Shots from Today

Here's a few shots a from today's show.

The New Song Project

So, last Monday night was the culmination of several months of planning and organizing and a few weeks of stress to boot.
The New Song Project was a concert that I organized, directed and performed in, and I have to say. . . it was a total hit! With 22 incredible USJ performers blowing down the house and a huge crowd of nearly 300 people, the night was truly something spectacular.
Movieman was on hand to film the concert, as was his assistant Ryoko who was following me around through out the night filming me as I prepped the performers, watched from the wings and getting myself ready to go.
Here for your viewing pleasure is 3 clips of me from the concert.

( If you would like to watch the whole concert, you can do so by clicking here and watching it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MoviemanPJC)


This is "I'm Not Pregnant," by the ridiculously amazing Katie Thompson. I strongly recommend you all check out her album on iTunes, and for those of you in LA, her show RRREDDD is still running for one more week!


This is "Lost at Sea" a duet with my fellow Elphie, Charity Smith. It's a song about female Pirates in the times of Shakespeare and is written by good friend Danny Larsen.

This is the final number of the concert. I am singing "The Distance You Have Come" by the incredible Scott Alan. The entire cast of the show is thundering in chorus behind me. The power of their voices, the audience so in it with us, and everything about that moment was just incredible, and about half way through the song I get a bit choked up and can't sing. But we finish and it was just magic.

Craig Thomas

Following Charity's shoot, there was about 15 minutes left of light, so I squeezed a quick little shoot in with Craig. He's from the UK, and is a singer in the Fantastic World Show. He is a complete sweetheart, and with limited time and light, we still got some great shots!

Charity Brooke Smith

Charity Brooke Smith, also known as the GORGEOUS Elphie.
She's so stunning that in rehearsals, our director asked her not to smile too much as she is making Elphaba too pretty!
But she plays the goofball card pretty well, too.
For her shoot, she had the added elements of Movieman and Kenji Umei on set shooting her from every angle as part of the documentary they are making about me. I couldn't have chosen a better person for this day, and she was such a blast to shoot with!
Another change for this shoot, is that this is all natural light. My intention was to do my typical flash set up, but my tempermental flashes decided not to work that day.
Good thing it was a beautiful day!

Sneak Preview of my Documentary Shoot

As some of you may or may not have heard, a Japanese film maker is making a documentary about my life as a performer and growing photographer. His name is Muneto Tohyama, but we just call him "Movie Man," as he often films footage of all the USJ shows.
The other day he shot footage of me doing a shoot with Charity. He brought along with him his Kenji Umei, who is an incredible photographer, and he just sent me some of the stills from the shoot! Though we still have a few more times he will be shooting with me, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of one of the images from the shoot! Enjoy!

My Little Bro!

When we first arrived in Japan, and JP and I met, we were wondered how we never met before!
JP (or Juan Pablo for his Costa Rican Peeps) is a fellow Orange County kid, who worked at Disneyland at the same time as me,
and who shares many of the same friends too!
But we've made up for lost time. . . He calls me Big Sis and I call him Lil Bro!
JP is a swing for the Imagine and Blues Brothers Shows.
But in his non-working hours he is writing and recording some of the most incredible music I've ever heard! It's radio ready and I know it won't be long before everyone is pushing me aside and asking my Lil Bro for his autograph!
Well, we set out at 5am last week to take advantage of the gorgeous morning light to take shots for his album insert. And when we were done, we scurried to have our McMuffins and then I headed back to bed! Nice.

Raphael

Raphael and I headed out to shoot last week, and spent most of the photo shoot defending ourselves to security guards who spoke zero English.
We of course, have to play the "dumb gaijin" card. . . we just smiled and kept shooting.
Raphael is a singer in the Fantastic World Show, and an all around great guy!

Dean the Fashion King

This is Dean. He's an Aussie and plays Frankenstein in the Monster show.
He's also doing the advertising for my show on the 22nd!
But most of all, he is the resident style expert here at Kaigandori.
He has ridiculously amazing amounts of stunning clothing!