Hello everyone! I’m so thrilled to be reporting on behalf of our wonderful show, The 101 Dalmatians Musical. I play Jinx Baddun, one of the two Baddun brothers, who help Cruella DeVil steal those puppies from the Dearly household. Here’s just a glimpse into the life of what we do on our travel across the country!
Day One: How fantastic is it to wake up in Chicago?! Most of the cast got here last night and we had an all day rehearsal today before our show opened tonight. We’ve just returned from a 2 week hiatus so we definitely needed to revisit our Dalmatian roots, but, more importantly, we put three new major players into our show tonight, including a brand spankin’ new Cruella DeVil, Miss Sara Gettelfinger. It was so hard to say goodbye to our previous cast members in East Lansing, but the newbies fit right in. They handled everything head on; and there is a lot to learn in this show, from the music, to the blocking, to the stilts…did I mention we perform on stilts?? They did an amazing job! We also received a standing ovation, which is icing on the cake. Thank you Chicago!
Day Two: Today is another big day. We had rehearsal again from 1-5 and then our show at 7:30. Members of our creative team are in town to make some more cuts and adjustments. That’s the fascinating thing about being part of a new show, there are always changes happening so it definitely keeps us on our toes…or stilts…did I mention we perform on stilts? Some of the changes are more intricate, so we will need at least a few days, if not a week to incorporate those, but some were easily tweaked today at rehearsal and went in tonight, rather flawlessly I might add! (I personally didn’t have any major changes to incorporate this evening, so I can say that with unbiased admiration for my fellow castmates).
We have plenty more performances coming up, so we hope to see you all there, and definitely more rehearsing and tweaking of the show. However, we do have a day or evening off here and there. Anyone have any suggestions? Where can a Baddun Brother go to get the quintessential Chicago experience? Do you think I could walk around Wrigley Field on stilts?
-Robert Anthony Jones (Jinx/THE 101 DALMATIANS MUSICAL)
