Some context: REO Speedwagon (originally styled as R.E.O. Speedwagon) is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Hi Infidelity (1980) contained four US Top 40 hits and is the group's best-selling album, with over ten million copies sold. Over the course of its career, the band has sold more than 40 million records and has charted thirteen Top 40 hits, including the number ones "
By the late 1980s, the band's popularity was starting to decline. Alan Gratzer left in September 1988 after he decided to retire from music to open a restaurant. In early 1989, Gary Richrath quit after tensions between him and Kevin Cronin boiled over. Cronin had been playing in The Strolling Dudes, a jazz ensemble that included jazz trumpet player Rick Braun (who had co-written the abovementioned "Here With Me" with Cronin), Miles Joseph on lead guitar and Graham Lear on drums. Lear had already been invited to join REO in September 1988 as Gratzer's successor and Joseph was brought in as a temporary stand-in for Richrath. Back up singers Carla Day and Melanie Jackson were also added. This lineup did only one show, on January 7, 1989 in Vina del Mar, Chile, where it won the award for best group at the city's annual International Song Festival. After that, Miles Joseph and the back up singers were dropped in favor of former Ted Nugent guitarist Dave Amato (who was brought aboard in May 1989) and keyboardist/songwriter/producer Jesse Harms.  The 1990 release The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken, with Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) on drums, was a commercial disappointment. The album produced only one, and - to date - the band's last Billboard Hot 100 single, "Love Is a Rock," which peaked at #65. Harms, disenchanted by the album's failure, left the group in early 1991.  Shortly after his departure, Richrath assembled former members of the Midwestern band Vancouver to form a namesake band, Richrath. After touring for several years, the Richrath band released Only the Strong Survive in 1992 on the GNP Crescendo label. Richrath (the band) continued to perform for several years before disbanding in the late 1990s. In September 1998, Gary Richrath briefly joined REO onstage at the County Fair in Los Angeles to play on band's encore song, "157 Riverside Avenue". He then joined REO once again in Los Angeles in May 2000 for the same encore but no serious plans for a reunion ever materialized.  Having lost their recording contract with Epic, REO Speedwagon ended up releasing Building the Bridge (1996) on the Priority/Rhythm Safari label. When that label went bankrupt, the album was released on Castle Records, which also experienced financial troubles. REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart. The title track did make R&R's AC Top 30 chart.
Did they go on tour?
A: After touring for several years, the Richrath band released Only the Strong Survive in 1992
Some context: Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847-1926). The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun",
In 1999, a new production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., from December 29, 1998 to January 24, 1999. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, with an official opening on March 4, 1999, and closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and 1,045 performances.  This revival starred Bernadette Peters as Annie and Tom Wopat as Frank, and Ron Holgate as Buffalo Bill, with direction by Graciela Daniele, choreographey by Jeff Calhoun, and music arrangements by John McDaniel. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.  This production had a revised book by Peter Stone and new orchestrations, and was structured as a "show-within-a-show", set as a Big Top travelling circus. "Frank Butler" is alone on stage and Buffalo Bill introduces the main characters, singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including a ballroom scene. A sub-plot which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, the romance between Winnie and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend, was also included. In the 1946 production, Winnie was Dolly's daughter, but the 1966 &1999 productions she is Dolly's younger sister. In this version, the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ends in a tie.
was it a success
A: Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
Some context: Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 - January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His Darwiniana was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually exclusive. Gray was adamant that a genetic connection must exist between all members of a species. He was also strongly opposed to the ideas of hybridization within one generation and special creation in the sense of its not allowing for evolution, as he felt evolution was guided by a Creator.
Despite no longer having the burden of his professorial and garden duties, by the late 1870s the burden of maintaining himself as the pillar of American botany prevented Gray from the progress he desired on Synoptical Flora of North America, the follow-on to Flora of North America. This burden consisted of the fact that other scientists often only accepted Gray's word on a botanical matter, and the number of incoming specimens to identify was increasing vastly: numbers had to be assigned to them, collectors needed to be corresponded with, and preliminary papers had to be published. By the early 1880s, Gray's home was the center of everything to do with botany in America. Every aspiring botanist came to see him, even if just to look at him through his window.  After turning over his non-research duties to Sargent, Goodale, Farlow, and Watson, Gray concentrated more on research and writing, especially on plant taxonomy, as well as lecturing around the country, largely promoting Darwinian ideas. Many of his lectures during this time were given at the Yale Divinity School. Liberty Hyde Bailey worked as Gray's herbarium assistant for two years during 1883-1884.  In spring 1887 Gray and his wife made their last trip to Europe, this one for six months from April-October, primarily to see Hooker.  Gray received the following advanced degrees: honorary degree of Master of Arts (1844) and Doctor of Laws (1875) from Harvard, and Doctor of Laws from Hamilton College (New York) (1860), McGill University (1884), and the University of Michigan (1887).
How did he handle this?
A:
By the early 1880s, Gray's home was the center of everything to do with botany in America.