In 2002 I had the privilege of travelling to Moscow, Russia for 13 weeks to appear in the Broadway in Moscow production of the tap-dance extravaganza, "42nd Street".  Here are a few photos from that production and that remarkable 857 year old city!  I'll be adding captions or explanations in the near future. 

Susan Grady, Me, Tia Mathieson and Nicole Bourgeois.

Shonn Wiley (Billy), Meredith Patterson (Peggy) and me.

Kelly Shook and I dressed for "Shuffle Off to Buffalo".

This musical number completely baffled the average Russian!  LOL

Karen MacDonald and I as Maggie and Bert ready for the Regency Hotel.

Karen and I are good buds and we did a fair bit of sight seeing during our free hours.  Over the thirteen weeks in which I was in Moscow we went to many museums, galleries, house-museums, historic sites, churches and other places of religious and historic significance.  Moscow is 857 years old and they revere art and their artists... despite the current trend to destroy some of their historically significant architecture, it remains a most amazing city.

Here are a few images from Moscow from the autumn of 2002.

This is the full cast at Vorteks Rehearsal Hall just prior to moving to the MDM theatre to perform.  Oh... if we only knew what lay ahead!

Through these rebuit gates leading into Red Square you can just see the spires of St. Basil's Cathedral.  These gates were removed during the war to allow the tanks access to the square.  The square and gold circle in the lower right hand corner of the picture is Ground Zero for Moscow.  All distances are measured from the centre of the circle... people also toss coins over their shoulders while making a wish, and urchins (sic) are usually nearby to scoop up the spare change.

Inside the gates is the rebuilt Kazan Cathedral.  I was never inside, but I photographed it a lot on my way to St. Basils.

From the Alexander Gardens which is to the west of the Kremlin and Red Square I took this photo in early fall.  The beds of the gardens had already been cleaned and prepared for winter.  I am a little sad that I never got to see these gardens in the spring.

On the east side of Red Square is the GUM store.

Very impressive both inside and out.

In the streets to the east of Red Square are several wonderful churches.  This picture and the one which follows is from that part of Moscow known as the Kitai Gorod.

On the coldest day of my 13 week stay I visited the Kolomenskoye Estate and took this photograph and the following two as well.  It was so cold that my camera batteries died half way through my expedition. This suited me fine, though... my hands were almost frozen, too.

The metro system in Moscow is remarkable not only for it's efficiency but it's architecture.  The 3 million citizens who use it each day keep it pretty clean and half of the 150 stations still have some very photographable reliefs, chandeliers and marble work.  Occasionally I was stopped and told not to use my camera, but for the most part I was allowed to take some pretty amazing pictures.

A mosaic image of Uncle Joe Stalin in the metro station exit near Gorky Park.

In the north of Moscow there is an exhibition centre and fair grounds known as the VDNKh or VVTs in English.  I spent an afternoon up there in early December, 2002 and took many photographs of the pavilions and the Soviet images remaining on many building.  The statue in the foreground is one of the many statues of Lenin remaining throughout the city.