Sometimes you think you have had the best day of your life only to find that the next day is even better. I fell asleep Thursday night astounded by the great day we had and how much fun we had at
Tale of Two Cities only to wake up and have another over the top day.
Let me begin by telling you about an encounter I witnessed early Friday between CB Leslie and a couple of people from Florida. In the hotel computer room, we ran into a couple who were interested in seeing a show Friday night and had just been quoted (by the hotel concierge) a price of $169 per ticket to see
Avenue Q. Leslie told them that there was no need to pay that price, she gave them a little tutorial on getting cheaper tickets and they ended up paying $65 each for third row center seats to
Avenue Q for that night! They practically fell on their knees in worship of the skills of this talented CB. She saved this couple $200 and got them better seats than the concierge had offered them. While I watched Leslie in action I thought- I am witnessing exactly what this CB was meant to do for her life's work!!
We had tickets for
All My Sons Friday night and were excited to see the revival of this play with a star-studded cast which includes John
Lithgow as the father, Joe, Diane
Wiest as the grieving mother, Patrick Wilson
as the surviving son, and Katie Holmes as the girl next door.
Before the show, I was doing one of my favorite things- chatting up the ushers and theatre employees - and the woman selling the t-shirts and magnets told me all about the previous night when the show officially opened and then she whispered to me that "a big, big female star will be at tonight's show".
Hmmmmmmmm.... She wouldn't tell me the name, so I was thinking maybe it would be Meryl or Julia but in fact it was Oprah!! She came in right before the show began with Tom Cruise and an entourage which included a huge, fierce body guard. The theatre was abuzz! Oprah's buddy Gail came in LATE- sorry to tell you, Gail BUT coming in late is in very bad form. Very bad form indeed. The entire entourage came back late from intermission causing an unnecessary hubbub. Another instance of bad theatre manners.
Th
e show was absolutely riveting. Directed by Simon
McBurney, there was an
amazingly feeling that the story was an epic tale, not just the tale of one family. There is no curtain and the cast is all on stage before the lights go down and John
Lithgow actually tells everyone to turn off their cellphones. The acting is
superb--we were mesmerized for every second of the show. I loved the images cast on the screen behind the actors and the use of the other cast members as a sort of Greek chorus makes the play even more relevant to our time.
Lithgow and
Wiest are truly stage royalty, and Patrick Wilson is wonderful as the second son who is forced to deal with the unraveling of his family. Katie Holmes has my eternal admiration for
choosing this role for her Broadway
debu
t. Stars who come to Broadway and do eight shows a week when they have huge movie careers display a love for the art and the stage that I admire. Broadway is grueling, and she did just fine as the former girl next door. It's a wonderful production, and the
CB's highly recommend it. The director, Simon
McBurney, gives us a very innovative take on a American classic and is someone that the
CBs will keep their eyes on.
After the show, we met our two favorite boys- Casey and Ben- and had a laugh filled late evening. We adore these two wonderful boys. They are both finishing up their senior years at
Marymount/Manhattan and are doing fascinating internships. Ben at
Vogue and Casey at an amazing ad agency. Their parents should be very proud of these wonderful boys who the
CBs just love to pieces.
Today ....
The Seagull,
Billy Elliot and the Red
Sox game 6.... life is good!
theme seems to be emerging on this trip, and it centers on Masterpiece Theatre, 
a show I've watched for as long as I remember. My mom is a big fan, and we spent many hours watching all the series while I was growing up: Upstairs, Downstairs, Poldark, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Poldark, Brideshead Revisited, Jewel in the Crown, The Forsyte Saga, etc. I still faithfully watch the show. Last night at All My Sons, Dereck Jacobi (I, Claudius, Cadfael, Hamlet) was in the audience, and he looks great. As we were chatting with our seat neighbors about him, the man told us that he had a great Masterpiece Theatre story. Long story short--he
introduced his wife to Robin Ellis (the hunky guy who played the role of Poldark in the 70'
s) at a PBS fundraising dinner, and she ended up marrying him after they were divorced! She's still married to him and living in London. Then today at The Seagull (more on this later), who should be in the cast but two Masterpiece Theatre veterans--Art Malik (Jewel in the Crown, Far Pavillions) and Carey Mulligan (Northanger Abbey, Bleak House, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard). Both were terrific in this perfectly cast Chekhov classic. Who knows, maybe this theme will continue!
