opening night in Tokyo!

Ah. Another opening night.

Only this one was kind of special because it was in Tokyo.

And we had super big screens to the right and left of our stage with characters on them that looked like this:

#$#

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#$%

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Okay, so not really like that, per se, but that's the closest thing I have to actual Japanese characters on my keyboard.

One good thing about having an audience that speaks Japanese is that if you happen to go up on a few of your lines in your one number, as long as you keep saying something, than they will never know the difference.

Right?

Well, at least that's what all your friends tell you. Because they're your friends and they generally are in the business of making you feel better when you're disappointed in yourself.

But then when you go to the swanky opening night party and see Japanese celebrities on the arm of a man who is certainly not Japanese and definitely speaking English, you realize that the jig is up. He, at least, knew. Because when you started simply saying doo bee da dee da ba for about one full phrase, he could recognize that it certainly wasn't the Queen's English anymore.

Shoot.

But then it goes full circle when, right as you lean over and tell your friend that you are rather embarrassed that you scatted just a little during Sing!, especially since you know that the English--speaking man was in the audience--that same English-speaking man next to the Japanese celebrities mouths to you across the way, You were fabulous tonight. And then he smiles. And so do you.

Okay, okay, so do I.

Because believe it or not, that scenario was about me.

And bless that English-speaking man's heart for saying that. It's amazing how much a kind word can buoy the spirit.

Oh, and this is Anthony who plays Richie and here we are, all dressed up in our party finery.

The thing about Anthony is that this is our third tour together and our second time in Asia together. See, he was my Tyrone when I played Iris in Fame Korea. We then did the National Tour of Will Rogers Follies together, and here we are on the line every night, you guessed it--together.

We joke that we need to start telling producers that we come as a package deal.

He's a sweetheart and a kind soul and we have laughed often together and had our share of deep talks that involve anything from Jesus to men to what we want to do when we grow up.

And one last thing about Anthony: he is the third man that I have ever kissed. We had some great smooches every night in Korea for about two months and boy does that man know how to keep his lips soft.

Oh and one last thing about opening night: although the Japanese do love the show (we've been told) they are very very conservative when it comes to laughing or even applauding for the most part. Many of us don't quite know what to do with our punch lines now that they are no longer followed by laughter. Raucous, wild laughter. Cause you know how amazingly hilarious we all are.

Ahem.

We've also added an actual bow to the show, instead of just letting the lights fade on our final kick line. This is because the audiences here will just keep clapping at the end of the show because they won't know it's over and won't leave. I am thinking that we might not give them enough credit, but hey, that's just me. Anyway, now we have this really cute little bow involving our hats and then we partner up and tip offstage, so it's really quite fun.

Plus the audience gets a chance to appreciate us and that is just never a bad thing.