Despite the Super Bowl and beautiful sunny weather yesterday afternoon, the Bagley Wright Theatre at Seattle Repertory Theatre was packed. Not surprising, because the closing performance of Bill Cain's HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE was playing. I was excited to get a rush seat, since the last Bill Cain play I saw at the Seattle Rep was EQUIVOCATION, which is one of my favorite plays of all time.

This production HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE, beautifully directed by Kent Nicholson, was a world premiere co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Everything about this production was amazing -- I laughed, I cried -- no really, I did! The play featured an awesome cast -- Linda Gehringer, Tyler Pierce, Aaron Blakely and Leo Marks (who deftly played a number of roles). Also fabulous scenic design by Scott Bradley and lighting design by Alexander V. Nichols.

From the website:

Writers are told to write what they know. But as Bill Cain discovers in writing about his own family, sometimes those we are closest to are the biggest mysteries of all. From the writer of Equivocation comes a beautiful new play taken from Cain’s own experiences caring for his dying mother. He asks the questions that speak to the heart of every family: What will never change…and what has to? A Jesuit priest as well as a playwright, Cain brings a fascinating view to this simple, powerful illustration of why the details of our lives and loves matter.

Hopefully it will be headed to Broadway in the future. If you get a chance to see this beautiful, touching, funny, true play, then run, don't walk to get tickets!

I am thrilled to announce that Myrna Conn will be starring as Little Voice ("L.V.") in Artswest's Seattle premier of THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE by Jim Cartwright, running March 7 to March 31, 2012.

Rehearsals have finally started and ArtsWest has put together a stellar cast: Myrna Conn, Peggy Gannon, Pat Haines-Ainsworth, Daniel Reaume, Jesse Smith, and Travis Tingvall.

Christopher Zinovitch is directing, and Kim Dare is Music Directing.

From the Season Brochure:

Little Voice is a young woman with a hidden talent: she can emulate every chanteuse from Judy Garland to Edith Piaf. She hides in her room, crooning and dreaming of love, while her disheveled mother, Mari, mistakes a seedy talent agent's interest as affection rather than enthusiasm for the gold mine buried in her daughter's throat. An engaging fairy tale of despair, love, and hope as "L.V." finds a voice of her own.

I first fell in love with this story when I saw the 1998 movie starring Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine.

I'm also excited for this production because I wrote the song that LV sings at the end of the show!

Stay tuned for more info, and get your tickets  now before they sell out!

How do you make a perfect afternoon? Well, you end it with an early dinner at The Melting Pot and shopping at Bellevue Square. But it has to start with a family outing to see HUMOR ABUSE at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.

I know where I'll be in October! At The New York Musical Theatre Festival watching The Broadway Dolls amazing show TOUR DE FIERCE!

And spoiler alert -- there might even be a song or two of mine in the show!

From the NYMF website:

TOUR DE FIERCE

GIRL GROUP MEETS BROADWAY

Wow. What a performer! I went to see Hugh Jackman in concert at the Curran Theatre in San Francsico last weekend and was thrilled. I haven't seen Hugh live since THE BOY FROM OZ on Broadway (also thrilling!). The man was born to sing and dance! He appeared with two awesome back up singers, Angel Reda and Merle Dandrige and a 16 piece orchestra music directed by Patrick Vaccariello.

The Curran Theatre is a wonderful old Broadway size theatre steps from Union Square - not too big, fabulous acoustics! Every seat is great and it really felt like an intimate space, despite the sold-out and very excited crowd.

He opened the show with "One Night Only" and proceeded to sing one amazing song after another, including his "I Won't Dance" medley and "Soliloquy" from Carousel.

About half way through the evening, the two back up singers did a solo number (Take Me or Leave Me from RENT). When they were done Peter Allen appeared and we were treated to selections from THE BOY FROM OZ. He closed the show with "Once Before I Go" and brought the house down.

In between songs he chatted with the audience, took us through his career (musicals, movies, hosting the Tonys, the Academy Awards - "and then I got a call from...". Fun fact - did you know Hugh Jackman passed on the movie version of CHICAGO? He thought he was too young to play Billy Flynn. Needless to say he regrets that decision!

Musings from Hugh from the Playbill program:

Last summer, as I was watching Sting perform in Detroit, my friend and agent Patrick Whitesell turned to me and said, "All right, enough talking about it, you need to get your show together." Well, thanks in part to Patrick and his extra push, here it is...

Developing a one man show has always been a dream of mine and I couldn't be more thrilled to begin this adventure here in the beautiful city of San Francisco. As an actor, I have always tried to explore as many opportunities as possible, but to be honest, the number of those that I've been fortunate enough to gain access to has turned out to be more than I ever thought possible!

But of all the doors that have been opened, none have felt as naturally rewarding to me as being able to perform in the theatre. Tonight, at the Curran, I hope to share with you some of the eclectic world that is my career. From Australia to Broadway, to Hollywood and back again, I want to share with you some of that journey.

It was over too soon. <sigh> But hot off the press, Hugh is taking his concert to The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto in July 5 - 17. Methinks he is prepping to take his show to Broadway!

I'll be singing I Left My Heart In San Francisco after I see Hugh in this concert! Maybe I'll bring him some tiramisu...

From the article on Playbill:

Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman, most recently on Broadway in the two-character Keith Huff play A Steady Rain, plays a two-week limited concert engagement in San Francisco beginning May 3.

Hugh Jackman In Performance at The Curran Theatre will continue through May 15.

In the concerts Jackman will perform his Broadway and Hollywood favorite musical numbers backed by a 17-piece orchestra. Warren Carlyle (Finian's Rainbow, A Tale of Two Cities) directs with musical direction by Patrick Vaccariello.

In a previous statement Jackman said, "I have always loved performing live on stage. I'm excited to now have the chance to put together some of my favorite musical performances for Bay Area audiences. And I can't think of a more ideal place to do this than the intimate Curran Theatre in San Francisco, one of the best Broadway theatres in America."

For more information visit www.shnsf.com/shows/HughJackman.

OMG! Trinity Conn will be playing Patrice in the Youth Theatre Northwest production of Jason Robert Brown's 13. Get your ticket now - and bring a friend, cuz that's "What It Means To Be A Friend"!

From the YTN Press Release:

“OMG, don’t miss the musical 13!”

13 performs April 22 – May 8, 2011

The latest production at Youth Theatre Northwest will take you on a high-voltage ride through the traumas and triumphs of teenage years. With explosive rock songs written by Tony Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown and book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn, 13 reveals the journey towards who you want to be starts with discovering who you are. 13 performs April 22 - May 8, 2011 with direction by Youth Theatre Artistic Director Mimi Katano and Musical Direction by Halie Looper.

Trinity's performances are in bold in the following schedule:

        Schedule:                Opening Gala               Friday April 22 7:00 pm
                                                                            Saturday April 23 2:00 pm
                                                                            Saturday    April 23    7:00 pm
                                        Pay What You Can        Sunday      April 24 2:00 pm

                                        Week 2                        Friday        April 29 7:00 pm
                                                                           Saturday    April 30     2:00 pm
                                                                           Saturday April 30 7:00 pm
                                                                           Sunday May 1 2:00 pm
                       
                                        Week 3                        Friday        May 6       7:00 pm
   Saturday    May 7       2:00 pm
                                                                           Saturday May 7       7:00 pm
                                        Closing                        Sunday May 8       2:00 pm

Age Appropriate: 13 is appropriate for ages 12 and older due to mature content.

Tickets for 13 are $17 for adults and $15 for youth/seniors for the April 22nd Opening Night Gala, which includes an intermission dessert. All other performances are $15 for adults and $13 for youth/seniors. For tickets or information on group rates, call (206) 232-4145, ext. 109, or visit YTN online.

It was only a matter of time...

(CNN) -- You can't fly it anymore or see its famous logo at the airport, but the airline that came to symbolize the glamour of the heady early days of air travel is a hot commodity once again.

Pan American Airways -- known to travelers around the world simply as Pan Am -- may be heading to the small screen as the setting for a nighttime drama about flight attendants working for the iconic carrier in the 1960s, when flying was the domain of the rich and famous.

The characters are fictional, but "Pan Am" the series -- a pilot for which has been ordered by ABC -- will draw on the experiences of executive producer Nancy Ganis, who was herself a stewardess for eight years.

"It was the most amazing time of my life," Ganis said. "It was a great, fun job."

Her career started unexpectedly in 1968 when Ganis, then a 21-year-old student teacher in Detroit, walked past a Pan Am office and was intrigued by a poster that read, "Our stewardesses know their way around the world better than most people know their way around the block."

On a whim, Ganis walked in and signed up for an interview. When she showed up at the appointed time the following week, she was shocked to see hundreds of women vying for the same job.

Gallery: When flying was fun

Looks were important, but the airline flew only international routes, so it also needed people who spoke a foreign language and could serve as its ambassadors to the world, she said.

Ganis, who studied French and traveled as a young girl, was a good match, and a few weeks later, she was invited to report for work in Miami.

"I was only going to do it for a year, like everyone, but it was just too exciting," Ganis said.

"It was in a time when very few people in the U.S. even had passports. So suddenly, it was just this exciting adventure, and I really wanted it."

Subtle and blatant advances

Ganis flew all over the world, hopping from continent to continent while serving travelers in style.

It was before the era of private jets, so Pan Am's customers included royalty, dignitaries and many, many celebrities. Ganis remembers seeing John Wayne, Eric Clapton, Andre Previn, and Sly and the Family Stone on her flights.

She had lots of time off and free passes to fly anywhere she wanted, so she pored over maps to figure out where to go. To help pick a place, she would often simply ask herself: Where have I not been yet?

The excitement of the era even got the Steven Spielberg treatment in "Catch Me if You Can."

But there was also a darker side to the job. When asked whether she was ever treated as a sex object by passengers, Ganis was quick to answer.

"Oh, yes. Sometimes it was subtle, and sometimes it was really blatant," she said.

One of the more blatant incidents happened when she was preparing passengers' meals during a flight.

"A man who had had too much to drink wandered into the galley and thought he was entitled to more than his drink, and I set him straight," Ganis recalled. She plans to include the experience in the ABC series.

The show is already drawing comparisons to "Mad Men," another drama set in the 1960s, but Ganis calls it "Anti-Mad Men." The women in "Pan Am" decide not to confine themselves to a job in the secretarial pool but rather seek to break out of the confines of a misogynist society by going off to see the world, she said.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that actress Christina Ricci is in talks to star in the project. If all goes well, the series will debut this fall, Ganis said.

"Passion and love" for the brand

But television is not the only place the Pan Am brand has popped up in the two decades since the once-great airline collapsed into bankruptcy.

Accessories with the iconic blue and white Pan Am globe logo are still popular with travelers.

If you've never forgotten your first flight on Pan Am or were so enamored with the experience that you kept the drink stirrers with the famous logo on them from the trip, you can get your Pan Am fix online.

"It's a feel-good brand. Everybody remembers the glory days of travel in the jet age, when everything was innovative and exciting and brand new, and you dressed up to travel," said Stacy Beck, a spokeswoman for Pan Am Brands.

The company runs an online store where you can buy bags, T-shirts, model planes and even cufflinks adorned with the Pan Am logo. The biggest seller is a replica of the classic blue and white bag the airline used to give out to passengers, Beck said.

Pan Am Brands is part of Pan Am Systems, a Nashua, New Hampshire, company that bought what was left of the airline in 1998. It now owns Pan Am Railways and other transportation-focused companies. It also licenses the famous name to projects such as the upcoming ABC series.

The Pan Am store opened for business in 2007 after executives realized that there was still a lot of "passion and a love" for the brand, Beck said. Shoppers include young people who find the logo "hip and cool and retro," she added.

Fans of the airline who want to find out more about its history and memorabilia can also check out sites like The Pan Am Historical Foundation, the Virtual Pan Am Museum and PanAmAir.org.

Glamour and luxury

That's a lot of love for an out-of-business carrier, but as the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission put it, "there is no airline more influential, important, and better known than Pan American Airways."

This is how Stanley Kubrick envisioned Pan Am flight attendants of the future in "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The panel noted that when Stanley Kubrick produced "2001: A Space Odyssey," he envisioned Pan Am as the carrier that would take humans regularly into space.

But a recession, deregulation and massive financial losses forced the airline to shut down in 1991. The carrier also never recovered from the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

There were several attempts in later years to resurrect the airline, but none was successful.

Asked whether there are any plans to try again, Pan Am Systems was tight-lipped. The company would say only that it is always "investigating opportunities to improve and expand the scope of its transportation holdings."

For now, you'll have to settle for watching the show.

And you can bet I will!

Last weekend I went back to Phoenix for the first time in 42 years! I went to see Arizona Theatre Company's BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. I also went to visit David Ira Goldstein, Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company. David directed PLANE CRAZY at the Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals this past August.