I had an impossibly gratifying experience on Saturday night at the Ziegfeld. Pretty full - but not very full because um.. even with like 4 or 500 people that theater isn't full.
One interesting antidote - the first few rows in front of us seemed to be mostly Rent fans. The woman behind us was a rent fan (heard her talking before) and she had two maybe... 10 year old girls with her.
During the opening credits, when Columbus' name came up.. one of the little girls said in a whisper "Christopher Columbus?" to the other one.
Then, in an ill moment of timing, the name switched to Jonathan Larson just as the second child queried (rather loudly) "WHAT? Isn't he DEAD?"
The ENTIRE theater whipped its head around in a feat of synchronization that would have made the Rockettes proud. The mother was mortified. The girls really seemed to enjoy the show, however.
Afterwards, in the lobby - I witnessed two things that made me feel really good.
First was a middle aged woman, sobbing loudly to her companions about how she thought the broadway play was just for kids and so she never went to see it. She was asking everyone in the lobby if there was a CD store still open, she was refusing to go home without the soundtrack.
Second was a really sweet looking 15 year old boy who was on the phone to someone and crying - he said "You need to see it again, the first time I was so distracted by the differences from the show, but see it again, I swear to god, it's beautiful"
Now what would you say if today I started over?
Without a thing but this taped together four leaf clover
And I'll pretend like everything is already alright
And I'll run toward the sun till the castle's out of sight