Hello Birmingham! It's great to back in the south! The last time I was in Birmingham there was a men's choir involved, a gigantic organ at Briarwood Presbyterian and.. a giant snowstorm closing down the state of Georgia!

It looks like you've brought the snowstorm back just for the sake of old times. Otherwise this seems like it will be a much different experience.

I drove here from New York/New Jersey. I drive as often as I can because I like to drive and it makes me feel more in touch with where I am in the world. My car, Lucille, has more than 250,000 miles on her. Most of those miles have come from driving cross country, from one job to another.

So, I'm here singing Mephistopheles in Faust. This is my 69th career production and my 5th time with this particular role. I always love coming back to sing Mephisto. There's nothing quite like playing the devil. Prancing about destroying people's lives all night and laughing like a hyena when everything works out to my dark purposes is a lot of fun... at least when done in the realm of fantasy. It's like those old commercials... "I'm not really the devil, I just play him on stage. But, I did stay at a Holiday in express last night..." or somesuch thing.

We've been working four or five days now and we have about half the show staged. The snow has hampered our efforts a bit my causing a few rehearsals to be cancelled. (Not to worry though! Everything is pointing to a strong artistic experience!) There have been relatively few mishaps... ask Gloria about me dropping her on her head in the quartet (very embarrassing), or perhaps Millinee about an automobile convention on the freeway (scary).

If you're in the show, come talk to me at rehearsal. I'd love to get to know you. Meeting people on the road is one of the more enjoyable aspects of this business. If you're an audience member and coming to one of the performances, I'd love to meet you afterward (once I get out of make-up, of course).

Not anywhere near as verbose as Valentin, I know. But in my defense, this is my first ever blog post.