Flash forward and it's 1992 and I have just moved to Los Angeles. I spent 8 years in NYC, waiting tables and going to countless cattle calls, and in that time I did get some jobs as a singer; I joined a small repertory company and did some children's theatre, I put together a horrible cabaret for a local club, I recorded some demos for songwriters, and I got hired by a large children's theatre touring company where I played Harriet the Spy for thousands of screaming children (at 9 in the morning) and was lucky enough to get my actor's union card. I made a little money performing but mostly lived week-to-week, as most actors/waiters do. I was still waiting for my big break.
But NYC was harder then than it is now, neighborhoods were far more dangerous, and crime was way up. There was no Giuliani to rid the city of evil, and every day was a test of endurance. I was a young girl from a small town (with big boobs, mind you- hence a constant target) and NYC was a difficult place to thrive. I loved New York, but I can't say that I was happy there.
But I didn't move to LA because of that. I moved because I had the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance at something every New Yorker, including me, coveted, yearned for, and would kill to get- a cheap apartment! My father had used this great apartment for business for 20 years, and now he was thinking of getting rid of it. He told me over the phone about his plans and, before I could even think about it, I snagged it.
In New York, I had had a succession of interesting living arrangements. First, after my brief stay at an NYU dorm, I responded to an ad and took a room in another couple's apartment, but the room (which was a horrible peach color) had no window and was right above a nightclub that had live music until 3am. That lasted a month. Next, I lived in a tiny 8x10' apartment that no kitchen, but a small hot plate in the window. When my mother came to visit, she had to get up to fold the futon just so I could get ready for work. After that, I moved in with a co-worker from one of my restaurants but, as it turned out, she never gave the rent I paid her to the landlord, so, after a month or two, she left with all of my money, and I got kicked out. Then, thanks to some helpful connections, I landed a great rent-controlled studio on 64th & Central Park West, where I was very comfortable and stayed for several years.
But, still, the apartment in NYC was a small studio, and the allure of a big apartment in LA was very strong. It was a beautiful, huge, 2-bedroom Spanish-style with dark wood floors, and French doors that opened out onto a garden. (My New York apartment looked out into an alley where one night, I heard a man jump out the window and fall to his death, seriously) The bedrooms were each big enough to hold a King-sized bed, and then some, and it had an adorable blue and white French-tiled kitchen, a real kitchen, with a dishwasher! On top of that, it would remain furnished with all of my Dad's gorgeous antiques, and it was in a perfect West Hollywood location. The nail in the coffin? The rent was only $650! Can you say SOLD! After 8 years of grime, and noise, and tiny apartments, and harsh NYC winters, I was ready for a change, especially a change like that. I left my NYC apartment to a friend (who lost it soon thereafter because he played his stereo too loud) and packed up all my stuff, including my NYC boyfriend, and headed out to sunny LA. On the way out, I had to drag my heavy suitcases over a vagrant passed out in the doorway. See ya, New York!
Once in LA, things were not as easy as I had hoped. I got a job in a restaurant easily enough, but theatre jobs were hard to come by. I thought that being a New York-trained actress with a certificate from such a prestigious school as Stella Adler would hold some clout for me in LA, but it actually seemed to alienate me from the other singers, who were LA schooled and had LA connections, not to mention they weren't deathly pale and didn't wear black all the time. And, once again, I found that not being a good type was holding me back, as LA is even more appearance-obsessed than NYC. I found myself missing singing, and missing the abundance of auditions that were in NYC and, so, I went to any and every audition I could find just to get out there and sing. I auditioned for Summer Stock, regional theatre, dinner theatre, puppet shows, anything. I didn't care what or who it was for, I just went. And one of those auditions happened to be for a cruise ship.
Now I had seen auditions for cruise ships before, and I had always thought it looked interesting, but I never thought I was the right type (there's that word again) to work on a ship. In my mind, cruise ships were looking for tall, thin, sexy dancer-types, like Solid Gold dancers, I imagined, and not for normal, all-American girls like me. (Well, actually, I wasn't so all-American either. Disney used to hold auditions once a year for all-American singers and dancers and I was always cut in the first or second round. One Disney casting agent told me, 'Well, you have a very pretty voice, R______, but you're just not the Disney type. Ouch!) One time, in NYC, I actually went to a cruise ship audition but the wait to be seen was several hours long and I had to decide to either stay at the audition or go to work. I needed the money and didn't think I could ever get the job, so I went to work. I could have saved myself years of pain if I had started working on cruise ships then.
So, there I am at the audition in LA and I have no idea what to expect. The call asks for the typical uptempo and ballad (an uptempo is a fast, catchy song that shows personality, and a ballad is a slow song that shows more vocal ability) and I sang my old NY standard audition songs. I remember there being a camera in the room, meaning they were videotaping the audition, and I did reasonably well, considering there was a lens in my face. I think I remember there being something wrong with the camera and I had to do my songs twice, which was probably a good break for me. After singing, we were taught a short dance, and I remember it being easy. Then, I went home and didn't think much about it. It was just another audition to me, I never actually thought I would get the job. When I got home I remember my boyfriend asking me,
'Hey, how did your audition go? What was it for, again?'.
'Oh, it was good', I said, 'Some cruise ship job'.
'Cruise ship? Doesn't that involve months of traveling or something? We just moved here.'.
'Yeah,' I said, 'but I'm not actually going to GET it, I just went on the audition.'.
'Oh', he said.
End of story. We never said anything else about it.
Two weeks later, the phone rang... and the rest, as they say, is history.
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