Now I Want Pho...

Ah Long Beach... If your near the beach, your safe. The further you move inland, the sketchier it gets. I'm sitting in the lobby of the Best Western I've been sequestered too while I work at the Terrace Theater on this show called "Asia 61". More on that in a minute. The hotel is about a mile or so from the theater, which sits right between Broadway and Ocean Boulevards, the two touristy and safe parts of downtown Long Beach.

As you drive away from the theater, straight up Long Beach Boulevard to get to the hotel, it gets spookier. It's not really that bad. But I do wish I was saying at the nice Renaissance hotel right next to the theater. Only three nights, if that...

"Asia 61"... If you haven't figured it out by now, there's been 60 other shows called "Asia" before this one. I haven't got all the details about the show, but here's the posters for it:Apparently, this show has a big following. I've not got the battery power on my laptop to surf the internet to find the supposedly numerous blogs about the "Asia" shows (I'm sitting in the hotel lobby because the internet doesn't reach my room), but I was able to find the above posters off a site completely in Vietnamese.

Yes, this show is all in Vietnamese. The rehearsals I've been sitting through have been all in Vietnamese. The songs and speeches are all in Vietnamese. The lighting is all Vietnamese... just kidding.

I've been told this show is filmed for DVD and then sold like hot cakes in Vietnam. Apparently, you can, if you are lucky, find the video being sold at the Vietnamese equivalent of 7-Eleven. We're talking a very popular show.

It's been interesting to say the least. Makes me miss Hawai'i for some reason. I guess the traditional costumes remind me of some of the shows I worked when I was in Hawai'i.

The theme for the show is the Vietnam war. A rather dark theme with destroyed buildings, guard towers, and bullet holes for the set, with people singing love songs in the foreground. I don't get it, but who am I?

I'll get some pictures and post them this weekend. It's a really nice set and the lighting isn't half bad. The days have been fairly easy. Everyone who's worked these shows before, have said it can be hell on earth, but so far, so good, for us...

More details to follow...

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