Results tagged “airplanes” from Blogway Baby

It was so exciting! Last night was the start of the 10th Annual Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals! Every year the Festival kicks off with a Preview Party, held in the lobby of the Village Theatre in Issaquah. There is delicious food catered by Lombardi's and a musical preview of all but one of the shows of the festival. The first show of the festival (IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU) didn't participate because their cast was getting ready to perform their show at 7:30pm!

The lobby of the Village Theatre is packed with Village Original Members and the performers and musical directors perform on the staircase, giving everyone a good view, and great sound! Each show is introduced by their director (PLANE CRAZY was introduced by David Ira Goldstein from the Arizona Theatre Company) and the director tells the audience a little about the show, and about the background on the number they are about to hear. First off was BUDDY'S TAVERN, and then LINCOLN IN LOVE. PLANE CRAZY was third and we did a number with all the "stews", "I Wanna Get Married/Mr. Right Now", with Billie Wildrick as Janet Jones and Jennifer Weingarten as Faith Hope. Singing back-up were all the stews (Natalie Moe, Megan Chenovick, Kristin Culp, Mara Solar, Lindsey Larson and Bryan Tramontana). Our musical director Kim Douglass was rockin' the keyboard! The stews totally rocked the song! Yay!

Following PLANE CRAZY, came IN YOUR EYES and then CLOAKED. It was so great to hear songs from the other shows since rehearsal schedules don't allow us to see the shows until after we have performed ours. So I will be able to see IN YOUR EYES, LINCOLN IN LOVE and CLOAKED.

After the preview performance it was back to rehearsal in Room B. Everybody is doing such an amazing job, I can't wait for Saturday at 2:00pm, when PLANE CRAZY flies at the Festival!

Now Boarding: Venus Airlines Flight 2010 from Gate Issaquah…

With rehearsals starting in only two weeks, I'm thrilled to announce the cast for my musical PLANE CRAZY at the Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals, which runs the weekend of August 13 to 15, 2010.

PLANE CRAZY will feature Jennifer Weingarten (Faith Hope),  Billie Wildrick* (Janet Jones), Megan Chenovick (Holly Banks), John Bogar* (Sam Crenshaw), Michael Cimino (Clive Miller), Ian Lindsay (Brett Mansford), and Vince Wingerter (Larry Stevens). Our amazing ensemble will include Kristin Culp*, Lindsey Larson, Natalie Moe, Mara Solar*, Bryan Tramontana, Jordan Delp, Michael Ericson*, Aaron Shanks* and Troy Wageman*.

* = member of Actors' Equity Association

The show will be directed by David Ira Goldstein (Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company) and the Music Director is Kim Douglass. Book, Music, and Lyrics are by Suzy Conn.

PLANE CRAZY will run on Saturday, August 14 at 2pm. The show will appear on the Village Theatre Mainstage (Francis Gaudette Theatre), 303 Front Street North, Issaquah, WA, 98027.

To see the PLANE CRAZY, you must be a “Village Originals” member. To join Village Originals, go here – on that Web page there are links to the membership form (or you can just call the Village Theatre box office at 425.392.2202). The great thing about joining Village Originals is that it’s a one-year membership that entitles you to see all six shows in the Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals, as well as other Village Originals readings and specials events throughout the year.

Stay tuned!

I am thrilled to announce that my musical PLANE CRAZY will be in the Village Theatre 10th Annual Festival of New Musicals!

That's right, on Saturday August 14, 2010 at 2:00 pm at Village Theatre in Issaquah, PLANE CRAZY will fly again.

PLANE CRAZY will be directed by David Ira Goldstein (Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company), with musical direction by Kim Douglass!

I've been reworking the show over the past couple of months, and I had a "test run" reading of it on Monday. First of all, thank you to everyone involved, you guys were amazing! Secondly, it was so incredibly helpful and I've been madly rewriting ever since. I'm so excited to see the show up again, since the show has changed immensely since it first premiered off-Broadway in New York at NYMF in 2005. New scenes, new music, new lyrics, new structure!

PLANE CRAZY is a musical comedy about the emergence of the modern women's movement in the swinging ‘60s Jet Age. A time when the stews were sexy and the world was sexist. PLANE CRAZY is the story of three stewardesses who go on a journey to find their own voice and is set during an explosive time in history: The intersection between the dawn of the Jet Age, the introduction of the Pill, the genesis of the modern Feminist Movement, and the Golden Age of Advertising.

For more information, check out the Village Theatre website.

Stay tuned, and fasten your seatbelts!

As I continue to work on rewriting PLANE CRAZY, I tend to muse about all things PLANE CRAZY not specifically related to the script. (I believe that is also known as "procrastination").

What would be a super cool venue for PLANE CRAZY? Aside from "the Broadway" of course. Well, wouldn't it be a kick to stage it at Boeing Field, perhaps in Seattle's Museum of Flight? Or maybe up in Everett at The Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour...there are huge half-built planes that would be perfect for those airplane scenes! Of course getting to your seat would require a one-third mile walk, 21 steep stairs and an an elevator ride.

And what about PLANE CRAZY merchandise...oh wait, you can buy that here.

Or a PLANE CRAZY board game? Sort of a "Careers " meets "Wide World" meets "Mystery Date"...

Maybe I should get back to work...

It is hard to believe it has been 5 years since PLANE CRAZY appeared at the New York Musical Theatre Festival on 42nd Street in the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row. What a great, crazy experience that was! I'm still in touch with, and working with people who worked on that production, like Hollie Howard and Seth Weinstein. Since then PLANE CRAZY has had productions in Oklahoma City, Toronto and a reading in New York.

After moving to the great Pacific Northwest, I got involved writing for The 5th Avenue Theatre's Adventure Musical Theatre Program, and acting as the writing mentor/lyricist for the Village Theatre Kidstage Company Originals program and working on other new projects. So I put PLANE CRAZY on the back burner (or in the hangar, to use a more appropriate metaphor.)

But recently I read about British retailer Primark selling padded bikini tops to 7 year olds and t-shirts for young girls that say "So Many Boys, So Little Time", and it reminded me of a passage from Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (first published in 1963) - " Manufacturers put out brassieres with false bosoms or foam rubber for little girls of ten. And an advertisement for a child's dress, size 3-6s, in the New York Times in the fall of 1960, said: "She Too Can Join the Man-Trap Set."" . Hmmm, the more things change...

So I got to thinking about PLANE CRAZY. Perhaps it was time to dust off the script, say hello to those characters again and get PLANE CRAZY flying again! To be honest, I missed the characters!

So now I'm go-go boot deep in rewriting. New scenes, new songs, new takes on old songs...it's good to be back in 1965!

That's all for now...

If you are looking for something free to do at 4:00pm in New York on Monday August 31, why not check out the industry reading of the new musical FLYER ...

From the press release:

Fresh from its premiere Equity Regional Production in Delaware , Flyer, an award-winning musical based on the majestic and turbulent lives of the Wright Brothers, comes to NYC with a one-night reading presentation at the esteemed Florence Gould Hall Theatre next Monday, Aug. 31 at 4:00 pm.

Flyer was the first recipient of an unprecedented two-time (consecutive years) ASCAP / Disney Workshop Award for its Co-Composer/Lyricists Dan Tramon and Diana Belkowski. The second ASCAP award given was for their musical, Rocket Boys (film version known as October Sky with Jake Gyllenhaal), which had its own premiere last year in Huntsville, AL. Directed by Carl Anthony Tramon (SDC), Flyer was initially presented at the Lamb’s Mainstage Theatre in NYC, followed by a week-long stay as part of North Carolina's NASA/Smithsonian 2003 'Festival of Flight. It was also presented in abridged concert form at Oklahoma City University in 2006.

Dan and Diana have long-collaborated for the Broadway community and beyond, also composing for jingles, multi-media, and both Presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Carl has been performing on stage since 3 yrs old, and directing professionally for the past 5 years. The current Flyer cast includes Billy Clark Taylor (Wilbur), Michael Mott (Orville), Natalie Newman (Kate), Beau Allen (Milton), Sabina Petra (Susan), and Trip Plymale (Charlie).

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ very first plane sold. 2009 also celebrates the Centennial of the renowned Paris Air Show, which figured greatly in Wilbur and Orville’s path to notoriety. However, the message of Flyer is timeless, as the story is as much about the complex influences that nurture or inhibit potential as it is about a child’s dream to fly.

The Florence Gould Hall is the premier theater of the French Institute Alliance, and is located at 55 East 59^th Street in Manhattan. Tickets are free, and may be reserved online at www.flyerthemusical.com.

Broadway royalty right here in Seattle!

It was a little surreal to be honest. Seriously. I was only a few rows away from Bob Mackie.

Last night I went to The 5th Avenue Theatre's Spotlight Night for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the new musical premiering in Seattle starting July 23.

The theatre was packed, and there was a palpable electricity. Forget the fact that the event was free (yes, you heard me, free!), it was one of the most enjoyable, exciting nights in theatre I've had!

Spotlight nights are hosted by David Armstrong, the Producing Artistic Director of The 5th Avenue Theatre and are a great way to familiarize yourself with upcoming shows - hearing songs performed, learning the history behind the show, meeting the creative team, as well as gaining new, interesting perspective on shows you already know. The CATCH ME IF YOU CAN spotlight gave insight on the creation of an exciting, new musical!

The evening was divided into three acts:

Act I

The Incredible True Story!

David recounted Frank Abagnale's true crime adventures on both sides of the law and discussed this with special guest, Ken Kirkpatrick, President of US BANK, Washington State. Ken had actually hired Frank not so long ago to consult on bank security and fraud so he had lots of interesting anecdotes about this incredibly charismatic man (everyone throughout the evening commented on how charismatic Frank Abagnale is, and how he can walk into a room and suddenly command all attention!) and tips on how to avoid bank fraud - micro shredder and the uni-ball pen (it can't be erased from a cheque with acetone unlike other pens.) When Ken asked Frank whether it would be harder to pull of his fraud nowadays versus in the 60s, he said that today it would be far easier to do everything! Downloading logos, lifting signatures, wiring money...but I digress!

Act II

Meet The Dream Team

Songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (HAIRSPRAY), playwright Terrence McNally (THE FULL MONTY), director Jack O'Brien (HAIRSPRAY), choreographer Jerry Mitchell (HAIRSPRAY, LEGALLY BLONDE), musical director John McDaniel , and legendary costume designer Bob Mackie gave an inside look into how a Broadway musical is conceived and created. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman told the story of how they were looking around a bookstore and Scott saw a CATCH ME IF YOU CAN movie book on display and said, Hey how about that? So they bought it, and called Steven Spielberg the next day and they were on their way! I was most intrigued by the description of how they were taking the film and putting it on stage. They weren't going to compete with the movie's ability to show Frank's narrow escapes from the law or just put the movie on stage. Instead, The songs/scenes would be how Frank would view the characters as if they were in a big tv show spectacular. The mid 60s was the time of tv variety shows and specials, with a variety of musical styles from Frank Sinatra to The Rolling Stones. So, Marc and Scott went for a sort of Ed Sullivan Show soundtrack! It sounds very, very cool. We saw Bob Mackie's sketches for the costumes and they look absolutely fabulous. It was so special to be able to listen to this team talk about putting this show together.

The whole team agreed that four weeks of rehearsal might seem like a long time, but they have a lot of work to do so it will fly by!

Act III

Meet The Stars

Norbert Leo Butz, who plays the Tom Hanks FBI agent character Hanratty, Aaron Tveit, who plays Frank Jr., and Tom Wopat, who plays Frank Sr. all performed songs from the show (Fifty Cheques, I'm Good At What I Do, Happy Ending, Making Butter Out of Cheese, Seven Wonders). Wow, all three of these guys were amazing. I got chills!l And they also announced that Kerry Butler, and Felicia Finley (who played Linda in THE WEDDING SINGER) will be in the show. dThis is going to be an amazing cast!

Oh, and one more piece of trivia - the song that Neil Patrick Harris sang at the end of the Tony Awards night was actually written that night, over the course of the awards, by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman! They said it was like putting together a puzzle, and they had lots of options to go with depending on who won the awards (the Fonda/Honda rhyme never made it into the song!)

Hurry and get tickets to see CATCH ME IF YOU CAN live and in living color!

Will the real Frank Abagnale please stand up!

It’s funny how something you haven’t seen or thought of in years comes right back to you. During The 5^th Avenue Theatre’s Gala and live auction in April,  the men sang the opening song from the new musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Marc Shaiman (music), Scott Wittman (lyrics) and Terrence McNally (book). As soon as I heard “My name is Frank Abagnale...my name is Frank Abagnale...My name is Frank Abagnale”, the show To Tell The Truth instantly popped into my mind! (I’m guessing they start the show there and flashback...)

I hadn’t thought of that show in years! It was one of my absolute favorite shows (a list that included Beat the Clock and the Watergate Hearings...). I still remember the tune to “Do you know how to tell the truth?”. I loved the trying to figure out who the real celebrity was. And I loved the ending when the host said will the real so and so please stand up. Then the two imposters and the one real celeb would do this shuffle of almost standing up, but then sitting down again, until the real celebrity stood all the way up.

When I saw this clip of Frank Abagnale on To Tell The Truth, I wondered to myself, was it always this easy to tell who the real guy was? I mean, really! And for that matter, could a show like that still work in this day of “everyone’s face everywhere all the time”? It seems a bit weird that people didn’t know who these people were. I guess the internet has changed all that...

To tell the truth, I’m excited to see Frank Abagnale tell his story live and in living color in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at The 5th Avenue Theatre this summer!

ROBERT MCKEE Story Seminar in New York City!

Aka “Shut up and listen!”

When I realized I hadn’t been back east for almost two years since I moved to Seattle, I decided a trip to New York was in order. And what better reason to fly 5 hours than to attend Robert Mckee’s famous “Story” seminar. Yes, I had read his book, aptly named “STORY”, but I wanted to experience it first hand since I had heard so many great things about his seminars. So my husband and I signed up,  and started packing!

From the website:

Over three intense days, McKee's Story Seminar effectively demonstrates the relationship between story design and character. Quality story structure demands creativity; It cannot be reduced to simple formulas that impose a rigid number of mandatory story elements. Robert McKee's course teaches you the principles involved in the art and craft of screenwriting and story design, and proves the essence of good story is unchanging and universal. Whether on the big screen, on television, in novels, on stage and in ALL creative work, everything works in the shadow of classic story design.

The seminar ran Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9am -8:30pm. Yikes! I haven’t sat for that long in a long time. And it didn’t leave much time to see any shows! I did manage to squeeze in a matinee of EXIT THE KING (Geoffrey Rush is amazing!) and the last 30 minutes of TOXIC AVENGER!

I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar, and having Robert Mckee basically talk us through the book really helped solidify the concepts and ideas in my mind. And he runs these workshops with a iron (and grumpy) fist. No questions allowed except at break time (by then, you’re too scared to ask!) and no cell phones at all. If your cell phone rings by mistake, you have to pay him ten dollars. If it happens again, he kicks you out. And he loves to go off on tangents (aka rants) on the current sad state of movies, and various political topics. Perhaps his grumpiness had something to do with the fact that he had just badly hurt his back playing golf and had to sit the entire time.

One of my favorite parts of the seminar was the screening and anaylsis of CASABLANCA (the seminar really is geared towards the cinema, but the fundamentals of story apply to other mediums as well, such as musical theatre). Plots, subplots, text, subtext all unfolded before us. Interestingly, I don’t remember CASABLANCA being so funny! I chuckled constantly throughout the film. That is until the iconic farewell scene as the last plane out is about to take off. It was then that I realized, to my  horror, that I had left my cell phone on from the last break! Oh no! What to do, what to do? And my cell phone sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on or off!

I thought about making a run for the door, but then in a moment of pure genius, I waited until the screen was full of loud, rotating airplane propellers and I pressed the off button. The jet engine sound of my phone was muffled by the movie! Robert Mckee remained blissfully unawared of my cell phone situation, and I watched the last few minutes of the film peacefully (ignoring the disgusted glare from my husband who couldn’t believe what had just happened!).

Mckee does this story seminar around the world, as well as single days devoted to genres (love, comedy etc.) .I would highly recommend his seminar to anyone who is in the business of telling stories.

The end.

I got this great comment from “Diane” on my Braniff post (Braniff Airlines: The World's Greatest Airline?), so I thought I’d share it with y’all:

WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE! I WAS SEARCHING FOR A POSSIBLE "ALUMNI" OF BRANIFF EMPLOYEES BUT FOUND YOUR SITE INSTEAD.

I BECAME A RESERVATIONIST IN KANSAS CITY FOR BRANIFF, TRAINED AT LOVE FIELD IN DALLAS FOR FIVE WEEKS BEGINNING JANUARY, 1967. WHAT A JOURNEY IT WAS. BEFORE COMPUTERS, WE USED A BUNKO-RAMO MACHINE IN AN OFFICE WITH NO WINDOWS NEXT DOOR TO TWA. A YEAR LATER WE MOVE TO A NEW BUILDING WITH IBM AND HAD TO LEARN TO USE THE NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM IN ONE WEEK.

OUR UNIFORMS WERE THE FUSHIA, POLYESTER, WITH A FRONT ZIPPER, MATCHING FUSHIA PANTYHOSE & THE FAMOUS PUCCI SCARF. AND THEY WERE MINIS.

WHEN OUR ROUTE TO HONOLULU WAS APPROVED, I HAD THE UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE OF FLYING FIRST CLASS IN A 747. SHERATON GAVE EMPOYEES A WEEK'S FREE STAY AND I THINK MY FLIGHT PASS WAS $30.00 OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

MY GIRLFRIEND AND I USE TO TRADE DAYS SO WE COULD GET THE SAME FOUR DAYS OFF AND FLY TO ALCAPULCO WITH MAYBE $40.00 EACH FOR EXPENSES. SOMETIMES WE'D BRING OUR KIDS WITH US. FUN! FUN! FUN!

YOUR ARTICLE HAS REALLY BROUGHT BACK GREAT MEMORIES. IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES AT THE WORST OF TIMES. THE LAST TRIP I TOOK WAS WITH MY SON, MOTHER AND BROTHER. WE HAD JUST ARRIVED IN DENVER FROM COLORADO SPRINGS WITH 3 DAYS OF ADVENTURES AHEAD OF US. THE NEXT MORNING WE WOKE UP TO THE NEWS THAT BOBBY KENNEDY HAD BEEN SHOT AND KILLED. WE FLEW BACK HOME TO KANSAS CITY THAT DAY.

What a time to fly!

Check this out.

I know, I know. It makes me smile too.

Hey, this is cool. Venus Airlines, the featured airline in my new musical Plane Crazy which is part of this year's New York Musical Theater Festival, has just introduced a new "retro campaign" that harkens back to the airline's heydey in the 1960s.

According to this article from AdAge, Gus "Guppie" Crenshaw, grandson of Venus Airlines founder Sam Crenshaw, had this to say about the new campaign:

"Venus Airlines was one of the stars of the mid-sixties Jet Age revolution, and our reputation for the sexiest "stews" in the sky was a big part of our success. As my grandfather used to say, "If you have to fake it, just shake it..." and our stews were shaking their bottoms for the bottom line.

And although Venus Airlines has gone through a rough patch over the last thirty years, being basically reduced to a single crop-dusting contract in southern Dakota, we feel that the time is right for the Venus Airlines message to emerge once again into the "sexy skies"...

I think the the buzz on Venus is on the move. Even Broadway shows likePlane Crazy are featuring Venus as an example of blossoming womanhood in the 1960s."

Say Gus: "Our new "Va-Va-Venus" campaign is a clever play on our "VA" (Venus Airlines) acronym, and the secondary meaning of "Va", which in Spanish is "Go". So, from the perspective of one of the sexiest countries in the world, it's "Go-Go-Venus", which is also a nice play on the "Go-Go Girl" sensibility of my grandfather's airline."

When asked about a potential backlash from millions of offended women across the country, Gus laughed and responded, "Dude, c'mon, everyone likes to look at sexy stews..."

In recognition of the support and friendship for Venus Airlines from Plane Crazy, Venus Airlines is supporting Plane Crazyby giving 100 Venus Airlines Mile High Club miles to everyone who attends a performance of Plane Crazy.

As a competitive response, other airlines are expected to soon follow suit.

Plane Crazy will be appearing this fall at The Beckett, 410 West 42nd Street
(south side of West 42nd Street, between 9th & Dyer Avenues).

Performance times are:

Thursday, September 15 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, September 17 at 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm
Thursday, September 22 at 1:00 pm
Friday, September 23 at 4:30 pm
Sunday, September 25 at 1:00 pm

For all you airline nuts out there, here's something that sounds fantastic. It's the Airliners International Convention, to be held in Milwaukee from July 21st - 23rd.

Airliners International 2005 will be the 29th Annual gathering of airline enthusiasts from around the world. Every year there are regional airline shows (usually on a saturday or sunday) in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. These shows are usually in the same location every year. Since 1977 (in Cincinnati), Airliners International has been held each summer at a different location in the USA or Canada. Rather than just a one-day event, Airliners International is a weeklong event, with a tradeshow, tours, slide shows, model and photo contests, and more. Most shows average 1100+ attendees from around the world. Although some cities have held Airliners International more than once, it usually is in a different city each time. AI 2005 will be the first time Milwaukee will be the host city. Airliners International sites are chosen two years in advance; Milwaukee was awarded AI 2005 at AI 2003 in Columbus. Airliners International 2007's site will be chosen at AI 2005, on Friday, July 22, 2005.

Wow, this is an interesting idea. Product placement in live theatrical productions. It's been happening on movies and TV for a while (with American Dreams Kraft and Campbell's product placement the most egregious examples), but now it's coming to the world of live theater.

I LOVE IT!

Hmm. Let me think: "United Airlines Crazy"? "When You Chase A Dream You'd Walk A Mile For A Camel"? "That Was Then, This Is Now The Time For Johnny Walker Red"? "Hey Baby, You've Come A Long Way"? "Dancing On Air Nikes"? "I Wanna Get Married With A Tiffany Diamond"? "What Do Women Want: Whiter Whites With Clorox"? "I'll Teach You How To Fly The Friendly Skies"?

HELP! Someone stop me before I completely sell out my whole show...

Here's the full article from AdAge.com:

TEQUILA BRAND PLACED IN BROADWAY'S 'SWEET CHARITY'
Neil Simon OKs Script Change to Hype Product
May 23, 2005
By Lisa Sanders

NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- As part of a product placement campaign in Broadway's Sweet Charity, playwright Neil Simon approved a script change to promote Gran Centenario tequila, according to the deal makers.

Jose Cuervo's tequila has been woven into the script, the stage sets and the advertising and promotion for 'Sweet Charity.'

The arrangement was the latest brand integration success by Amy Willstatter, president of New York-based Bridge to Hollywood/Broadway, who specializes in inserting product promotions in and around live theater productions.

Last fall, spirits marketer Jose Cuervo was looking for a unique way to generate buzz in the U.S. for its little-known premium tequila Gran Centenario, but the company only had a modest budget to work with.

Executives at Jose Cuervo's advertising agency, Omnicom Group's Arnell Group of New York, introduced Carlos Arana, Jose Cuervo's managing director, and Onute Miller, Gran Centenario's brand director, to Ms. Willstatter. She brokers agreements between various marketers and Broadway productions and works on retainer with Spotco, a New York agency focused on theatre advertising (clients include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Avenue Q and Sweet Charity). After hearing about Gran Centenario's goals, she reviewed Spotco clients and came up with Sweet Charity, the Neil Simon revival about a hard-luck dancehall hostess searching for a good man, as the show that best met the tequila's brand attributes. The show opened in April.

"The play is a fun environment," Ms. Willstatter said. What's more, with a new-to-Broadway leading lady, Christina Applegate, best-known for her long-running role on TV's Married with Children, Sweet Charity potentially brings to Broadway a new generation of theatergoers -- just the sort of upscale, experience-oriented consumers Gran Centenario was looking for.

Ms. Willstatter previously signed Pfizer Women's Health, Procter & Gamble Co.'s Olay Regenerist and Anheuser-Busch's Michelob Ultra to sponsor the Broadway and national tour productions of Thoroughly Modern Millie. She also made British Airways the official airline of the National Theater in New York and arranged for Hennessy to be the opening night sponsor of Raisin in the Sun at the Royale Theater.

Marketing competition in the tequila category is increasing as its reputation has evolved from a drink often associated with frat-house bashes to one that's increasingly common at more sophisticated affairs. U.S. sales of high-end and super-premium cases rose 29% to 1.2 million cases in 2004 over the prior year, said David Ozgo, chief economist of the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

With Ms. Willstatter as the go-between, Sweet Charity's producers Barry and Fran Weissler and the Gran Centenario team hammered out a deal. Talks began with the suggestion of putting the tequila logo on Sweet Charity ads. For the marketer, "that wasn't enough," Ms. Miller said. "Ours is a unique brand." She and Mr. Arano concluded they wanted a deal with three components: a product mention in the show, incorporated in a natural, unobtrusive manner; an uncontrived product placement; and promotional and public relations programs to build brand awareness among the marketer's target audience.

To Mr. Weissler, having products placed or mentioned in his shows is not a new concept. "There's nothing different here than in sports or movies where marketers co-promote a film," he said. But he sets limits on what he'll do to marry art and commerce. "We never, ever distress a script." With this Gran Centenario example, the producers and playwright replaced a line, "I'll have a double scotch on the rocks" with a mention of the premium tequila. "We didn't bastardize the script, and [playwright Neil Simon] OKed the change," Mr. Weissler said. "We always pass sponsors by authors."

In addition to having the Gran Centenario mention written into the script, the tequila's logos are integrated into the show's set in one scene, and the product has been the drink of choice at Gran Centenario-sponsored parties thrown during the pre-Broadway shows as well as its New York opening, all attended by the cast, their friends and a select group of invitees. Specialty cocktails featuring Gran Centenario created by well-known bartender Dale deGroff are featured at those fests as well as in the Al Hirschfeld Theatre where Sweet Charity plays and at nearby bars.

A print ad, adapted from the tequila's current print campaign, runs in Sweet Charity Playbills (where, on one of the credits pages, Gran Centenario is thanked for its "generous support"). Gran Centenario promotes the show through ads and events, and the show's ads mention the tequila.

Neither the marketer, Mr. Weissler nor Ms. Willstatter would comment on the financial specifics, other than to describe the arrangement as a flat-rate package structured as a "step deal," in which payments were made in increments. Ms. Willstatter, a proponent of cash deals rather than barter agreements for branded entertainment on Broadway, explains that she's trying to "make Broadway competitive with other forms of media, such as TV and radio."

One major difference, of course, between Broadway and TV or radio, is that measuring the effectiveness of a product mention or a sponsorship is art rather than science. While Mr. Weissler and Ms. Willstatter deliver their marketing partners demographic data like income of their audiences, the definite impact on audiences is not tracked. "We don't poll theatergoers," Mr. Weissler said.

But Gran Centenario's Ms. Miller does monitor Gran Centenario consumption in the theatre as well as in nearby bars. She watches the tequila's distribution in stores and bars where theatergoers shop or frequent for indications that Gran Centenario is gaining popularity.

Asked whether she's concerned about the outcry from some over the inclusion of the tequila in the play's dialogue (one paper wrote, "Sponsorship should not mean authorship, or the license to tweak creative work to make it sell when it should simply sing."), Ms. Miller said no. "We believed it was the correct fit. The press has built brand awareness."

My husband got the following message fromAir Canada today. He's an Elite member, so this is his "special offer" (err, he received the same message three times...NOTE: Get your act together ThinData!):

I am pleased to offer you an exclusive opportunity to be first in line to purchase tickets for the Toronto World Premiere theatrical production of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Only Air Canada, as a principal sponsor of the first major stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, can offer our Top Tier members this exceptional opportunity to order tickets before anyone else.

Tickets go on sale to the public on May 15, 2005. However, as an Air Canada Top Tier member, you'll be among the first to experience the biggest, most ambitious theatre production ever staged by ordering your tickets on May 14, 2005 beginning at 9 AM (ET).

Performances for THE LORD OF THE RINGS begin on February 2, 2006 at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.

J.R.R. Tolkien's book trilogy has sold over 200 million copies. The award winning three-film adaptation broke box office records. And now, an international creative team directed by critically acclaimed Matthew Warchus has combined all three books into one extraordinary stage event.

To order your tickets on May 14 at 9 AM (ET), before they go on sale to the public, call 1-800-461-3333 (in Canada and the Continental U.S.) or (416) 872-1212 (in Toronto), or click here to buy online. Please have your Aeroplan number ready. For more information about this great show, visit www.lotr.com.

With a thrilling score, a spectacular design, and an ensemble of over 65 actors, singers and musicians, THE LORD OF THE RINGS is destined to be the stage event of the year. I truly hope you can take advantage of this exclusive opportunity and enjoy the show.

Sincerely,


George Reeleder
Senior Director, Marketing
Air Canada

Someone needs to explain to the agency that you should only have two spaces after a period with non-proportional fonts (like Courier, and on typewriters). With proportional fonts, only one space is required after a period. Koff, koff, bush league, koff, koff. I have gone to the trouble of correcting the double spaces, at no charge!

Here's something for all you Plane Crazy fans out there.

National Geographic has a mini-photograph gallery of theAirbus A380 SuperJumbo plane. This is a picture of the onboard duty-free shop.

The Airbus A380 "SuperJumbo" is the largest civil aircraft ever built. Designed to carry 555 passengers in a three-class arrangement, it has one-third more seating capacity than a Boeing 747. A planned stretched version would carry 656 passengers, and an all-economy-class configuration would be able to carry more than 800 passengers.

(via BoingBoing)

Wow, how cool is this? If you're an airline nut like myself, you'll love this site which features a treasure trove of airline bags. I want that Pan Am Makeup Bag!

via Jim Gilliam, via MetaFilter

As we are a couple of days from launching the official Plane Crazy Web site, I have taken a few moments to sit back and say "you've come a long way baby".

So much work and energy has gone into this musical thus far (and so much more is ahead, I know, I know) I have to stop and think -- where did it all begin? Can I pinpoint the genesis of Plane Crazy, the actual moment of conception?

When did that seed first drop into the fertile ground of my young, impressionable brain, to grow and grow over the years, nurtured by my experiences, dreams, and fantasies? Let us cast our minds back to the 1960s.

My Grandmother (on my Dad's side) was Hungarian, so we would travel to Europe for vacations and drop in on my Grandmother who lived in Budapest. We always flew into Frankfurt or Zurich and we almost always took Luftansa. As a child of five I was enthralled with the whole airplane experience and especially the compartmentalized food on those long flights, those lovely little trollies that would bring wonderful snacks and exotic soft drinks. I remember it was all so grand.

But most of all I remember the napkins.

With our drinks (hard or soft) we would get napkins that had little cartoons on them. Except these were naughty little drawings of balloon-breasted women in short tight dresses (inevitably bending over to pick up something ), with some lewd joke or pun captioned underneath. I don't think I really understood the jokes, but I was fascinated by these napkins (remember, I was five). I hung on to a few of them for a while but over time I have lost them. But at that moment, at 30,000 feet, as I sat drinking my Orangina and contemplating those funny drawings, an idea was born: Stews...sexy...sexist...funny...airplanes...that was to grow one day into Plane Crazy!

To be continued tomorrow...

From BoingBoing:

Todd Lappin has finished installing his 707 jet panel in his house. It looks incredible! Here's a link to his great Flickr site.

My 707 has come a long way since I first found it at an aircraft scrapyard in Tucson. Here's a daylight view, shortly after I stripped off the paint. The illumination comes from rope lights mounted on the structurally-cool back side. (Next time you rest your head against a window-seat wall to snooze, this is basically what lies underneath.)

I did an earlier post on this fixture in the middle of March. I love it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a great example of modernist architecture...both the plane and the resultant fixture. But mostly, it feeds into my plane fetish and obsession with the Jet Age, amply demonstrated by my musical Plane Crazy, and my Pucci stewardess uniform collection.

Braniff Airways is the inspiration behind the airline Venus Airlines in my musical, Plane Crazy. Oh, how I wish Braniff was still flying today...

In today's world of cut-rate airlines, it's difficult to remember that air travel was once a much more rarefied experience. Even routine flights would include roses for female passengers and seven-course meals on fine china and linen tablecloths. Stews at the time were required to make omelettes from real eggs in the galley, to cook steaks to order, and to run a complete bar.

"...boarding a plane was such an event that stewardesses took souvenir Polaroids of passengers as if they were sailing on an ocean liner or catching a dinner show. Once, there were planes with piano lounges. Once, a first-class meal might have included turtle soup served from a tureen, Chateaubriand carved seatside, and cherries jubilee. Steaks would be cooked to order -- eggs, too, on breakfast flights."

-- Bruce Handy, Glamour With Altitude, Vanity Fair, October 2002

The time period of the mid-1960s, when Plane Crazy is set, was also about freedom. It was a unique period in history where technological changes (computers, Pill, jets), social changes (mass media, leisure society, Baby Boom teenagers), and political changes (Civil Rights, Vietnam, Cold War) combined in an explosive fusion of color, sound, and energy.

Forty years later, the decade of the 1960s continues to capture our imagination in movies, music, and popular media. Plane Crazy has chosen to focus on two interesting and contrasting themes of the time: The glamour, pizzazz and flash of the mass media "Jet Age" fascination; and the serious issues and compelling questions of the Women's Movement.

"It rained very hard the day we made our first flights as stewardesses. Our brand new, custom-tailored, form-fitting, wrinkle-proof, Paris-inspired uniforms became soaked in the dash to the cab."

-- Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones, Coffee, Tea, or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, Putnam, 1967

Coffee, Tea, or Me? was a big bestseller, testament to a strange elation that was sweeping the nation. The book was written in worldly first person, and it was illustrated by Bill Wenzell, who turned those two stews into "Wenzell Girls," a cartoon type he made famous in Esquire magazine (butt like a beach ball, breasts like twin missiles, Barbie Doll feet).

"This morning, sightseeing in New York -- and in about five hours, I'll meet my date for dinner in San Francisco."

-- American Airlines recruiting poster, circa 1961

Faith and Rachel weren't just serving caffeine -- they were mixing an explosive cultural cocktail. Call it "The Sexy Skies". Made of airplanes, advertising, and affluence, this sky-highball was first shaken-not-stirred in 1965, two years before the publication of Coffee,Tea, or Me? The key ingredient was a sassy new uniform for stewardesses.

The instigator for uniform change was Mary Wells, and she worked for Jack Tinker & Partners, the advertising agency hired in 1965 by Braniff Airways. It was imagination and pizzazz that earned Wells her fame, and she brought both to the Braniff account. The aim was to enlarge and update Braniff's image, a campaign that coincided with company expansion into new technology and new international routes.

In 1961, when Continental Airlines launched its "Proud Bird with the Golden Tail," it simultaneously put its stewardesses in gold uniforms -- a classy bit of innuendo. Wells went Continental two better. She hired the designer Alexander Girard to redesign Braniff terminals and repaint its planes, and she hired Emilio Pucci, himself a "bomber" (he flew missions in WWII), to design new stewardess uniforms. These designers took Braniff over the rainbow, leaving stately silvers and golds behind for a jewel-toned palette with an Op Art jiggle.

"The End of the Plain Plane," Braniff ads boasted, and could as easily have said "The End of the Plain Jane." Wells made her campaign a play of perceptions, a party game of double meanings. Sex was the message and in an era famous for its subliminal advertising, there was nothing subliminal about Braniff. Girard fitted its famous Love Field terminal with round mirrors on the ceilings, and the gate areas were hung with huge white globe lights -- a bachelor pad in heaven.

Well, "the wish to fly," wrote Freud way back in 1910, "...is a longing to be capable of sexual performance." In Business Week, in 1967, Mary Wells put it bluntly: "When a tired businessman gets on an airplane, we think he ought to be allowed to look at a pretty girl." In her new Pucci uniform, the Braniff stewardess was like no other girl on the concourse.

She was now stewardess-as-jet-setter. In the sixties, a Pucci dress -- like Gucci shoes and an Hermes handbag -- was one of the status symbols among the rich and mobile. These little printed sheaths and A-lines in luxurious silk jersey were fantastic for travel, could roll up into a ball and come out swinging. And they were light as air. Pucci based his uniform on these high-society frequent flyers. He threw out that dread three-piecer of the last 30 years, and built Braniff women a with-it wardrobe of layers, pieces that could be added on or taken off depending on the weather -- a concept that was advertised, to cries of sexism, as the "Braniff Air Strip."

"Marriage is fine! But shouldn't you see the world first?"

-- United Airlines recruiting ad, circa 1967

Construction of the clothes was sixties simple, but with a curious recurring note of architectural interest: there's a round, rolled, slightly stand-away collar that appears throughout the collection. Though it makes room for a Pucci-print scarf, this wide, round collar really seems to be waiting for an astronaut's helmet. And it comes! Pucci's pièce de résistance was a clear, plastic bubble of a helmet, designed, he said, to preserve the women's hairdos. It was the perfect lack of gravity -- Mod meets moon walk. Wells' perception play was working. Braniff stewardesses were soon accepted as the best-looking women in America, leggy birds of paradise in their bright Pucci plumage, feathery exotics who might have picked up their colors on one of Braniff's South American flights (routes exclusive to Braniff).

Eventually they became brides of paradise, with Braniff a kind of breeding ground for the second wives of wealthy men. "Does your wife know you're flying with us?" asked one of Braniff's pointed print ads, yet another innuendo that hit home. Mary Wells herself became a second wife, marrying none other than Braniff president Harding Lawrence in 1967.

"Every [passenger] gets warmth, friendliness and extra care. And someone may get a wife."

-- United Airlines advertisement, late '60s

Braniff was based in Love Field in more ways than one. And "Love Field" is not a bad way to describe the famous patterning of those Pucci prints. Whether it was biomorphic forms in a frenzy of cell division, or jazzy geometrics riffing inside a short-wave, these imploding, oscillating color fields suggested good trips, Op Art orgasms.