What would you do if you found out that someone you knew was going to have the chance to see one of your icons on Broadway? Well, last fall, when I found out that a friend of mine in New York was going to be seeing Angela Lansbury on Broadway in A Little Night Music, I started by whining a little, and then just settled in to some moderate jealousy.
Okay. Maybe I even started stalking their website just a little so that I could listen to snippets of the music and daydream about being able to get to New York for the show.
Somewhere along the way, I even started trying to figure out how to make a trip work -- even though I knew it couldn't ever happen. Of course, you know that I have a vivid imagination, right? Let's see how your imagination compares to mine...
Start by imagining that, as you were opening Christmas presents, you found out that Christopher (or your version of Christopher, since this is about you, not me) had gotten in touch with your family and arranged for plane tickets to New York and tickets to see... well... just for the sake of argument... Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones in A Little Night Music. On Broadway. With Christopher (or... again... your version of Christopher).
Remembering, of course, that this is all just supposition, suppose that, about a month later, you find yourself in seats in the first row of the balcony of Broadway's Walter Kerr theater, just off the aisle to the left of center -- probably about 20 feet from the stage. And you get to sit back, snuggle just a little, stretch your legs out into the aisle, and let the Night Music flow over you.
Photo from www.nightmusiconbroadway.com
You've got one of the icons of American stage and screen just feet away from you, in one of the iconic roles in the Sondheim pantheon (Lansbury is playing the role of Madame Arnfeldt - the matriarch who made her money the old fashioned way: by having all the right dalliances), while one of the current leading ladies of screen (and stage) plays her saucy, sexy, sassy daughter (yep - that'd be Zeta-Jones).
So you're there. And you're watching and listening. You're soaking it all in and wishing it would never end, even though you know the show well enough to know that the end is coming. So when the strains of "Send in the Clowns" start, you tear up. And as the night sky smiles its three smiles, you're both thrilled and amazed. Overwhelmed, overjoyed, mildly overstimulated. And, above all, you're thankful to be there. To have been there.
Photo from www.nightmusiconbroadway.com
Oh. And while you're imagining a trip to NYC, you might as well throw in a couple of good meals with phenomenal friends, some amazing hot chocolate, gorgeous clear views from the "Top of the Rock," a quick walk through Times Square, and memories that will last a lifetime.
Of course, for any of this to happen, you'd have to do it all over a weekend. Because if you missed any work you'd never be able to talk about the trip in the presence of anyone from your office.
Which is why it's better that it was a marvelous dream. After all, I know I'd never be able to keep a trip like that a secret. Would you?
Which is why it's better that it was a marvelous dream. After all, I know I'd never be able to keep a trip like that a secret. Would you?
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