.... of the stage door, that is.
I saw the show with a friend of mine from home, Matt_G and a friend of his - and extreme unfortunate news found us without Marc Kudisch. MAAAAAJOR disappointment. His understudy is just not nearly as funny. At all.
The performance wasn't the best I've seen them give, much by virtue of the lack of Kudisch comedy, but it was still a total blast. Raúl is changing some of his choices a bit - he's still toning down the crazy, because it just wasn't picking up laughs. He's going for stuff that's more... typically funny, I guess you could say. He's still always extremely impressive and I love him to bits. And the dancing? Don't even get me going. Every time, it's just like "who knew?" He's so goooood.
He finally got his entrance applause. The audience was totally, totally dead that night, but my friend and I successfully started it, and got people to pick up on it. It was weak, but he deserves it.
When the car flew, Matt wanted to pretend he was one of those people who is TOTALLY obsessed with the car. So he applauded wildly (he and all of us cracking up, mind you) and hopped out of his seat to wave to the cast. Raúl saw, and leaned over the side of the car to give him one of those super-exaggerated waves. I think he was laughing, too. I thought his arm was going to fall off; it was hysterical.
So we go to the stage door afterwards, expecting nothing, but I needed to say goodbye to Emma (today is her last show) and to her mom, because her parents have been totally amazing to me, as a fan of the show, etc, etc. It was really sad - she's a wonderful kid, and I'm going to miss her a lot, actually. It's one of those things, as the summer's winding down, I realize how many wonderful people have come into my life this summer - and that I'm having to say far too many goodbyes as it's ending.
Anyway, we were talking/staring off at the door, hoping - had a little talk with Mr. Zien about digital cameras. He's a really nice guy - just totally candid and normal. I was watching the door like a hawk, figuring maybe I'd catch a glimpse of him shooting out of the other door to the car, or something, and then I heard a sort of collective gasp. Since the stage door is glass, once he decides to go, he can't really back out. His shirt was untucked and he was just a general mess, and he was talking to someone - he poked like half of his body out the door, finishing his conversation - it was funny to watch people get really excited. I mean, hell, I got really excited. I was just like "um. Holy sh*t!" He went back inside, though.
I figured he coudn't be that mean, and he'd be back - and, sure enough, he returned. He was as sweet as ever, like nothing's gone wrong at all. I was totally shocked, and perhaps a bit scared that he might be b*tchy, but he was just lovely. He was a bit less subdued, in the sense that he wasn't expecting people to want his attention. If you wanted something, you had to say so.
So he was just about to walk by, and my friend was like "uh, Raul? Hi!" He turns around and was like "oh. HI!" Awkward silence. Staring. My friend was like "can y-" then stopped, and someone shoved me forward. Raúl looked slightly perplexed, as if not knowing who to talk to first. So he goes "can... can... cancancancan...." as if to... sort of make fun of the idea, but not in a mean way. I mean, he knows he's seen me before. And he's only seen me be extremely nervous. So I get shoved farther forward, and ask if he'd sign my HAIR CD insert for me. "Oh. HAIR!!" I half expected a little "yaaaaay!" to come out of him.
He asked if he should sign the front/the back, whatever - I said front if it would fit.
"What do you think? Do you like it?"
"Oh, yeah. I do, I love it. Everyone sounds incredible."
My friend had said it was nice, since we didn't get to see the concert, to have the CD.
"It was a fun show to do... I really liked singing that song. And, you know, everybody took their clothes off!"
*headdesk*
Raúl, you can not speak to me about taking clothes off, I'm sorry. You just can't.
So we all took pictures, plagued by the usual camera malfunctions, etc. I wanted to ask him about
Find Me Guilty but I got scared and he got bombarded by kids and other people who wanted photos. I was happy enough just for that - to see him in good spirits again.
And then after that, we went to the Lennon stage door because I wanted Julia to sign my CD as well - we ended up talking to her for like twenty minutes, but I won't elongate this further, since I posted it somewhere already. She's a wonderful person.
I think I like telling stories a little bit too much. ahem.
But yay - it was the perfect way to fix the bad week I had.
A work of art is an invitation to love.
Updated On: 8/21/05 at 02:35 PM
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