After a wild night hitting the clubs in NYC on Wednesday, I had to get up really early Thursday morning, 03/15/84, because I had a goal to attend the taping of a late night TV talk show that afternoon. I went out to the studio and asked a few people and found out where I was supposed to wait for tickets. I was the first one there. However, I was getting hungry after about 15 minutes of waiting, so I went and got something to eat. When I got back, there were four people in line. I didn't think that was a big deal. We got our tickets. Mine was marked with #6. I guess someone ahead of me managed to get two tickets.
Later that morning, the tour group was scheduled to attend presentations from a couple of industry professionals. One was a Tony Award-winning costume designer and the other was the founder of an alternative theatre group.
The costume designed basically held an open Q&A with a lot of amusing stories interspersed in. When I first saw her and how she dressed, my first thought was, "Ugh, the Annie Hall look was so seven years ago." However, she pointed out that a lot of people would come up to her and tell her she dresses like Annie Hall. She would correct them and say, "No, Annie Hall dresses like me."
The theatre group founder was about an hour late coming in and we had to wait for him. He finally made it and it was announced that he would be delivering a lecture and would have just a few minutes for Q&A. He was certainly a commanding presence, but he just droned on and on and on. I started falling asleep. I was sitting next to Dr. W and he told me later that he got a little irritated with me for doing that, but he didn't try to wake me up because we were in full view of the founder. He didn't want to bring any more attention to me than was necessary.
I was not asleep for the entire lecture. I remember at one point, he was talking about shows on Broadway and claiming that wasn't theatre. I thought, "Well, of course it's theatre, you moron." It took me a few years to figure out that what he meant was that people should come to the theatre and have life-changing experiences, something his group worked hard to achieve. Theatre wasn't all those musical and plays that make you feel good afterwards. Good theatre will entertain you, but great theatre makes you think. This was his goal in life, and sad to say, he never really accomplished it on a full scale, but he did make an impact on those willing to make the effort.
That afternoon, I went back to the TV studio and saw this long line of people. I got in line and was holding my ticket. The person behind me told me that I didn't actually have a ticket to the taping. I had a stand-by ticket and there was a different line for that. He showed me his ticket so I would know he wasn't yanking my crank so he could get my place in line. I found the waiting area for stand-by. I was the first one there, so I waited. The main line got to go up in the elevators to the studio. After the line cleared, a page announced to us that Thursday nights were really rough for people in stand-by to get in and that he would take us in the order of the number written on our tickets. He later said they had room for four stand-bys. I held out hope that the people who were ahead of me wouldn't show up. But at the very last second, they appeared and got to go up. The rest of us were left behind. After a week of so many great things happening for me, I guess I was due for a letdown. I went back to the hotel and got ready to go out to see one of the shows that was part of our tour.
We had tickets to one of the hottest plays on Broadway, "The Real Thing" by Tom Stoppard. It was the original cast. It was an amazing play and having major star power sent the production into the stratosphere. About a year later, my parents and brother got to see a touring version of the play, but it didn't have the name cast. However, they did enjoy it very much.
I didn't do anything extraneous that night. I just went to bed. I was so worn out from the previous several nights that I spent my extra time sleeping in the hotel. I recalled my previous trips to Muncie, IN and Chicago, IL. It took me more than a week to recover from those, but those were during the summer, when I had time to recuperate. I would have to go back to classes on Monday AND attend rehearsals for "Deathtrap." I didn't want to have to resort to drugs to keep me alive the next week. Beside, I wouldn't have known where to get them (although I probably wouldn't have had to search really hard in NYC).
Friday morning was the trip to see the Statue of Liberty. We had to get on a specific subway train at a a specific time and then move between the cars all the way to the front, because there's a certain point at which the train would uncouple the front half of the cars and continue to where you get on the ferry to Liberty Island. This was the year they were doing restoration work on the Statue, so there was scaffolding surrounding her. I know a lot of tourists groaned because the scaffolding didn't make for pretty pictures, but I was actually glad I got to go there during that time. It made for a unique experience.
One of the other people on the tour told me about the last time she went to the Statue. There was this overweight woman right in front of her. On the way up to the crown is a very steep and narrow staircase. Once you start up, you cannot change your mind and go back down without creating havoc. Every few steps along the way are spots where you can sit down and rest, but no one can get past you because your legs are still blocking the stairs. She said that woman had to stop at EVERY SINGLE RESTING STOOP! It took two hours to get to the top. We were fortunate in that we didn't have any problems with people like that when we went up.
I think everybody who goes up the Statue of Liberty thinks the same thing when they get up to the top: "This is it?" I know I was expecting a large lobby area in the crown like at the World Trade Center and we could take our time viewing the skyline. Nope, the space is as narrow as the stairs. You barely get a minute to look out the windows. I'm certain you can stay longer, but the people behind you will start getting nasty if you stay too long. The trip down doesn't take anywhere near as long as the way up.
That night, we went to see "My One and Only." We were originally supposed to see "Cats," but the agent Dr. W hired to set up the tour messed up and didn't get the tickets in time. "My One and Only" still had most of the original cast, including the major leads. A couple of the minor roles (one of which was played by a somewhat well-known actor) were portrayed by understudies that night. At first I was disappointed that I didn't get to see "Cats," because I was a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan at the time. Later, I was glad I got see a true Broadway star at work. (Several years later, I would finally get to see a touring version of "Cats.") The only problem was that because the tour agent wasted time failing to get tickets for "Cats," we wound up in the third balcony and the twerps in the front row keep leaning over the railing and blocking our view of the stage. Someone would tell them, "You need to lean back. We can't see." They'd reply, "Well, we can't see, either." I still really enjoyed the show.
I had two more days left for mishaps in NYC. I'll get to them tomorrow.
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