Mary_Poppins said: "EDSOSLO858 said:
Long break between late May and late June, probably so that CHESS can be announced, she can do a press tour, and present at the Tonys before the end of her mini concert tour."
Two things to know about Lea:
First (and foremost): she's currently all about her kids, perhaps even more so than other mothers with a six months old daughter are. She's not willing to do 8 dates in a row, being away from them for 11 days or so. And 3 dates then 3 days with the baby then another 3 dates and so on is not ok. It has to be many more days with the kids.
Second, after some bad experiences on Glee as well as having to cancel one of her own concerts because of voice problems she's very careful not to do too many dates with no rest in between. OTOH, the most efficient way to minimize time away from home is to do concerts closely spaced with perhaps a day of rest in between to allow for rest and longer travel between venues.
If you consider these two things, the tour schedule practically writes itself. She could have stretched out the schedule even longer, but there may be two problems with that. Her tour musicians may not be available or preparations for her new Broadway gig begin in summer..
Announcements and press tour wouldn't require 3 week tour pauses. That's maybe a press conference with cast and producers, maybe a photoshoot and some more interviews, all of which can be done quickly, with convenient scheduling and all of it in NYC."
spot on. I was just going to say something similar. I think Lea sees this tour as a chance to get back into a work mode after an 18 month break without having too much time away from the family but also, as you say, she's super conscious of not straining her voice, especially when she's about to start a show with a complicated score, so to me this tour set up makes sense to give her voice a run before Chess, without overtaxing it.