A lovely and crazy 24 hours or so in NYC.
I got to spend some time with Don before he left to do the matinee and we made plans to meet at the theater at the end of the show and then go on to dinner. I decided to go down to Greenwich Village to visit a bookstore. It was incredibly hot and humid in the city and it was Pride weekend. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking, but of course the Village, of all places, was going to be packed with celebrants!
As I tried to make my way to the bookshop, there were crowds everywhere, music playing, people dancing and…the parade.
Wherever I went, I ran into the parade, which seems to meander all over the village. It was wonderful, it was joyous, but it was everywhere. I couldn’t cross streets until I found a crossing point and then I’d have to wait in line a long time until a break in the parade allowed a mass of us to cross the street.
When I finally got to the bookshop, it was closed. Of course it was, you couldn’t do business in a normally quiet bookshop during the parade! While the parade was an amazing thing to behold, I was sweating and exhausted and after many tries, I finally found my way to the subway station where I got on the A train, which goes to 50th Street and where I could walk the 3 blocks south to the apartment. All I wanted to do was shower.
Only this particular train didn’t stop at 50th. It went to 59th, so I had to walk 12 blocks south. I finally made it back to the apartment and air conditioning.
I revived myself enough to meet Don at the theater and go out to dinner.
Thai food. Meredith and I ate at this same neighborhood restaurant when she visited.
Pad Thai – my favorite.
I managed to get a photo of Don on the marquee. The cast and crew provided birthday pies and serenaded him. If you want to see it, visit Don’s feed on Instagram. It’s @donsroadtrip. It is very moving – at least to us. They are such fine people. This is the second birthday that Don has celebrated with ETM and the knowledge that it is closing in a week made everything more poignant. Once again, I stood with Don when he signed autographs outside the stage door and heard people say how much the show means to them. It was a second or third or fourth visit or the very first Broadway show they’d ever seen. One woman ran into Don in a local restaurant last week and shared that she had lost her daughter 6 weeks before that, and that the words Don sings in He Went to Paris, “Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all of the way” comforted her and moved her to tears.
That happens all the time. This show changes people, even if it’s just the chance to experience joy for a few moments, to escape. It shouldn’t be closing.
I think that they chose a theater that was too large, making it hard to make back their investment. In fact, I worried about that as soon as I heard they’d chosen the Marquis. It has about 500 seats more than the average Broadway theater. The Broadhurst, where Anastasia plays, has 1100 seats. The Marquis, in contrast, has 1600. 500 seats x 8 shows a week equals 4000 more seats they need to sell every week. The only other theater that has that many seats, I believe, is the Minskoff, where Lion King is currently running. I worked at the Minskoff on a show that wasn’t a big hit and it couldn’t sustain itself. You need a sure-fire, long running hit to make it in either of those spaces. They made a mistake in choosing the Marquis and, though it isn’t the only factor, I think the show could have kept running in a smaller space.
It breaks my heart.
This will be a tough week for the cast and everyone involved in the show.
And now I’m back home. I arrived to wilted potted plants which makes me think that the promised rain and thunderstorms never arrived on Sunday. I ran outside and watered everything. Then I called the Jury Duty phone number to hear: ‘No jurors are required tomorrow or for the rest of the week. Your service is complete and you are exempt for the next six years.”
Huzzah!
Today is a primary in the state of New York. So if you’re a resident – VOTE. We have to fight back and undo the damage done by this horrible nightmare of an administration. Keep making calls about the children stolen from their parents. The more pressure we put on the administration, the better. Keep fighting.
Happy Tuesday.
