Believe it or not, the first time I saw Tommy, I was crying hyserically during the Overture. I had waited so long to see this, and when it finally came to my home town, the excitement just got me emotional as soon as the chords hit. I was FINALLY seeing this. I cried throughout the whole first twenty minutes of the show.
"Do you know what pledge time is, Andrew"? said the PBS Executive.
"Yes", Lloyd Webber replied. "My 50th birthday special must be one program that gets done a lot."
"No", mused the man from PBS heedlessy. "Not so much. Our Stephen Sondheim Carnegie Hall concert. That's a big one."
Spoons, forks and knives seemed suddenly to suspend their motion in horror, all around the table.