Red Bank, NJ

After heading out of Pittsfield we headed to Red Bank, New Jersey, which is fairly close to New York. That meant that Kevin headed into the city to be with his parents, Kim was with her family in Jersey, and we were going to have lots of family and friends coming to the show! First we had a day off, though. The weather was NASTY out, but Tavis and I being the determined explorers that we are, decided to get ourselves to town via a bus. After standing in the rain at the bus stop for 20 minutes we came to terms with the fact that the bus wasn’t coming, went inside and waited out the storm.

That evening the 5 cast members who were around decided to do a family night out so we called a cab that took us to Bertucci’s, an Italian restaurant right by the movie theatre. There we had a great big meal (and we may have had some Sangria) and then walked over to the movie theatre. We saw “Social Network” that night, which was fun. We especially enjoyed seeing the 13 year-olds that were out to the movies, talking, making out, etc. around the theatre. The best part was seeing them all have to wait outside for their parents to pick them up. Brought back some great memories of the Oldham 8. (Cue nostalgic music.)

The next day was BEAUTIFUL so we were able to head into the actual downtown of Red Bank. We walked around the town that had tons of different restaurants and shops, looked for purchases, bought coffee, and enjoyed the waterfront area right in town. There was a pub crawl to raise money for breast cancer awareness going on that was called “Boozin’ for Boobs” and we enjoyed spotting them all over town. Our dinner was at the Dublin House, a nice Irish restaurant with great outdoor seating and great food. That night we performed at the Count Basie Theatre, a 1500 seat theatre that was recently renovated. It is a nice, big space with a gorgeous ceiling. We also laughed because the backstage reminded us of a Broadway theatre, with little dressing rooms on different floors. It was a fun show and our director, Ray Roderick, came in from the city to see us. After the show we got to meet a lot of family and friends of the cast, plus since the town was small we saw some audience members out, including a little girl who wants to be a performer and a former Rockette that gave us advice to keep taking ballet classes! Ha ha! She was a real treat, wearing a diamond button that said “5678” and still rocking those Rockette legs! Ha ha! We enjoyed getting to visit with everyone at the Dublin House again before loading on the bus to travel to Bayside, NY.

Hope you are well! Thanks for keeping up with us!

Tripp