia in the Broadway hit, Something Rotten. She has performed the title roles in Broadway’s Mary Poppins and Thoroughly Modern Millie and played the role of Eponine in the Bro...

  Huntsville Havoc’s Netherworld Puck drop, 10+ Beetlejuice(s) on Opening Night, Patrons & Cast/Crew members schmoozing over a wall of mimosas… That’s a wrap for BEETLEJUICE!   Beginning with the Huntsville Havoc’s BEETLEJUICE Night on November 4 th and culminating with the eighth/final performance of the hit Broadway musical comedy on December 3rd, Broadway Theatre League said Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice many MANY more times than three in the past month and we couldn’t have had more fun doing so! And it all started with Beetlejuice and his buddies dropping the game puck at the Havoc game: If you attended the Opening Night on Tuesday, November 28, then you might have worried about why you were seeing not only double or triple but actually DECUPLE! You are totally fine though because we had 10 young actors running around in front of the Concert Hall getting into all kinds of spooky mischief with our audience members as they arrived to the show. Big shout-out ...

High school theater students from all over the Tennessee Valley got a big taste of Broadway this week with the FREE opportunities of participating in a singing and acting workshop with Jackera as well as seeing a performance of Beetlejuice , the Broadway musical comedy, with the national touring company. Jackera plays the role of Girl Scout in the national tour of Beetlejuice , where she also understudies, and has performed, the character of Lydia Deetz. She holds the distinction of being the first black Lydia. Jackera had just recently graduated from Sam Houston State University with a BFA in Musical Theatre when Broadway and Broadway Tours were still adjusting to coming back after COVID-19. So, her initial auditions for Beetlejuice were through self-tapes and Zoom because she was still back in Texas. But they flew her out to NYC for her final callback and the rest is history. Jackera has been with the tour for almost exactly a year to date. Broadway Theatre League, through the su...