What can I say that has not already been said (with considerable flair and totally fabulous photos)here here and here ??
At first, it seemed as though the elements were conspiring against me: the night before I left for New York, we had crazy electrical storms, and storms on the east coast would almost certainly mean delays at LaGuardia. The morning newsman reassured me, though, that flights were taking off from O'Hare on time, so off I went. Takeoff was delayed about an hour, but we arrived only half an hour later than the original landing time (we apparently "made up time in the air" although I am not even going to pretend I know how we did that). On the ground, I found my bag (always pays to flirt with the curbside check in guy AND give him a good tip!) and took a gypsy cab to my hotel. Oh, wait, that sounds strange - what I mean to say is it was a perfectly legal yellow cab, but it had an ad for Gypsy with Patti glaring out over the traffic on top of it. That was the cab in the queue that showed up for me. I took that as a sign.
My excitement over that night's performance took over - I unpacked my stuff in my cute little hotel room, then had to bust outta there. I started walking, just to be out, just to do something with all the energy. I didn't really intend to do this, but I walked all the way to City Center (from 79th St and Columbus to 55th between 6th and 7th.
I stopped to pick up my ticket. I gave the box office person my card and id and I wish I could have seen my own face when they pushed the ticket over to me. I must have looked like I'd died and gone to heaven or something, because the box office person said how happy I looked to have it in my hot little hand. "Well," sez I, "I came from Chicago to see the show this week." The box office lady and her manager looked at me. Finally, she spoke in an astounded way. "You came from Chicago?? To see Patti LuPone?" Like she was completely unable to fathom that someone would do such a thing.
Uh, yeah. I surely did. Several times, in fact, the first of which was Thursday night. That was the best seat I'd bought, row CC, seat 113 (Sarah's lucky seat number!). Friday it was row A, all the way far right, Saturday it was D111 (behind an Ugly Betty cast member and her boyfriend with an abnormally large head that was a serious obstruction to my view of center stage. They would also cuddle from time to time and she'd put her head on his shoulder, etc, which also obstructed my view considerably.)
I could go on & on & on about what I thought about the performance, but I won't - all I can say is that I knew I was gonna love it, and of course, I did. I will also say what I wrote as a note to myself directly following the performance - if I was stuck on a desert island with only Patti singing Gypsy for company, and those chocolate tarts from Bombon Cafe, I'd....well, I'd be gigantic, but I'd be happy, happy, happy. Patti was tremendous, as I knew she would be - funny, fierce, flirty (and words that begin with other letters, too). I also loved Boyd Gaines as Herbie. I'd been disappointed with the one we'd had at Ravinia last year. Couldn't sing to save his life, bless him. Boyd, though, CAN sing. He was Bobby on the first recording of Company I'd ever heard (tying with Raul Esparza for the Favorite Bobby crown, I think) and I was so used to hearing his voice as Bobby, it took me a little while to realize Herbie was NOT going to suddenly bust out with "Dammit, Rose, IIIIII'mmmmm Reaaaaadyyyy! I'mmmm reeaaaadyy nowwww! Marry me a little..." etc.
Oh, but the best night by far was Saturday night. I think that was the strongest night of the 3 I saw, although they were all pretty amazing. That night, we had a little Ravinia Reunion - Kari, Sarah, Bob, Gator and myself were joined by Zsally. We waited by the stage door to be graced by the Divine Presence (and we did not wait in vain!) and headed off in the direction of a lovely little establishment where our Cruise Director (Sarah) had made a post-show reservation. I think we all would have been happy with the evening if it had closed like this - great show, a little wine, some french fries and conversation....
But we got a little added bonus for our evening. We were seated and pouring over the wine list and menus, trying to decide what to have. Bob suddenly nudged Kari and said something to her, then instructed Gator to turn around. I did too, 'cuz I'm nosy, and who had come sweeping in and was now sitting merely feet away from us?
Go on, guess. Although you probably don't need to. Yup, it was Patti. A certain giddiness descended on our table - and this was before any wine had been served, mind you. We played it cool (kind of) and I think we were (mostly) successful. There was a lot of loud laughter as we drank our wine and ate our foie gras and french fries. Bob bravely snapped a quick flash-less shot on his phone camera. And then, inspiration struck (actually, I think it was Kari) - and the two of them went off and had the waiter bring Patti a drink. See? Playing it cool, expressing our love & gratitude & then leaving the diva to her martini in peace. It doesn't get any better than that, I'm tellin' ya.
Ah, so anyway. She and her friends left before we did, allowing us to sit back there and talk about her (ha!). More wine was drunk, photos freely taken (including a few of us sitting in her chair... it's a good thing they'd cleared her plate and stuff, or else we may have had a Tony Blake moment...) . They closed the little room partition on us, so we were having our very own private party back there. It was fun times. Finally, we sloshed out and spent a little more time outside. Then we all piled into a taxi and split the fare uptown (I've always wanted to say "let's split a cab uptown" like they do on Seinfeld. Don't ask me why. Easily amused, I guess.)
More to come, and pictures, too!!
No comments:
Post a Comment