Month: February 2012

If you’re looking for suggestions on where to eat or where to stay while you’re in Lancaster to catch one of our many shows, why not check out the offerings of some of our local restaurant and hotel partners.

Close to AMT you’ll find a number of terrific places to enjoy a meal or snack before or after the show. If you’d like to sample some authentic PA Dutch cooking, try Good ‘n Plenty Restaurant with their family or menu style dining — we recommend the fried chicken! If buffet is more to your liking, try Miller’s Smorgasbord, featuring plenty of delicious options from appetizers through desserts. Just up the road is Applebee’s, offering their new “jazzed-up 2 for $20 Menu” and Red Robin, with their “insanely delicious Gourmet Burgers.” If you prefer something a little more formal, we recommend The Greenfield Restaurant & Bar with their live music and award-winning wine cellar or The Iron Horse Inn, “where fine food meets good times.”

Need ideas for a nice place to stay? How about Holiday Inn Express or Comfort Suites. Both hotels are less than a mile from AMT. At each location, guests are treated to a complimentary hot breakfast every morning. If you enjoy something a little different, you may want to try The Limestone Inn Bed & Breakfast, offering comfortable rooms in a historic setting.

Want to find some place with food and a room on the same property where you don’t have to get back in the car? Consider Country Inn of Lancaster/Your Place Restaurant & Pub for a tasty stromboli and a brew, Fulton Steamboat Inn where you can stay and dine aboard a steamboat, or Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn, where they serve up their world famous whoopie pies!

In future blogs we’ll be spotlighting some of these great partners, so check back often, and make sure to visit them when you’re in the area.

At American Music Theatre, we aim to keep our celebrity concerts calendar filled with acts that you know and love. Our high-profile performers can frequently be found all over the media spectrum.

Our acts present themselves in the media in a variety of ways. They’ve been stars of their own shows (Bill Cosby and Buddy Valastro on The Cake Boss), they can often be seen on late night TV (Jungle Jack Hanna on The Late Show with David Letterman video below), and have been known to grace many red carpets (Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers at The 54th Grammy’s). Artists such as Neil Sedaka, Johnny Mathis, and Frankie Vallie have all graced the small screen, but in song only. Each of these acts has been featured on the Emmy-award winning show Mad Men. Mad Men is set in the 1960’s, and focuses on the lives of Madison Avenue advertising executives in their heyday.

From the small screen to the big screen, three upcoming AMT performers — Montgomery Gentry, Wynonna, and Trace Adkins are featured on the soundtrack for the film Act of Valor. Act of Valor is about a team of Navy SEALs on a mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. The film features an unprecedented look into these covert operations, and features actual Navy SEALs in the cast.

Whether they’re on the big-screen or the small screen, the acts we bring to our stage in Lancaster are always entertaining.

To see more acts, check out our complete concert lineup.

In the early months of each new year, Singers and Dancers from all across the country attend a non-union open call audition in New York City. Each of these auditionees is hoping to be cast in one or more of our upcoming Original Shows that year.

We chatted with Matthew V. Gotwalt, AMT’s Company Show Manager, to find out just what’s involved in the New York audition process.

Long before heading to The Big Apple, the first order of business is to select audition dates. Once finalized, Matthew reserves studio space and audition rooms, schedules piano players, and places audition announcements in numerous theatrical publications and websites. The audition announcements will give the Dancers and Singers all the info they’ll need to come prepared for their audition.

The first few hours of Audition Day 1 is a Dancer call, and both Dancers and Dancer/Singers attend. During these open auditions, no appointments are made — the Dancers are seen in the order they arrive. They’re placed in a holding room where they can stretch and warm up while they wait their turn to audition. Once their names are called, the Dancers are assembled in a group of 15-20. The group is then taught two different dance style combinations and they’re given some time to practice the moves. They audition for Andrea McCormick, AMT’s Artistic Director/Choreographer, Missy Clayton, our Show Captain, and Matthew, the Show Manager in pairs or groups of four until everyone has had a chance to be seen. Once everyone in the group has auditioned, they are given the opportunity to demonstrate any tumbling or specialty dances they may do. The process begins again with the next group of 20.

Later in the day, it’s time to see the Singers and Singer/Dancers. They begin the same way as the Dancers, waiting their turn in a holding room. Once it’s time for them to be seen, they’re lined up outside the auditioning room in groups of 12. In contrast to the Dancers, the Singers audition by themselves, after having a chance to go over their song selections with the piano player. Prior to arriving, the Singers are asked to prepare 16 bars of two contrasting style songs, whatever they feel would best show off their voice. Once finished singing, they may be asked to come back the next day for a Call Back.

During a Call Back, the Singers are asked to sing a song from a music book which is separated into specific AMT Show sections. If a Singer is being considered for a certain show, they will be asked to sing one or two of the songs from that show. The wait then begins for the Singers after Call Backs, to see if they are selected for any or all of the Original Shows that season.

It’s now Audition Day 2, and the process begins again with a whole new group of hopefuls!