We’ve been doing nine shows a week and selling out for many of them, coming close for the others. I’d never heard the house packed with 1800 people before. When you get up around 12 or 13 hundred the applause starts to sound like furious rain as we’re scrambling into place for bows. At 18 hundred it sounds more like thunder and when you get a good house, like we had last night, the yelling and whistling sound like rockets. 

We’ve had so many two-show nights that I’ve started to need an escape for our 20 minute rebound period in between. A friend and I have fallen into an interesting little ritual to get away for a minute: After the curtain falls we slip away to, of all places, the sportsbook inside the casino. It’s deceptively close to our theater but none of the other company members ever go there, you can sit at the bar but you don’t have to drink, and the clientele tend to be sedate and contemplative. I’m starting to look forward to the text message at the end of the first show: “I got a tip about a horse.” This is theater life, Vegas style.

Two shows tonight. I’m looking forward to: the usual pre-show chatter and excitement, the frozen yogurt I’m planning on getting, the thunderous applause during bows, and the sportsbook.